Houseplants and Their Fucked-Up Thoughts: P.S. They Hate You by Carlyle Christoff

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Available now

Yes, I totally clicked on this book for its title and I’m not going to feel bad about it. While perusing the spring catalog I stumbled across this gem and instantly thought of my sister. She’s a Fancy Plant Lady and I know better than to try and buy her actual plants as gifts. Her bookish tastes also run towards humor so I knew this would be a perfect fit for her.

Spoiler, she hasn’t seen the book yet but I know she’ll love it.

The book is organized into three sections: The Popular Crowd, The Drama Queens, and The Bitches. Each plant is given a witty description, watering instructions, and if it’s edible or not. It’s snotty, snooty tone is quite funny and it’s small, consistent color palette is very pretty and soothing. I showed it to the Hubs and he spent a good 20 minutes flipping through it and reading aloud his favorite parts.

Perfect for giving as a gift or to set out on a (probably child-free) living room coffee table, this is a book that is certain to elicit giggles.

Thank you to The Collective Book Studio for an advanced digital copy of this book. All opinions and mistakes are my own. This post may contain affiliate links, including Amazon Associate Links, and I may earn from qualifying purchases.

Holiday Book Gift Guide: Action and Adventure Books for Kids

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If you have a kiddo who loves a bit of adventure, maybe with a dash of danger, here are some of the most popular books getting checked out at my Library. All of these books contain kids, and maybe a couple of dogs, that set out to see our big wide world or, even better, are tasked with saving it. Click on the covers for ordering information and more about each book. Happy Reading!

Holiday Book Gift Guide: Silly Kid Edition

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I am That Aunt who always gives books as gifts. I’m a big believer in letting kids read whatever they want and trusting them to pick books that are a good fit in both reading level and content. This means that books with unicorns that poop cupcakes and main characters named Fart will always be bought when asked for.

If you have young readers who like their books full of silliness and loads of laughs, here are some of my favorites! You can click on the book covers for ordering information.

Ame Dyckman is one of my go-to authors for both gifts and storytime books. All of her books are hilarious and kids really, really love them. In You Don’t Want a Unicorn, readers discover that owning a unicorn is not just a lot of work, some of the clean up is quite interesting. I’ve read this to kids Prek-5th and all loved it.

 

I read this to every class that came for Library visits at the end of the school year and they loved it! The bookmobile is back in town and one kid is so excited to see the Librarian and get a new book. Unfortunately, it’s a new Librarian who doesn’t let him pick a book because it’s a “girl” book. He also can’t have the cat book because it’s only for cats, the dog book is apparently only for dogs, and next thing you know, all sorts of critters and creations are lounging and reading books meant just for them. That is, until a dinosaur walks up and demands a book about ponies! No one says no to a dinosaur.

You must use a fun dinosaur voice when reading this book. It’s a delightful requirement.

 

Hilarity ensues when it’s nearly time for Grandma’s arrival, but the house still needs cleaned and a sneaky cat, who really doesn’t want a bath, keeps interfering with the family’s chore list.

 

Pig the Pug is one of our most popular series and Pig is especially naughty on the night he should be the nicest! This greedy little Pug finds himself on a wild adventure in Santa’s sleigh.

 

This book is perfect for fantasy and adventure readers who love fart jokes. Fart, along with his fellow apprentices, impersonate their masters to embark on a quest for the king of the realm. The quest? Finding the Golden Llama and it’s magical fart.

So many farts.

 

Will and his mother have just moved to a new town after his parent’s divorce and everything is going wrong. The town seems way too excited about Halloween with all the weird decorations, his dog goes missing, school seems full of monsters, and actually, there seems to be monsters everywhere! But only Will seems to be the one noticing, until he meets two new friends who also have some insider knowledge on why the town is so spooky.

Very funny, very charming, and one of the best funny/spooky books out there for kids.

 

Look, becoming a zombie after eating a weird school lunch is NOT going to stop Tulah from auditioning for the fall musical! How do you keep becoming a zombie a secret? Just follow Tulah on her zany adventures to keep her secret double life from ruining middle school.

 

If a fairytale was turned upside down and then inside out, you’d get Moldlylocks and the Three Beards. Princess Pink is a muddy sneakers and adventure loving thrill seeker who finds her way to The Land of Fake-Believe through a portal in her fridge…

It’s super silly and full of very colorful illustrations.

 

This post may contain affiliate links, including Amazon Associate links, and I may earn from qualifying purchases.

Go-To Baby Shower Gifts

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I love to give books as gifts to children of all ages, but I especially love books as baby shower gifts. It has been said over and over again, but it’s worth mentioning, reading to children is one of the best ways to help them develop language, empathy, and a life-long love of learning. Whether you read to them before nap time, bedtime, snack time, play time, or take them to your favorite local library for Story Time, reading to children should be a part of their everyday schedule.

When they’re still infants, you can get away with any picture book that is bright, colorful, and tells any story that interests the parents. It’s not until they develop their little grabby hands that you need to switch over to durable board books, and luckily many picture books are offered in board book formats.

Many of my go-to authors write humorous stories that are just as much fun for adults as they are for children. Not going to lie, if a book has dinosaurs or vegetables in underpants, it’s an automatic buy for me. In fact, the board book Vegetables in Underpants is my most checked-out board book at the Library.

The Baby Loves Science! series from Ruth Spiro is fantastic. It covers topics like thermodynamics, gravity, green energy, and coding. Very bright illustrations and simple language introduce young children to the science around us.

From the Publisher: Accurate enough to satisfy an expert, yet simple enough for baby, this book explores the basics of particle physics and chemistry – quarks, protons, neutrons, atoms and molecules – and ties it all to baby’s world. Beautiful, visually stimulating illustrations complement age-appropriate language to encourage baby’s sense of wonder. Parents and caregivers may learn a thing or two, as well!

With tongue firmly in cheek, the Baby Loves Science series introduces highly intellectual science concepts to the littlest learners.

Ame Dyckman writes hilarious children’s stories and Wolfie the Bunny is one of my favorites. Great illustrations and fast moving story make for enjoyable reading for everyone.

From the Publisher: The Bunny family has adopted a wolf son, and daughter Dot is the only one who realizes Wolfie can--and might--eat them all up! Dot tries to get through to her parents, but they are too smitten to listen. A new brother takes getting used to, and when (in a twist of fate) it's Wolfie who's threatened, can Dot save the day?

Mo Willems, author of the Pigeon books, Elephant and Piggie, and the Knufflebunny series is back with a new gang of characters-Squirrels! I Lost My Tooth! is brand new and hilarious. I just used this one for storytime and the kids loved it! The oldies-and-definitely-goodies Elephant and Piggie are also excellent choices for little ones. They’re silly but kind, funny but teach a great lesson on friendship.

Ryan T. Higgins has created one of my absolute favorite characters-Bruce. Bruce is grumpy, likes to be alone, and loves to cook. Unfortunately for his, his gourmet goose eggs hatched and he’s now the not-proud mother to 3 geese. A colorful cast of woodland creatures enter Bruce’s life and he deals with it all in the grumpiest way ever. The illustrations are incredible and the stories are fantastic. So far, there’s four picturebooks in the series and at least one board book.

I was lucky enough to hear Dan Santant speak at the Illinois Reading Council’s conference just this month. Not only is he super funny, he’s an extremely talented illustrator. He has a newer book out, Drawn Together, that I highly recommend for grade school age children. After the Fall is all about how Humpty Dumpty fell and then got back up again in the most amazing way. It’s just beautiful to look at and adults will love the new twist at the end.

Do you have any books that you love to share with children? Share your favorites in the comments!