Welcome to the final edition of Reading with Little Miss Muffet and Little Bo Peep! We are just two and a half weeks away from the expected arrival of baby number three, so next month, this feature will be changing. Now that we have a beginning reader among us, it's starting to become difficult to keep track of everyone's reading on a monthly basis. It is likely that, after a short hiatus to get settled with our new addition, I will start a new weekly feature to keep track of what all the "Read-at-Home Kids" are enjoying literacy-wise. In the meantime, here's one last monthly round-up, focused on what we've read in September.
I'm having a little bit of trouble keeping up with Little Miss Muffet (age 3 years, 10 months), but I believe she has now read more than 100 books on her own. This includes the Hooked on Phonics readers she started out with, as well as a good portion of our collection of I Can Read books and other similar easy readers. (My count is not 100% accurate, but I think her 100th book was
Big Max by Kin Platt.) She continues to surprise me with her facility with reading. I could sound out words when I was four, but I did not have the comprehension skills that she does. I'm finding myself having actual book discussions with a child who is still three, and it makes me feel guilty for looking askance at library parents who used to insist their preschoolers read on a second grade level. Early readers really do exist!
This month, we have also started reading chapter books aloud to both girls at mealtimes. My husband started out reading
Little House in the Big Woods at the dinner table at the end of last month, and I was amazed by how much even Little Bo Peep (age 2) was able to take away from the story. We finished the book weeks ago, and she is still talking about Laura and Mary and asking to see the illustrations of Charley, the boy who is stung by yellow jackets near the end of the book. Miss Muffet's interest in the book runs deeper, and she's been asking about rifles, jigs, and pioneer clothing, resulting in lots of YouTube viewing sessions to help her make sense of everything she heard about in the story. After
Little House, my husband also read
The Apple and the Arrow, and now we're working our way through
A Penny's Worth of Character. In the meantime, I've been reading the Winnie-the-Pooh books aloud during lunch. This will surely not be the only time they hear these, as there is a lot that is going over their heads, but they adore the characters and both girls can retell what they hear on some level. Miss Muffet and I are also reading a nonfiction chapter book,
Shag, Last of the Plains Buffalo by Robert M. McClung, which she is enjoying despite the fact that buffalo keep getting killed left and right!
And of course, we are always reading picture books. Miss Muffet is still partial to the mouse books by Kevin Henkes, and both girls continue to be obsessed with Frances the Badger. Bo Peep has also become very attached to
There's a Nightmare in my Closet, and she has been known to hide in my bedroom closet and then coming charging out, calling out in a monstrous voice, "I am the nightmaaaare." Other favorites of both girls include
Baby Dear, which we've been reading a lot in preparation for their new sibling, and Good Little Bad Little Girl, whose text I find irritating, but whose illustrations accurately represent the behavioral gamut my kids run each day.
Finally, Bo Peep had her first taste of audiobooks this month, and she is a fan! She will listen very intently to
Bedtime for Frances, even reciting some of the lines along with the narrator. So far, she has only listened without the book in hand, but it won't be long before we can teach her to turn the pages when the signal sounds. I don't like to use audiobooks as a substitute for reading aloud, but they do come in handy when I need to run to the bathroom or fix lunch, and they will be a nice option when I'm putting the baby down for a nap or giving him/her a bottle.
And that was our month! Watch for new weekly posts coming in November, and in the meantime, happy reading!
The series stars best friends and roommates Bruno Walton and Melvin "Boots" O'Neal, who are known pranksters on the MacDonald Hall campus. Though the two boys often butt heads with their headmaster, the long-suffering yet fair-minded Mr. Sturgeon, whom they call "The Fish," they also have a fond affection for their school. The boys and their classmates also have many associations with students at Miss Scrimmage's Finishing School for Young Ladies, which is located across the road from MacDonald Hall, and whose high-strung Headmistress frequently overreacts to late-night visits from MacDonald Hall students by wildly wielding a shotgun. 
Each book of the series focuses on a different major scheme involving Bruno and Boots. Sometimes, they seek to make a particular improvement to their school, such as a pool or a recreation center. Other times, they go to war with a particular teacher who is making their lives difficult, or with an outside force that threatens to close the school. In the final two books, they even befriend a Hollywood celebrity and uncover a phantom prankster. 
What I love about these books is their sense of humor. Last spring, I attended a talk by two children's illustrators who insisted that the key to humor in children's books is underwear and toilet jokes. I found this to be a disappointing underestimation of what kids are capable of finding funny, but I was also hard-pressed to think of many examples of funny books, especially funny books targeted at boys, that could make kids laugh without resorting to crude humor. Thankfully, I have been reminded that this series fits that bill exactly. Perhaps because Korman started writing these when he was himself an adolescent, he completely understands what middle school boys find funny, and he delivers it in every single book. Pranks, schemes, disasters, explosions, science experiments, sporting events - these are the backdrops for Korman's jokes, and most of the time, they are clever, respectful and well-executed. Even when the characters disobey their teachers, they often do so in the name of a noble cause that helps their school or their friends.
Also refreshing is the complete lack of serious dating in these books. There are some storylines involving long-distance and unrequited crushes, but none of the preoccupation with having exclusive girlfriends and boyfriends that seems prevalent in more contemporary books. The girls of Miss Scrimmage's (particularly Cathy and Diane) are not presented as potential romantic partners for Bruno, Boots, and their friends, but as partners in crime, good friends, and pranksters in their own right. All the female characters are actually very well-done, including Mrs. Sturgeon, the headmaster's wife, whose affection for Bruno and Boots often keeps her husband from acting rashly in his punishment of them. 
