Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White (our reviews)

Calvin is a good reader. That's not to say that he is reading yet, but that he loves to be read to, and both his attention span and his comprehension are top notch, so when I came across my old copy of Charlotte's Web earlier this week I decided to experiment with the great world of youth novels, or chapter books. I have been itching to delve into that world for some time now but wasn't exactly sure when the right time was. Apparently that time is now, or at least the moment has come and gone, because our week spent reading Charlotte's Web was an enormous success with the one person to whom it should matter (and I don't mean myself).

I had forgotten what a fantastic book Charlotte is—a beautiful meld of fantasy and the natural world, of childish fancy and mature language, of joy and poignancy. There's also a healthy dose of vocabulary building and even science buried right in the middle of a truly engaging story. I figured it would take us about a week to get through the book but as it turns out we could have finished it in just a couple of days, he was that excited about the story.

To check his comprehension I had him summarize the day's reading for his dad in the evening, and to make the book last a little longer I came up with a few side activities, like painting illustrations for the book, reading some books on spiders, and creating a color coded diagram of a standard spider, the latter being Calvin's favorite activity of the week, I think.

And I don't even have to type out Calvin's impressions and review on this book because his journaling has really grown by leaps and bounds. But I'll tell you what it says in case it's hard to read:

Charlotte's Webb
She saved Wilbur. Charlotte dies. Her babies are born.

The picture is a map of the fair, straight out of Calvin's imagination. The pink thing is a pig, Wilbur, and also visible are the spider, Charlotte, the little girl, Fern, and the brown shape is the loud speaker they use at the fair.

Not Counting Monsters, by H.L. Ross

Ah, now this is a real treasure left from my childhood. We found it on a recent romp through the history cache that is my parents' home. I know I said this about The Little Rabbit, but here's another book that brings back wonderful memories every time I read its pages. This is simply a fun book. It's a counting book that asks you to count all of some object on any given page (people on one, gas pumps on another) while skipping over the monsters (who are dressed up as people or gas pumps respectively). It's just a fun book. Unfortunately, it's no longer in print. In fact, it's so out of print that I was unable to find a picture of it online anywhere, so I had to take my own. There are a few used copies to be had out there, and if you're at all interested I suggest you do a used book search and snatch one up. Did I mention that it's fun? And now, from Calvin:

"We're avoiding counting monsters and counting people, gas pumps, sheep, and cooks, and fish and boats, and all kinds of things, but not monsters."

"I like the book. I like how they wrote it like a poem with rhyming."

"Yes [I would recommend this to others]."

The Little Rabbit, by Judy Dunn (our review)

This is an oldie but a goodie. I remember this book vividly from my own childhood and flipping through the pages brings a delightful feeling of recognition and nostalgia. One of the best things about this book is the use of photography instead of illustrations. There's nothing wrong with illustrations, of course, but the pictures make this book unique. The only disappointment? The little rabbit grows and grows and one day has babies of her own. That's it. She just has babies. Now, I'm not saying that my four year old is ready for sex-ed, but there's something just a little unfinished about that part of the story, eh? Here's what Calvin says:

"It's a story about a little girl who gets a little rabbit. She makes a hutch and she puts Buttercup in it and hten she puts a nesting box in it for Buttercup's babies. Buttercup has babies and then they give some of the bunnies to Sarah's friends because they ahve too many bunnies and the hutch is crowded. In the end they [Sarah and Buttercup] are alone again and so they are happy."

"[My favorite part is] when she picks her name from the buttercup flowers."

[I learned] I can have a rabbit as a pet. And wild rabbits are camoflauge[d]."

"[I'd recommend this book to someone because] I like the pictures in teh bok and i like the end and the beginning when they are alone."

Bear's New Friend, by Karma Wilson (our review)

Karma Wilson's bear books numbered among our favorites when Calvin was little. The rhyming is simple and pleasing, the characters sweet, and the stories easy to enjoy. There's nothing deep about these books, they're just a real light and enjoyable read. He's pretty much outgrown them now but we bring them out once in a while just for fun. Here's what Calvin has to say:

"It's about a bear and an owl and their friends. The Owl is too shy to coe out of his hole, but he did and then they went to the swimming hole to sim. He was happy he came out."

"[My favorite part is] when they go swimming all together."

And he says "yes" he would recommend this book to others.

Franklin Has A Sleepover, by Paulette Bourgeois (our review)

I'm not a big fond of branding, and that's really what I think character attachment amounts to. I shudder a little inside every time I pass the Diego branded sandwich bags or Dora crayons. What's wrong with Crayola? What's wrong with having your own personal identity? Eek. Ever since we broke out the Old School Sesame Street DVDs we've had to curb a little of this, but since it's not an everyday ocurrence in our house he's been pretty uninterested in the Elmo crap, and is mostly interested in pointed out Bert and Ernie or Big Bird for identifying purposes, not for purchasing.

So what, you might ask, are we doing with a Franklin book? I'm not sure how we ended up with the first Franklin book in our collection, but Calvin really enjoyed the story (I'm not even entirely sure at this point which one it was) and I actually had no qualms about it either—most of those books do more towards teaching kids how not to behave than serving as material for role models (I'm pointing at you, Berentstain Bears!), but most (not all) of the Franklin books seem to skip the old recipe of "show bad behavior first, followed sometimes by consequences and then by corrections" and instead model teaching behavior simply by modeling it, not by showing wrong first. This is definitely not true of all the Franklin books (the New Friend book, for instance, or the one where he fights with his sister before learning to get along with her), but whenever I am looking for books the first thing I do is check for the "bad behavior first" formula, and if I find it the book goes right back on the shelf. (Read Nurture Shock, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman for more about that). Another definite plus to Franklin is that he isn't everywhere you look. I think he has or had a TV show at one time, and most of the cruddy books are from that later era, but he's still a relatively unknown and unsold character. I have no real argument with Franklin.

It's a good thing, too, because Calvin really likes those books. I think he likes that they are all animals. In any case, the book he chose to review this week is Franklin Has a Sleepover, which, by the way, is the story of Franklin inviting his friend bear over for their very first sleepover, and you know what? There's no hitch; nobody sneaks out late, nobody stays up late, nobody is mean, nobody fights. Bear comes over, they have a great time, at one point he is feeling a little homesick and Franklin makes him more comfortable, but this is just one page of many and has no real bearing on the story. Ha, I said bearing and it's about a bear.

Here's what Calvin had to say"

"[The book] is about Franklin and Bear. Franklin cleans up his room and Bear packs his stuff. They set up their tent in the living room and Bear packs games and a sleeping bag. They go to sleep, but bear doesn't feel well. He misses his room so they go tot Franklin's room and sleep there. They have a special breakfast."

"[My favorite part is] where they sit around the fire and have drinsk and roast marshmallows adn hot dogs around the fire."

[Would you recommend this book to others?] "Yes but I would not want them to take ours, but they can get one from the store or the library."