C and I finished reading The Giants and the Joneses by Julia Donaldson this week. Most of this book takes place in the land of Groil. Groil is home to giants who disregard the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. A young giant named Jumbeelia, however, is certain that "iggly plops" (humans) really do exist and she drops a bean over the cloud edge to see for herself. The next day, she climbs down the beanstalk ("bimplestonk" in Groilish) and collects some souvenirs, including three young human children. The book is all about the adventures of the human children in the giant world. We really enjoyed the story. The giants speak their own language (Groilish) and that was a bit confusing at first. There is a dictionary in the back of the book, but I wasn't fond of flipping back and forth. After a few chapters, we remembered a lot of the words and could often figure out the other words by the context of the sentence. C really liked the use of Groilish and continues to speak it when he can; the flipping back and forth did not bother him at all. I do have to mention that the word "stupid" is used repeatedly throughout the book. "Stupid" is a bad word in our house, so I just replaced the word with "silly" whenever it appeared. The book has a wonderful message of respect and cooperation. This book was recommended by my sister; she is a librarian in an elementary school and always has great book suggestions for us. Thank you Auntie Karen!
R's favorite book of the week is Raggedy Ann, Raggedy Ann and Rags, adapted from the stories by Johnny Gruelle. I owe a big thank you to Annette from Live, Learn, Love for writing about the Raggedy Ann books on her blog. I did not expect R to be interested in the book at all because she tends to get antsy with longer picture books, but she sat captivated from the first page to the last. In this book, Marcelle is looking for her doll, Raggedy Ann, and finds the rag doll with a tiny puppy in her lap. Of course, a few dolls and the puppy have an adventure that kept R very entertained. We will definitely read more Raggedy Ann books!
I am linking this to What My Child is Reading at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns. I get so many wonderful book suggestions from this weekly linky, so if you have not been over there to check it out, you must do that now!
12 comments:
The Giants and the Joneses looks awesome...and we are so glad you enjoyed Raggedy Ann!
Thanks, I'll have to check these books out.
Sweet books. I'll have to give the Raggedy Ann books a try with Sassyfras. She loves her dolls and stuffed animals now.
I loved all the Raggedy Ann books when I was a girl, esp. the one where they go to Cookie Land. I tried reading them to kiddo, but he was just not interested. No cars or trains in them, I guess. I was a bit sad. Oh, well.
I've replaced stupid with silly while reading aloud as well. The Giants and the Joneses sounds cute!
These sound so great! Thanks for the suggestions :) They seem like books my girls would like.
I also read the Raggedy Ann books was I was a girl. My daughters haven't picked them up yet.
We are reading Giants and the Joneses right now too..we are almost done...it has been a fun book!
I thought I commented on here already today - but I must have forgotten to enter!
Oh well, I don't think I'd like all the flipping either, but a giant language sounds like fun :)
The flipping back and forth does get old. I've done that on a few other books
But it still sounds fun
That would get on my nerves to have to keep flipping back and forth to figure out what the story is saying. That last book sounds cute!
We try to stay clear of the word "stupid," too. It's been a long while since I've thought about Raggedy Ann. I don't think my daughter is familiar with the character at all.
Somehow I think Anna might find the first book slightly disturbing, but I've been meaning to look for Raggedy Ann. Thanks for joining WMCIR!
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