Poppleton, by Cynthia Rylant

Time for another Read Aloud Thursday. Usually I post my RAT posts over at Reading My Library in conjunction with that challenge. However, I still haven't made it to the library with three kids in tow and I make absolutely NO promises that that will happen anytime soon. So, since we do still read-aloud, I'll just share whatever books we've been reading from our home library. It's convenient to get to those books!

Meet our newest friend: Poppleton. Poppleton, as you can clearly see from the cover art, is a pig. Illustrated by Mark Teague, he is fun to look at. Named by Cynthia Rylant, his name is fun to say. We like him. Very, very much.

These books are marked for ages 4-8 and we fall right into that category. I found the first book in the series, Poppleton, at Goodwill and picked it up to test it out on Bookworm1 (age 4 1/2.) In this story we meet Poppleton who moves to a small town and rather begrudgingly makes friends with his neighbor, a llama by the name of Cherry Sue. Cherry Sue is a very friendly sort, inviting him over for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. He doesn't really want to go over every day and it turns out she doesn't really want to host every day. But it felt like the neighborly thing to do. They sort these issues out (through some mild irritation) and fall into a comfortable friendship.

On a subsequent visit to Goodwill I found an additional Poppleton title and he's become a smash hit in our household with multiple re-reads. At the change of the season, I ordered a copy of Poppleton In Spring in which we find Poppleton enjoying the warmer weather by spending time in a tent and wanting to purchase a bicycle so that he can "get everywhere faster." There are Poppleton books for each season and I think we'll collect the whole series as we move through the year. (I definitely want to pick each title up before they go out of print! There is a certain classic feel about Poppleton that makes me think he's a real keeper but from what I can tell on Amazon, Scholastic may be moving Poppleton out the door. I'm hoping that is NOT the case but to be on the safe side, we'll pick them up while we find them still available on Amazon.)

Each book has three chapters in it, each focused on a different story. They are labeled "Level Three" readers by Scholastic and read similarly to Frog and Toad, by Arnold Lobel. (If you like Frog and Toad, me thinks you will love Poppleton!) His friends are memorable as well with Cherry Sue being the most constant. Journey with him as he does his spring cleaning, takes a trip to the library and suffers from the common cold.

We really like this particular pig and highly recommend him to you. I'm super excited about him and I think Bookworm1 will be excited as well when he sees the new Poppleton book which will be arriving in our mailbox any day now. (It's true! I cannot resist this pig!) Check out these Poppleton titles: Poppleton Everyday, Poppleton Forever, Poppleton Has Fun, Poppleton And Friends, Poppleton In Fall, and Poppleton In Winter.

We trust you will enjoy.