Bubbles!!!  Okay, we don’t usually do themes, because (a) they probably get enough of it at school, and (b) I’m not nearly coordinated enough for that.  But when these two holds, placed on separate occasions, came in on the same day, I knew we had to pair them.

Margaret Mahy.  Bubble Trouble.  Illustrated by Polly Dunbar.  Clarion Books, 2009.  32 pages.  Age 4 to 8.

If you made a vocabulary list out of the text of this book, it might look a little like SAT prep.  But it’s a story about a baby that gets trapped in a bubble and flies all over town—how intense can it be?  Turns out that the definitions of the “big” words aren’t important, but their use is important for rhyming, half-rhyming, and kind-of-sounding-like.  And even if you can’t remember how to say “cavil,” ^[1] just act like you do and keep the flow going.  It will make silly sense and sound kind of cool.  A fun read.  Perfect for storytime.

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.  Pop! A Book about Bubbles.  Photographs by Margaret Miller.  Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series.  HarperCollins, 2001.  40 pages.  Age 4 to 8.

When I was a kid (actually, even through college and until rather recently) I didn’t like science.  Had no use for it.  We were a humanities family.  I’ve always loved math, though, and within the past half dozen years it sparked an interest in physics, and now I think science is The Best.  And I want to find non-intrusive ways to help the girls think so, too.  The Read-and-Find-Out Science series seems like a good place to start.  What we learned about bubbles is, they’re always round because of the distribution of air pressure, and they wouldn’t form if they weren’t sticky.

Find out what the other kids are reading at The Well-Read Child.

^[1]  Should I be embarrassed?