It's Reading Program Season

The summer of 2016 I introduced my four year old to the graphic novel El Deafo, the wonderful autobiographical account of the author Cece Bell. It was something we happened to stumble upon. After the first few pages she wanted me to read more, then every morning some more, then she couldn't wait to hop into bed to read some more. We finished it in two days and she was not happy. She wanted more, so for two years we have been reading graphic novels. Its summer 2018 and we are re-reading El Deafo , for the upteenth time... it's one of our special books.

We recently enjoyed Swing It, Sunny by siblings Jennifer and Matthew Holm. Sunny Side Up was the graphic novel we read after El Deafo. The Hildafolk series by Luke Pearson is another favorite book series that we just fell head over  heels for.  If you ask my child to dress up as her favorite book character she will bring out her Hildafolk costume and doll. A very sweet and talented friend made her an awesome Hilda doll. Now and then I find my now six year old, still chuckling about the first time the Woodman character was introduced in the first book.

Not a comic or graphic novel but another favorite book series is The Witches of Benevento by John Bemelmans Marciano and Sophie Blackall. We discovered these last year and the characters made a huge impression, inspiring the "Village Girl" costume and a strong desire to travel to Italy and know more about the country.  

We have our own copies of all these delicious books because we were constantly checking them out, renewing and getting fined for holding on to them too long. All were discovered during the library summer reading program. This is what happens when you just click with a book, so keep reading and digging through shelves and find those special titles that want to become part of a family library.