Books for the New Year!

We had a wonderful Christmas with family!
But it is feeling good to be back in our old routines.
One thing I was really missing was READING!--
with my little ones and reading for myself.

Here are a few of our favorite books as of late:

1) Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin

This book is a great tool for introducing
your children to an orchestra,
and the poetry is truly wonderful!
You will love the description of each instrument!

2) Snow

We're still waiting for our first winter storm,
but this book certainly gets us excited.

The descriptions of snow and the winter
are, once again, wonderful.
I also love the pictures by Lauren Stringer--
one of my favorite children's book illustrators.

I've mentioned this book before:
3) Winter is the Warmest Season

Written and illustrated by Lauren Stringer,
it is where I fell in love with her art.
I also love how the book makes your little one's think:
Winter may be cold outside,
but we fill it with hot soups, warm baths, fires and candles,
toasty layers of quilts, and lots of together time.
She proves winter really can be "the warmest season."

And this one, 4) Hattie Big Sky
was a random grab from the YA lit section.
I saw the Newbery Honor Award and figured I would give it a shot.
It was another wonderful book!
I loved the combination of early homesteading history
with tensions from WWI.
I also enjoyed that the ending brought some surprises,
not always what you expect in YA lit.

I am hoping to get more reading in this year
than I was able to last year.
However, I'm sure things will get MUCH more
complicated when little Ezra makes his appearance.

I'll just have to read my little heart out for the next 8 weeks
to get a good head start--just in case!