What We Read - April 2022
Hello and welcome!
I really enjoyed sharing the books I read in 2021 and decided I wanted to start sharing more about what I read during the year. In today's post, I will be sharing with you what books I read in April. I also wanted to include with each book what version I read (physical book, Kindle, or Audible). As a busy mom, I utilize many different ways to read to keep up this hobby that I love so much.
I would like to mention before I get into it that I'm also going to be sharing some beginning reader books that I read with my almost-three-year-old this month. Now I'm not sharing every book we read this month together because that would be a post too long for anyone to look at as we read all the time. We just started buying chapter books for him because he loves to read so much and I thought it would be fun to share what chapter books he has been loving this month. These books vary between a kindergarten to 3rd-grade reading level and a 2nd to 4th-grade reading level. As I mentioned, my son isn't even three so he's also obviously not reading a chapter book on his own. These have made great read-alouds for him and thought anyone else with kids' in their lives might find them interesting.
Without further ado, let's talk about these books.
1. Connoisseur Kids by Jennifer L. Scott
I finally took the plunge and read Jennifer L. Scott's latest book Connoisseur Kids. This book I thought was really cute and practical. It's all about teaching kids to be connoisseurs of everyday life. It covers manners, personal hygiene, tidiness, and even kid-friendly recipes. I really enjoyed this book. It is written to be read with your children but to be honest, I don't know if I'd ever sit down and go through this book with my kids. If one of them was particularly interested in this topic I would but probably not just out of my own choice. On the other hand, I would use the activities that I found in this book to use with my kids. I've actually already made one of the recipes she lists in it (which turned out great too!).
I read this as an eBook on the Kindle app on my phone. My birthday was also this month and my husband kindly gifted me a Kindle Paperwhite so I'm really excited to have it now to read on versus my small and bright phone screen. I know, what about physical books? I am always reading a physical book but I find it harder to read more times throughout the day because I need a light to read it with (which is too bright in bed when my husband is trying to sleep beside me) and a lot of times the physical books I'm reading are too big to throw into a bag and carry to the doctor's office or some other place I may have a chance to read. Reading digital books is not ideal for my personal taste but it is so practical. It allows me to have a book at all moments. And another perk is that most of the time, eBooks are a lot cheaper too.
(Image from Amazon)
2. Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
This month I finished reading the Anne of Green Gables series and I just really loved it the whole way through. I had read the first two books last spring and summer then took a break for a while. When I got into Audible, I found all the books on there and decided to listen to them. I'm so glad I did! They were absolutely magical.
The final book of the series is Rilla of Ingleside which follows Anne's youngest daughter Rilla (who is still living at home with her parents as a teenager) and details her life during the first world war. It was so good and sweet, much like the entire series. I love Anne and all her adventures.
As I mentioned I listened to 6 of the 8 books of this series on Audible. I used to think audiobooks didn't count as reading, but I'm not really sure why. They are ideal for someone like me who has a lot of mundane tasks that don't require much thinking.
(Image from Amazon)
3. Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
After I finished the Anne of Green Gables series, I still had a bit of a want for more of L.M. Montgomery's magical novels. I had heard of the Emily series but never had really known much about it. I had even read that someone I follow on Goodreads decidedly declared that she liked Emily better than Anne. Upon reading the first book, I don't know if I would say that just yet but I do really love this series so far. There are 3 books and this month I finished the first one.
Emily is a young girl living with her father who becomes an orphan after her mother dies when she is a very young child and her father dies at the beginning of the book. She is taken in by her mother's family (whom she doesn't even know) and they are all very particular. She is kept by family members so strict that they make Marilla Cuthbert seem relaxed. Emily has a love for writing, just as her father had. She portrays the same sort of everyday magic Anne had but in a bit more of a practical way, I think.
I also listened to this book on Audible and plan to finish the entire series that way.
(Image from Amazon)
These next books are the chapter books I mentioned reading aloud with my toddler.
4. Dinosaur Trouble by Dick King-Smith
This is the very first chapter book I read to my son. My son is very interested in dinosaurs and I thought this sounded like a really cute story. It follows two young dinosaurs who are different species and not supposed to be friends. They meet one another and immediately bond and become best friends. They even get their families together and their parents become friends as well. This unlikely duo uses their friendship and own special traits to help take down the big bad T-Rex!
This is one my son has asked to read again. He just loves it! This is an illustrated chapter book. The pictures are in black and white and not super impressive but they are enough to catch my toddler's attention. We read this as a physical book and it took us about a week. This is a 2nd to 4th-grade reading level.
(Image from Goodreads)
5. - 10. The Mercy Watson Series
These include: Mercy Watson to the Rescue, Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride, Mercy Watson Fights Crime, Mercy Watson: Princess in Disguise, Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig, and Mercy Watson: Something Wonky This Way Comes
I vaguely remember hearing about the Mercy Watson books when I was still in college working on my teaching degree. I was reading an article on Pinterest about good read-alouds for your toddler and one of the Mercy Watson books came up. I thought oh a pig, perfect, my son loves animals. I took the plunge and bought the box set of 6 books and I am so glad that I did because these books have been a massive hit for us.
Mercy Watson is a porcine wonder. She lives with Mr. and Mrs. Watson on Deckawoo drive and she goes on many adventures. When I first got the books, I expected Mercy to be a very adventurous pig. While she goes on many adventures, it's not normally by her own choosing. She's just a pig that's really driven by food or wanting to play with someone and this, as you can imagine, can make things interesting. This series has some absolutely wonderful characters to go along with Mercy and we just fell in love with them (my favorite is Eugenia Lincoln).
We read these as physical books and I thought it would take us about a week to get through each book. Absolutely not. We read the whole series in less than a week. My son was completely captivated by these stories. There are also some beautiful illustrations in these books as well and it just adds to the fun of it. We've even gone to our local bookstore now and bought most of the spin-off series Tales from Deckawoo Drive to continue our fun in reading about these characters. We love Mercy Watson! My son even talks about Mercy throughout the day. I highly recommend these books for beginning readers or if you're like me and looking for good read-alouds. I think our favorite overall book from the series is Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride. These are a kindergarten to 3rd-grade reading level.
(Image from Amazon)
And there you have it! Overall I read 10 books this month. Three of them were personally for me and seven of them I read with my son.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and found some reading motivation for yourself and your kids.
Thank you for reading.
Until next time!
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