Word of the Week/Beezus and Ramona

It's time for our Word of the Week feature here at LitLad. Here's how it works: Every Sunday the boys and I read a book from which they pick their favorite-sounding unfamiliar word. They each write the word that night and we try to use it in conversation as much as we can throughout the week. According to The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, "the only words children learn having heard them only once are the words you wish you had never said in front of them."

This week's word is exasperated, an adjective meaning "extremely annoyed."

And we're reading Beezus and Ramona, in which it says about Beezus, "Right that very instant she was so exasperated with Ramona that she did not like her at all."

Beezus and Ramona
Author: Beverly Cleary
Originally published: 1955
Source: Public library

Beezus Quimby loves her little sister, Ramona, just not all the time. Four-year-old Ramona is often exasperating and uses her big imagination to cause trouble. Beezus wonders if they'll ever have a perfect relationship like the one their mother has with their Aunt Beatrice.

Today, April 12, is Beverly Cleary's 95th birthday. To celebrate, the boys wore Easter bunny hats, just like the one Ramona wore. Here's Johnny Boo:

And for Muffin Tin Monday, they took one bite from each apple, just like Ramona did (although they were a little hungrier than Ramona was, and had to finish a few of them off before we turned the rest into applesauce):

And just to show you how obsessed Johnny Boo is with Ramona:

Find it: Amazon, IndieBound

Muffin Tin Monday – Mutton Soup

Or should I say Mutton Tin Monday...

This week's muffin tin meal is based on Mutton Soup: More Adventures of Johnny Mutton, by James Proimos. In this fun-to-read graphic novel, Johnny Mutton is a sheep being raised as a boy who learns many things: that it's not so important to set a world record if you're just going to get sick doing it; that there's a time for fun and a time for eating; and that not all old people are scary. The only downside is that Johnny Boo now goes around saying, "Old people are scary!" whenever he sees an old person. Fortunately, none of them has ever heard him say it.

More Johnny Mutton books: The Many Adventures of Johnny Mutton; Johnny Mutton, He's So Him


And now for the muffin tin, which includes some of Johnny Mutton's favorite foods:

• Mutton Soup: 100% melted vanilla ice cream with a cherry on top
• Mutton Pudding: chocolate pudding with a cherry on top
• Mutton Gravy: the maple syrup that goes over the pancakes that have a cherry on top
• Mutton Pie: cherries in a bowl with a cherry on top
• Mutton Sandwich: two cupcakes with a cupcake in between and a cherry on top

And the boys:

Check out more muffin tin meals at Muffin Tin Mom.

Also, enter my giveaways (please?).

Muffin Tin Monday – Little Smudge

We usually put up our Muffin Tin Monday posts over at Mother Is Not Concerned, but since we're including a book review, it'll be here this week. If you want the clever titles, you'll have to go to that other blog. Here's our Little Smudge shape-themed muffin tin:

(clockwise from top left: plum Little Circle, kiwi Little Star*, prune Little Smudge, cheese Little Diamond, bread Little Rectangle, apple Little Triangle, all atop cantaloupe stands)

* Not actually in the book.

Here are the boys enjoying it (I tried to get them to act out the book, but they mostly just wanted to eat):

Book review by Tintin, age 7

Little Smudge
Lionel Le Neouanic

Little Smudge is about a smudge and rascal shapes. The rascals make fun of Little Smudge because he doesn't look like a real shape. I like it because it's a good book and it's about friendship. My favorite part is when Little Smudge taught the shapes how to turn into different shapes and then they were friends. I would recommend this book to people who like friendship books.


And some shape-transforming artwork to go along with it, by Tintin and Johnny Boo:

(black Little Smudge, orange Little Diamond, blue Little Circle, red Little Square, green Little Triangle)

Here's Johnny Boo after he opened up his Little Smudge painting:


















And here he is making his Little Circle painting:

We're linking this up at Muffin Tin Monday, Little Masterpieces, the Book Lovers' Blog Hop and Kids Get Crafty.