31 in 31 Day 6: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and Happy Birthday, MOM!

Here we are, Day 6.
First, let’s do the giveaway winner!
A bit of how I pull a winner:

I’ve gone through all the comments and made a spreadsheet of what we’ve read.
Yup, it’s a lot of work, but it’s cool to see it all organized.
Each entry is numbered.

Then I head over to random number generator,
and pull a number, like this:

Number 21 is the winner!
Number 21 is the winner!

And that means the winner is:
JACKIE WELLINGTON!

Screen shot 2013-10-06 at 10.37.33 AM

Also, fun fact.
We’ve collectively read 74 books! Keep up the awesome reading!
And Jackie, email me (kathyellendaviswriter@gmail.com)
your address so I can send your book to you!

If you didn’t win, no worries!
More prizes coming up!

31 in 31

Anyway, today,
Day 6, is also my Mom’s birthday!

Here she is with all of us one Mother’s Day.
(I’m the one in the red dress!)

Mom and all us kids!
Mom and all us kids!

My mom taught us ALL how to read,
as well as many other children in her 23 years of teaching public school.

My fondest memories are of helping her with book orders.
She’d get booklets from all the companies,
and we would pour over the tissue-like orders,
telling her which one we thought she should go with.

Once the order was placed, all there was to do was wait.
But once it came in, we were back at work again.

We helped her sort out the books and make a pile for each student.
We loved our book jobs!

We were never without books either;
I have TONS of picture books that I had as a child.
My mom always made sure to write in them
when I got the book and when I read it to her.

Most of them I read to her around 5,6,or 7.
And what’s really great is I was reading chapter books when I was 5.
Yup, I remember reading Charlotte’s Web and Dr. Doolittle in kindergarten.

But I always loved picture books.
My mom NEVER said I was too old for them,
and let me read them and continued to buy them for me.

For that reason and many more,
my first book will be dedicated to her.
(She reminds me almost every time we talk of this fact.
“You’re still going to dedicate the first one to me, right?”)

One of her favorite books is this one:

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile by Bernard Waber
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile by Bernard Waber

Title: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
Published by: Houghton Mifflin, 1965
Written by: Bernard Waber
Illustrated by: Bernard Waber
Word Count: 1513
Pages: 48

In one word: Charming
In one sentence: What’s an urban crocodile to do?…go on picnics, shop, put on shows and department stores, play with the neighborhood kids, and then get put in the zoo!

Favorite pages:

Our introduction to Lyle. How can you not love him?
Our introduction to Lyle. How can you not love him?
And he's helpful! Look at that great job helping with math facts!
And he’s helpful! Look at that great job helping with math facts!
You know, a typical day for a crocodile. Cooking, picnic in the park, hanging out with the birds...
You know, a typical day for a crocodile. Cooking, picnic in the park, hanging out with the birds…

Likes:

  • I always thought his name was Lyle, Lyle. I liked that as a kid, since I have a double name.
  • Lyle is so friendly. I like that he’s a crocodile, but friendly.
  • He saves the day!
  • The illustrations are really lively.
  • Love that most pages have just black, white, and green.

Learns:

  • Backstories are not always required (how did they even get Lyle?)
  • Lots of settings can be fun (Lyle goes all about town!)
  • One color and black and white makes for interesting illustrations.

Whew.
Sorry for the late post today; but in my defense it only is 10:52 here on the West Coast 🙂

Hope everyone’s having a great Sunday.
What are you reading?

Thank you again for reading along and sharing what you read.
I’m going to compile a huge list of all the books we’ve read
for all of you (like me) who are collecting for your TBR pile 🙂

Until next time,
KE and SS

30 thoughts on “31 in 31 Day 6: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and Happy Birthday, MOM!

  1. Hi Kathy Ellen! I am really enjoying your posts. I had to catch up on my picture books and so I read 5 today…Andrew’s Loose Tooth by Robert Munsch, Show and Tell by Robert Munsch, Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash by Sarah Weeks, Our Tree Named Steve by Alan Zweibel, and Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian. Oh and happy birthday to your Mom!

    1. WOW!
      Thanks for catching yourself up, Pia!
      I’ll go back in and add yours to the lists from previous days!

  2. Happy birthday to Mom! What a great idea to write down each time you read the book–a special memento of your childhood.

    I read Niño Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales. Great to see a different art style from her, plus how much character development was done through her bios of opponents. Sparse text, superhero genre, much fun!

    1. I’ve heard this is a GREAT book!
      I haven’t seen it at my library yet…maybe I’ll look at Hicklebee’s.
      And yes, it’s very sweet to open a picture book and see:

      “Read to Mommy by Kathy Ellen at 5 years old” or something like that 🙂

  3. Congrats, Jackie! And happy birthday to MOM!

    The illustrations in the book I read today are precious. BEAR HAS A STORY TO TELL is written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead. (2012, A Neal Porter Book/Roaring Brook Press, 559 words)

    Bear wants to tell his story to his friends, but they’re all getting ready for winter’s sleep. Soon Bear sleeps, too. When he awakes in spring, he waits for all of his friends to wake before telling — or TRYING to tell — his story. He’s forgotten it. What’s Bear to do next? No spoilers here.

    1. This was a re-read, actually. I thought I might nominate it for a Cybils award. Unfortunately, if was published before October 15, 2012, so it doesn’t qualify. btw, nominations are now open until 10/15/13, so go check it out. Lots of categories.

    2. I can’t remember if I read this book or not!
      But I LOVE the Steads.
      In fact, they were at Hicklebee’s,
      but I was at a friend’s wedding.

      I did think about skipping it though!
      But I made the right choice by going.
      Hopefully the Steads come back through though; their writing and illustrations are just beautiful.

  4. We got to meet Kate DiCamillo & K. G. Campbell today. It was great! Interesting to hear how they collaborated (or really didn’t) K.G. brought his dog, Lily! She is featured in his book about terrible sweaters.

    Today I read “What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Day” by Bruno Hachler. My Teddy has a few things to say about this to be sure.

    Happy Birthday to your Mom!

    1. Glad you got to hear them talk!
      Have you read “Lester’s Dreadful Sweaters” ?
      I may mention it here this month.

      You would think they would have worked together quite a bit with the many times there’s comic strips in the book….

  5. Read Warning! Do Not Open This Book by Adam Lehrhaupt and illustrated by Matthew Forsythe. Glad I did not follow the advice of the title. Book is filling with monkeys and toucans and great fun!

  6. Today I read two books by Eric Carle: His classic “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and another, lesser known book called “Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me.” Everybody loves “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” I have always especially loved the end, where I can acknowledge how even though he’s a butterfly, it’s still him!
    I also have a special fondness for “Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me.” I love the long, long ladder the girl’s dad uses to get to the moon, which to me symbolizes what’s in every parent’s heart. I also love how it introduces the phases of the moon with it getting smaller and smaller until it disappears, then reappearing and getting bigger and bigger. Both this and the end of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” remind how all things change but stay the same, a theme I am very fond of in kids’ books.

    1. I’ve never heard of that one, Lily. Thanks!
      Sounds fun.
      And yes, Very Hungry Caterpillar is amazing 🙂

  7. At bedtime we read “The Spooky Old Tree” and “Bears in the Night”, both illustrated and written by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Perfect anytime of the year, but especially around Halloween. Both are early readers that are also great read-alouds. Both feature brave little bear cubs who go on spooky nighttime adventures. I love the earliest Berenstain Bears books like these best. They are funny and exciting and the illustrations create a thrilling atmosphere!

    1. Ah I love the Berenstains!
      I love that we got early ones from them before we knew the family really….they’re almost like a different edition of the same family! I remember reading Spooky Old Tree and I can picture some of the illustrations in my head!

    1. Ah Madeline.
      A picture book about France.
      Two of my favorite things rolled into one.

  8. It’s not technically Sunday anymore, but I will add my comment anyway! I read Stuck by Oliver Jeffers and it was so adorable. I love the cumulative effect of the objects continuing to get stuck in the tree as the character tries to knock them down.

    1. Kirsten, have you read THE BOY AND THE AIRPLANE by Mark Pett? It offers a different solution to getting something unstuck. I’d love to know what you think of the book. I’m mixed.

    2. I thought Stuck was funny.
      So ridiculous.
      Doesn’t really offer a realistic solution,
      but kids seem to love how absurd it is!

  9. I read ‘The Minister for Traffic Lights’ by Tony Wilson and illustrated by Andrew McLean. Word count would have been pretty high. I thought this story was quite imaginative with some fun sentences. Go the mauve traffic light!

  10. Greetings:

    I am not behind reading books, I m behind reporting on the books I’ve read. For the day 6 reading, I read THE GHOST’S TRIP TO LOCH NESS by Jacques Duquennoy. This book was 445-words. It was cute about four ghost who went to Scotland to see the Loch-Ness Monster. They searched everyday, but did not see it. The mean time the monster would show up when their backs were turned. So upon their arrival home, they developed the pictures from their trip and then they saw the loch-ness monster in all their pictures.

    I thought it was a good Halloween read.

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