Monday, July 9, 2012

Great Monday Give: Crictor

Hello all. I hope all you folks stateside had a nice holiday week.

As most of you know, my son is in Spanish immersion school here in Texas, so his English reading has just started to blossom. This summer, the boy has been all about graphic novels and more graphic novels and A to Z Mysteries and Captain Underpants and My Father's Dragon and the shorter Dahl's like The Magic Finger, Esio Trot, The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me and The Enormous Crocodile. Does anyone know any young fiction chapter books that feature birds? Now that he's reading on his own, there's only so many books I can find before I begin to run out of stuff that's actually enjoyable to read. It's that weird space when he's moving out of picture books, but beyond Frog and Toad and Little Bear... but not reading full blown novels. Any ideas on what's good that's NOT Junie B. Jones or The Magic Tree House?

That said, how about another Great Monday Give? Tomi Ungerer's classic Crictor? All you have to do to win an awesome pre-loved paperback copy of this book is comment on this post before July 15, Sunday at 11:59 PM CT. A winner will be selected at random and announced the following morning.

The winner of last week's give of the mystery prize package is... Pen Pals & Picture Books. E-mail me your info to webe(at)soon(dot)com. Congrats!

We'll soon be coming to the five-year anniversary of this blog (has anyone been around since the first Boogle post?), and I have a few things up my sleeve to celebrate. Stay tuned....

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41 comments:

crazylady said...

This looks like a fun book! Cute.

Nicole said...

I used to love thumbing through my parents' giant doorstop of a Tomi Ungerer book, but unfortunately, didn't realize he wrote children's books until starting my career selling books to kids! Love him!!!

Unknown said...

Has your son read the Spiderwick Chronicles? Those books are the reading level you're looking for I think and they are wonderful!

Burgin Streetman said...

I've read all those books to him, but since he's been reading on his own, I can't find the first book on our shelves. I've been waiting to run into another copy thrifting. Thanks for the reminder! Congrats on winning BTW!

jengod said...

Giveaway submission here. :)

Calvin & Hobbes collections might be perfect at this stage. Good vocabulary!

Burgin Streetman said...

He's deep into C&H.... anything graphic novel or from the funnies...

Lucy Mitchell said...

What about Mudpuddle Farm stories? Six stories, you can get them all in one book and they were a great inbetweeny book in our house, just before Beast Quest(very samey but still, books all the same) and after the Usbourne Young Reading hardbacks. (they are great, if he's into mythological stuff,Ulysses, Perseus and the Gorgon etc.) And you probably know Geronimo Stilton?

liz. said...

Crictor! One of my favorites. Great giveaway.

Have you looked at any of Avi's books? Some are more advanced, but some might be just right.

Make!Do! said...

So sentimental about Crictor, loved seeing it on my screen this morning. That age is such a tough one to keep supplied with great pre-middle readers...as a librarian at a bilingual school I have to ask how challenging it is or isn't to have him read in Spanish or English. I try to help a lot of parents with their concerns in this area and am always looking for new perspectives, especially from someone who clearly loves books too.

M Guy said...

I just finished Ungerer's "Far Out Isn't Far Enough" last night and planned to find some of his kid's books for my son.

Melissa@Julias Bookbag said...

This is just a regular comment, not a giveaway comment (we read that book from the library! It's lovely.) --

we just read 'George's Marvelous Medicine' by Dahl and oh the funny. Have you guys read that one? And we're reading Dr. Doolittle together. Has he read Pippi? Would he be interested do you think? I just heard about the Lighthouse Family book series by Cynthia Rylant -- a friend said she read the books to her son when he was 6. Not sure if it's read-on-your-own-able or be -read-to type of thing.

Danzel @Silver Shoes and Rabbit Holes said...

Oh, I love this book! Tomi Ungerer is a favorite of mine.

clara said...

oh!

april. said...

I suggest the Thornton Burgess books (there are a lot of them!). They are well written, but totally approachable chapter books. And I know quite a few of them feature birds.

ChristyJan said...

I have several Tomi Ungerer books in my collection and this is not one of them ~ I'd love to win this classic!

Anonymous said...

Crictor was my most favorite book when I was in first grade in the he US! I named my first goldfish Crictor I,followed by Crictor II andf finally Crictor III. Little did I know one day I would live with my children France, whcih is Tomi Ungerer's homelad as well. This book is never been as popular here as his other works. I have a Germa copy but would love to have an America edition.
Jennifer in France

Ben said...

Of course I'll comment for Crictor... but I don't have any constructive advice :(

MissShapes said...

I would love a better copy of this book! We found one but it has some pages missing at the end so it never makes sense....my 3 year old still loves it though!

Burgin Streetman said...

Robyn... Dang, the library was out of Spiderwick one. Pooh!

Lucy... will have to track down Mudpuddle Farm.

Liz...

Avi still probably too advanced.

Melissa... love george. The Dr. and Pippi still to advanced. will checkout lighthouse...

Burgin Streetman said...

Make!Do!.... If you mean reading both? As he is in immersion, they ask us to not have them read in English. I stopped having him read in English at the first of the year because I could see in the beginning that it was affecting his reading negatively. But after about half a year in immersion, the problems dual language caused had vanished. sure, if he would read for pleasure in spanish, i would have him reading only spanish, but he's not there yet. he only reads spanish if I ask him to.... so he does the minimum school asks... 15 minutes a day. beyond that now, I let him read however long he wants to english.

OnePerfectDay said...

It looks positively charming!

I only know Tomi Ungerer through vintage kids books blogs but he has a very special style that I love.

thanks for the give-away.

Unknown said...

Might be a little early, but the Guardians of Ga'hoole books by Kathryn Lasky is an interesting series featuring owls.

Allen Knutson said...

The Sideways stories books by Sachar are delightful. And addictive; they're a collection of 6 page stories, so why not read just one more?

The Secret of Droon books are kinda dumb, but there are a whole lotta them. My son liked them for the fantasy aspect. After a while he wasn't interested in the Marvin Redpost series (also Sachar), I think for the lack thereof.

The Geronimo Stilton series is quite interesting typographically, and chock full o' pictures.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid and How to Train Your Dragon series should keep him busy a while.

M. Raney said...

This year my class loved the Mercy Watson series, which has fun full color pictures. Zita the Spacegirl is a great comic (also Mal and Chad, Daniel Boom: Loud Boy, and Amulet). They were also obsessed by DC Super-Pets series. They are short chapter books, with the pets of DC superheroes.

Sarah said...

I had completely forgotten about this book. But it's a great one.

Jen Lesher said...

Have you looked into David Almond?

We have "My Dad's a Birdman" and just borrowed "The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon" from our library. They aren't too wordy (especially Birdman) and have the fantastic illustrations of Polly Dunbar, but not sure as we are no where near starting to read at this house...

We have Crictor in our collection, thanks to your review, and love it!

Becca said...

Have you read the Arabel and Mortimer books by Joan Aiken yet? Mortimer is a crow with a very distinctive personality and an insatiable appetite. He manages to create mayhem pretty much wherever he goes. Very fun, and each title has 4 or so short Mortimer stories in it. Also love the George Selden books in the Cricket in Times Square series.

jengod said...

Oh oh, what about the old "Something Queer" book series? Written by Elizabeth Levy, ill. by the wonderful Mordecai Gerstein. Lots to look at in the schematic-style pictures, but good mystery reading too.

jengod said...

Are Asterix and Tintin are already in the mix?

Kate said...

Now you're into my territory! Here's what my just-turned-7 year-old has enjoyed reading this last year :

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Danny Dynamite by Jean Ure

Bobby the Bad by Dick King-Smith

My Father's Dragon by Rith Stiles Gannett

Henry and the Clubhouse by Beverly Cleary (and anything else by Beverly Cleary)

The Julian Stories by Ann Cameron

Stone Croc by Penelope Farmer

The Stray by Dick King-Smith

The House That Sailed Away by Pat Hutchins

The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh

Silver Snaffles by Primrose Cumming

A Book of Coupons by Susie Morgenstern

Tilly Mint Tales by Berlie Doherty

Twig by Elizabeth Orton Jones

Mean Margaret by Tor Seidler

The Horribly Haunted School by Margaret Mahy

... and I could go on if you wanted me to!

Hope that helps ... :-)

Elizabeth said...

I would love a copy of Crictor!

Katie said...

My daughter is currently reading the How To Train A Dragon series, it's really fun. No birds, but flying dragons are close :).

Love the illustrations in Crictor. Thanks for the giveaway!

emrichkh@comcast.net

jengod said...

Eloise is "for girls" but isn't that in that kind of mixed-up words-and-pix stage?

Rosita said...

Toni Ungerer, love! Count me in please.

Linda P. said...

One of my favorite kids book. Throw my hat in please

Kate said...

Sorry, it's me again ... just wondered if you'd seen this article by Michael Morpurgo ...? And also to suggest Seriously Silly Stories by Laurence Anholt.

PS - this isn't meant to be a second entry to the giveaway!

Tara from MD said...

Never heard of this one, but you've got me at the snake at a cafe table. Please enter me.

Unknown said...

Never read this one, but would love to discover it with my daughter for the first time :)

Patricia said...

What a delightful cover! I'd love to win this one.

Anonymous said...

My son is also 7. He's too loves graphic novels and Calvin and Hobbes but reads a range of things. Four of our favorites: Binky the Space Cat books, Lenore Look's books about Alvin Ho and Ruby Lu, the Bad Kitty books by Nick Bruel, and the Humphrey books by Betty Birney. The first three are graphic novels/graphic novelish, and the last is just a good series that he and I both like.

Anonymous said...

Down Girl and Sit is a good animal series.

Maybelle in the Soup and the sequels are good too.

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