Scaredy Squirrel - Sunday Salon

Scaredy Squirrel is a big hit among Canadian children. I know. Two of them live in my house, and reading time has become a big frenzy of who gets to read the book first. Why? you may ask. Why does everyone like Scaredy Squirrel? Who is Scaredy Squirrel?

This is Scaredy Squirrel. Scaredy Squirrel is afraid of a lot of things. Part of the fun of this book for children is that Scaredy Squirrel likes to list what he's afraid of. And he has a kit, a preparedness kit in the event that the unfortunate happens, and he has to leave his tree. See, Scaredy Squirrel is so scared that he has never left his tree.

And then the unfortunate happens. Scaredy Squirrel leaves his tree!! What happens? N-uh uh, I'm not telling. You'll have to get the book and read it for yourself. Then, if you know any children, read it to them. And see if you ever get the book back from them, or can ever read it by yourself again. I guarantee every child under the age of 95 will love this book.

There are two extra bonuses to this book:
1) it's Canadian, thus you would be one book further along in the Canadian book Challenge; and
2) there are three more books already in the series:
Scaredy Squirrel makes a Friend
Scaredy Squirrel Goes to the Beach (this one I have to read!)
and
Scaredy Squirrel At Night.

Luckily for our family, we had two recent birthdays, the eldest son (now 21!) and the youngest son, now age 5. At his birthday party he received Scaredy Squirrel at Night:

Much to my son's delight - ok, for all of us! , Scaredy Squirrel at Night is just as good as Scaredy Squirrel. Now is there anyone out there who has never lay awake one night, watching shadows on the wall, heart pounding? Anyone? Well, then Scaredy Squirrel is for all of us. Scaredy Squirrel in this book is so afraid of the dark that he is afraid to go to sleep. So how does he stay awake all night? what happens when he does? what happens when he eventually falls asleep? Kids everywhere will love this book. Mine love this one as much. Because Scaredy Squirrel has a bad dream action plan in case he does fall asleep and in case he has a bad dream. And then one night he gets to put the action plan into effect.......

I like Scaredy Squirrel. I can relate to him.

One of the many very very good things about this series is that the almost 7-year old and the now-5 year old both love these books. Best of all, the five year old, who almost never picks a book up on his own, has been seen reading Scaredy Squirrel at Night on his own, in the middle of the day.

Well, both children are now circling around me while I write this, asking what I'm saying, why am I writing about Scaredy Squirrel? I can see some reading time coming up again. Because they both want to read the books, we've had to work out a system where one child goes first one day to read one book out loud, and the next day the other child gets the chance. And don't ask why they can't take turns with the books on the same day, it's all about being first these days. Sometimes they have to read in separate rooms because they don't want to hear the other child reading it out loud! 'I can do it better than you!" No one ever said people in my family weren't competitive.....

My book-lover's heart is secretly overjoyed that they are fighting over who gets to read Scaredy Squirrel first. They are fighting over reading!!!

Happy Sunday reading everyone!