Books We're Currently Loving

Our house is bursting with books, which is the best thing ever.  We have them stashed in just about every room, and in the car as well.  Finn especially spends a lot of time in the car between all the school drops & pick ups and going to & from Liam's practices, so books are the perfect thing to keep him entertained during all of that.  We make weekly trips to the library, but often purchase our favorites.  Every nap time & bedtime we read two books (or two chapters if we are in a chapter book).  So today, I'm sharing the current favorites that are in constant rotation at our house.  

The Ricker Racker Club

This story is about two brothers with a super secret club.  We love the brother aspect and often substitute the boys' names into the book.  Plus, the illustrations are absolutely beautiful (which is something I personally value in a book).

Explorers of the Wild

I believe I have mentioned this book before, because honestly it is our absolute favorite!  Perfect for any little explorer or adventure.  The story follows a little boy who runs into a little bear who is also out exploring.  Once again, the illustrations are truly beautiful.  I really love this author, so I'm pumped that he has new Halloween book coming out in the Fall called Sir Simon: Super Scarer.  It's available now for preorder, so yep, already bought it!

Strictly No Elephants

It's about a boy with a pet elephant who meets other kids with strange pets.  An adorable message, and beautiful drawings.  This book was a gift from Liam's teacher and has quickly become a favorite.

Bear in the Air

Follows the journey of one lost teddy bear.  The illustrations remind me of Rockwell times, or my Grandma's era.  A very retro beach feel.

The Wild Swans

Who doesn't love Hans Christian Anderson?!  This was one of my favorite books growing up!  It's not quite a full chapter book, but definitely too long to read for one nap time/bedtime.  Finn & I just started this, but I'm hoping that boys' will love it as much as I did.  Once again, a book about brothers, and with birds, so Finn has to be into it.

*Side note:  I often get asked about Finn's bird book that he constantly has with him to try and identify birds.  We even just go through it for fun constantly; he's truly obsessed.  We have Birds of Utah, but there is a bird book for each state!  Highly recommend if you have a little birder on your hands!

Now for the chapter books...  Liam has been listening to us read Chapter books since he was about 3 years old, and Finn started joining in on the fun a few months ago.  It totally depends on the particular book whether he is interested or not.  We started with The Magic Treehouse Series, which is really the perfect start to chapter books.  But after the first 5 or so, we all got a little bored and moved on.  Our favorite favorite favorite favorite book has been The Wild Robot.  It's so poignant!  And deep!  And thought provoking!  For both kids & adults.  Both Conor & I so looked forward to reading it and would even read it on our own if we missed a couple chapters since we didn't put the kids to bed that night.  It definitely has some extremely sad moments, as well as some violent ones, but overall it's incredible.  I'm sure this is book we will continue to read again and again as the boys get older and pick up more things.  We just realized there is a sequel, so we're currently in the middle of The Wild Robot Escapes.

Other favorite chapter books include:
Charlotte's Web My Father's Dragon James and the Giant Peach
I'm considering starting The Boxcar Children with Liam, but I also know that he would be able to read them on his own come 2nd grade.  There were my favorites to read, so I may just leave those for him.  I'm also excited to start the Harry Potter Series eventually, but I want to save that for when we we could potentially read them all together, which is still many many years off!
We obviously LOVE books, so please please please share your favorites!