Are you ready? It's time for the July edition of the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids. This book club is all about discovering new authors and finding ways to make reading fun and exciting for our kids. Last month we jumped into some funny books with Mo Willems. We even experimented with creating collage art. This month the chosen authors are Audrey and Don Wood. You know when you know an author, without even realizing it. For us, that would be the Wood's. Many of their books are absolute children's classics. However, instead of sticking with the books were already knew we did a little research and picked up a few books that we thought would challenge and interest my daughters (6 & 9 years old). We landed on "Elbert's Bad Word", "Bright and Early Thursday Evening" and "Moonflute."

In this book Elbert literally picks up a "bad" word and accidentally says it...out loud...in front of EVERYONE! He gets into trouble. Then Elbert meets with a magical gardener who helps him replace the "bad" word with a whole slew of "better" words. I really loved the way that the "bad" word was illustrated. The bad word looks like a scary, hairy monster.

The physical manifestation of the word got me thinking about other words and what they might actually look like. I handed my girls a list of words; swim, love, swing, run, etc. I asked the girls to write the words as they looked in their minds. For instance, the word "run" might actually be running! Here is what they came up with.

Toddler Approved, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Rainy Day Mum, Reading Confetti, Inspiration Laboratories, Play Dr. Mom, Mommy and Me Book Club, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Two Big Two Little, Creative Connections for Kids, The Golden Gleam, Juggling with Kids, Taming the Goblin, Crafty Moms Share, Ready Set Read 2 Me, Famiglia and Seoul, The Good Long Road, The Educator's Spin On It, Imagination Soup, 3 Dinosaurs, Royal Baloo, BeingAConsciousParent, and No Twiddle Twaddle