Welcome back to What We’re Reading Wednesday! Emily returns to share two more recent favorites in her home.
I love sharing books with people who get just as excited as I do. My dream job is to be a children’s librarian. My husband thinks that would be the world’s most boring job, but then again he flies airplanes upside down for a living. I thought you all might appreciate my dream.
I had a tough time picking the next book I wanted to review because there are just so many good ones! So I decided to pick two: The Dot and Ish are both written and illustrated by Peter Reynolds. It was impossible for me to choose which I liked better so I’m sharing both!
The Dot is about a girl named Vashti who is frustrated in art class and cannot think of anything to draw. Her teacher tells her to, “Just make a mark and see where it takes you.” Through this simple encouragement, Vashti unleashes her creative juices and finds her love of drawing. Along the way she discovers that she does have talent when she was sure she had none. This lovely tale ends as Vashti encourages another boy who believes he can’t draw by passing along the same advice she was given.
Ish is another tale about a would-be artist, Ramon, who loves to draw, but gives way to doubt when his older brother makes fun of his drawings. His epiphany comes when he finds all his crumpled up, self-rejected drawings have been rescued from the trash by his sister. She has smoothed them out and lovingly taped them all to her bedroom walls. Ramon learns that even though he drawings aren’t perfect, they’re still beautiful.
These books are both quick reads with beautifully simple illustrations. Although they are about children’s frustrations with art, I think the lesson could be translated to any subject with which a child was struggling.
I will be adding The Dot and Ish to my list of favorites, and I’m just sure you will too!
As I was sorting and cataloging books for the list a few weeks ago, I began creating my own must-be-checked-out list. With my background in education and childcare, I was already familiar with quite a few of the books. I was surprised, however, with how many that were brand new to me!
Last month, I asked you – the Simple Kids community – to share some of your 
