I love summer for many reasons but a huge reason is the increase in reading time. Katherine and I have had a lot of time to read together so I have broken our favorites for this month in to two posts.

Enjoy!

Maryilyn’s Monster written by Michelle Knudsen & illustrated by Matt Phelan. All of Marilyn’s friends already have monsters but hers has not yet come to her. She is distraught and heads out to find her monster herself. As it turns out, doing this her own way was a great decision.

Something Extraordinary by Ben Clanton. The little boy in Something Extraordinary has some pretty awesome wishes. It turns out with a great imagination, some of these things can come true. For real.

I’m Trying to Love Spiders by Bethany Barton. I always hate to admit it but the truth is we are not huge fans of non-fiction here. That said, we totally love what Bethany Barton has done with I’m Trying to Love Spiders. In a fun story we learn an amazing amount of accurate facts about our eight legged friends.

How to Read a Story written by Kate Messner & illustrated by Mark Siegel. If you’ve been looking for a how to book about reading stories, this is your book and it is even has dragons and princesses thrown in for good measure.

There’s No Such Thing as Little by LeUyen Pham. This cut out book is a perfect reminder of how some things aren’t necessarily what they appear. Reading this books is also a good reminder for parents that even big kids can love picture books. As we read, Katherine kept saying, ‘let’s do another!’