This meme was started by Rae Longest at Powerful Women Readers. As I am a grandmother, who loves to read to her grandchildren, a mother who loved to read to and with her children, and a retired teacher librarian, this meme really attracted me.

With all my traveling this fall, I spent some time with my grandchildren between trips. We love to read together, so here are a few of the ones we shared. All of the books featured were provided to me from the publishers upon request, through Netgalley. I have included their comments, reactions and interactions where appropriate. All ratings and opinions are our own.

Meow by Tizzy Cottingham

Published August 28th 2022 by Matador

4 Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Socks is an orange Tabby cat who lives in the heart of the city. Every day he thinks about what activities await throughout the day. He enjoys his days relaxing in the sun, sleeping in the shade, playing with his friends in the big park and eating fish by the sea. Today, Socks wants to find his best friend, Ash, in searching all across the city, in parks, cafés, the seaside and more, Ash is nowhere to be found. The fun thing is for the reader or listener to find Ash in each picture. The illustrations are wonderful and that is the best part of the story, at least as far as my grandson was concerned. Combined with the repetition in the text makes it a perfect book for young children. My grandson enjoyed the book and the second time we read it, he listened more to the prose as he had already located Ash. The first time through we spent most of our time looking at and talking about the wonderfully colourful and detailed illustrations. This is a cute story that will engage young children and would be great to use with small groups in Kindergarten or Pre-School.

Who’s the Smartest? by Ellen DeLange, Malgosia Zajac (Illustrator)

Published August 23rd 2022 by Clavis Publishing

4 Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The blurb says the book is about: Olive the dog wants to play with her friend Squirrel. But Squirrel doesn’t have time. He has to gather acorns for the winter. And then Fox shows up. He’s hungry . . . Who will get what they want? Or will they all win? but there is more to it than that. It is a story about Fall and preparing for winter, a story of friendship, a story dealing with change and considering what others are dealing with and a story about problem solving. The illustrations were colorful and detailed and added a lot to the story. If you looked at the details in the pictures, you could see much more than what was in the text. I read this to my grandchildren and they all listened and enjoyed the story. Each took different things from the story and we all enjoyed looking at the wonderful illustrations. My only issue is that I found the text a bit small and it might be a problem with some readers.

Owen’s Day with Daddy by Jerry Ruff, Davilyn Lynch (Illustrator)

Published August 23rd 2022 by Clavis Publishing

4 Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I wish I had this book a few years ago when my youngest grandchild was born. My granddaughter, the middle child really had her nose out of joint when her little brother came home from the hospital. Owen’s Day with Daddy is about a young boy who is an only child, until his sibling comes home. He is very upset because Daddy spends so much time with the baby and he feels left out, so he stamps his foot and screams that he wants to spend time with Daddy. Daddy and Owen have a day together where they go to the park and have a wonderful time. This is a story about family, jealousy, sibling rivalry and the importance of spending quality time with each other. I read this to my grandchildren but they had varying interest. The oldest was not really interested at all. When I talked to my granddaughter about how she felt when her brother came home she related a bit, but kept saying she loved playing with him (no she didn’t). The youngest related to Owen and spending a fun day with his Daddy. Overall, I think this is a great book to deal with sibling rivalry and would be a good one to purchase for children before their new family comes home. The illustrations are cute and evoke great emotion, although they are pretty simple and not as detailed as I have gotten used to with Clavis books. Although this was not a winner for us, that is because our family is not in this situation.

Hooray for Trucks! by Susan Hughes, Suharu Ogawa (Illustrator)

Published October 13th 2022 by Owlkids

4 Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hooray for Trucks is a story that would be loved by all those little ones who love trucks and machines. All the trucks at the construction site love to work, all day, all the time. When they are told it is time to clean up, they don’t want to waste time and the foreman has a hard time trying to round them all up. Once they realize that they will still be working while scrubbing each other, they get on board. When they are all clean, they discover why the boss wanted them to sparkle. The youngest two grandchildren enjoyed this book. They liked the various trucks and how they worked, got dirty and finally cleaned up. The illustrations were adorable with cute faces on the trucks and machines. They gave each truck it’s own personality. The text was rhyming, had a lot of onomatopoeia and was simple and easy to read, with a good cadence. This was be a great book for kids who don’t like to take baths as well as beginning readers. This was a winner for my little ones.

If you have children or grandchildren, I would love to hear what their favourite books are. I encourage you to pick up a book and read to them today. All the books included here are available now.

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