Recent read-alouds, ballerinas & Les Mis version

My 4 year old daughter, who is rarely caught not wearing a leotard, loves all things ballet. She picked this library haul.

Tanya and the Red Shoes – don’t we all know how it feels to long for lovely red pointe shoes? Tanya gets her long-awaited pair, only to find she’s clunky and ungainly and suffering from horribly sore feet. For a while, at least.

Presenting Tanya, the Ugly Duckling – Tanya gets the role of her dreams, but has to grow first into a swan herself.

New Shoes for Silvia – the best way to wait for something wonderful (such as growing into your brand new red shoes) is to get busy doing something else.

When Elephant Goes to a Party – this is a fun lesson in manners, taught by means of an outsized party guest.

This month I began doing Before Five in a Row with the two little girls. The following books are titles listed in BFIAR. I’m still working on getting the lot of them, some are quite hard to find!

The Carrot Seed – loved this one because it’s illustrated by Crockett Johnson, the same guy who illustrated Harold and the Purple Crayon, a favorite story of my 2 year old’s. (Except he thinks it’s called Josiah and the Purple Crayon, because that’s how we read it.)

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – we’ve enjoyed this one.

Josiah knows all the sound effects now. Swishy swashy! Squelch squerch!

Lots of repetition and rhythm, which babies love in read-alouds.

Corduroy – who isn’t a sucker for a cute bear missing a button and desperate for a home?

Hubby and I took the 4 big kids to see a school edition of Les Miserables at a local theater.

Excuse me, but isn’t my husband looking particularly cute here?

Anyway.

(My goofy oldest son looking like Igor crouching between us.)

It was awesome, and we were blown away by those kids.

I’ve seen the original production (and read the unabridged version of the book – my favorite novel of all time), but it was everyone else’s first time.

Oldest has also read the book, and one of my kids is listening to the audio book now.

This was my first time checking out one of these digital players from the library, but how cool is it!?

This child had a difficult time following the story (it was all the singing, haha), so I wanted to make sure he got it. The finest redemption story ever told, I say.

Read any good books to your kids lately?