Olivia the Pig

When I turned 25 years old, I was team teaching first grade with one of my best friends. As a birthday gift, my friend gave me the book Olivia by Ian Falconer. That was 8 years ago, at that point I didn't have any children of my own and I had no idea how important Olivia would be! Now I have a nearly 3 year old daughter who I think may actually be Olivia! She loves the books. I am so glad my friend gave me the first book clear back then because otherwise I probably would not have begun reading it to my daughter and I would have missed out on so much! If you haven't heard of her before, Olivia is a pig with a whole lot of spunk! She is full of creativity and imagination and causes lots of trouble. She also has a whole lot of advice about brothers. Nickelodeon has made a fantastic cartoon series of Olivia that we DVR regularly at our house. It is a little tricky to find, in our neck of the woods it is only on NickJr in the afternoons during nap time, so we just have our DVR set to record all the episodes. If you have a daughter who likes dress ups and can occassionally find herself in some trouble, you need to read Olivia together!

The Penderwicks

A few months ago, a friend told me that I absolutely needed to read this book. She promised I would love it. She was right! I haven't read it aloud to my kids yet. My girls are too young for chapter books yet and we are in the middle of the Harry Potter series with my son, so we won't be reading any new chapter books for awhile, but The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall is outstanding. The story is about 4 sisters who befriend a neighbor boy. It is what I would consider an old-fashioned story. The sisters love each other and spend time together, not to say that they don't have conflicts, but for the most part they work together and understand the importance of family. Girls would love it and I think you could get away with reading it to boys because one of the main characters is a boy. As far as ages go, you could easily read it aloud to a first or second grade child and I think they could read it on their own by late second grade or third grade.