Books to Inspire, Thrill and Engage Children
The question on the back of the book says it all: "When is more more than enough?" The picture book More by I.C. Springman follows a magpie obsessed with collecting more and more things, until disaster strikes. Fortunately, her field mice friends are there to help her, and the magpie learns a lesson about purging... Continue Reading →
Have you ever tried to read a story to your children, but they kept interrupting you with questions? You know exactly how Papa Chicken feels in David Ezra Stein's delightful picture book Interrupting Chicken. The little red chicken is so excited about the storyline of the book he's listening to that she interrupts Papa Chicken... Continue Reading →
Parents and children alike will enjoy the hidden alphabet by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Seeger created a beautiful lift-the-flap book with capital letters. Each flap has a window with a picture illustrating the letter. Then, the reader lifts the flap to reveal: the hidden letter of the alphabet. Seeger elegant paintings for each letter really capture... Continue Reading →
Boys and girls alike will enjoy except if by Jim Averbeck. It starts with an egg, which is not a baby bird. The egg will become a baby bird Except if... it becomes a baby snake. The rest of the book follows the same format: the snake will slither on its belly, except if... it... Continue Reading →
Anyone who has a child, or knows a child, or was a child, can remember the cajoling of finding an animal and wanting to keep it as a pet. "Please? Can I take it home and keep it? I'll take care of it, I promise!" Author Peter Brown turns those experiences around in Children Make... Continue Reading →
Many mothers would be overwhelmed with seven children, but not the mother in Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood. On one market day, she rewards her seven children, named after the days of the week, for their hard work. She says she’ll bring home whatever they want from the market. The children make their requests, and... Continue Reading →
Not surprisingly, animals are the focus of Lois Ehlert’s book Oodles of Animals. Each page features one, or several, animals portrayed in Ehlert’s colorful collage artwork, accompanied by short, rhyming poems describing each animal. Ehlert features a wide variety of animals, from mammals like bears and foxes, to reptiles like crocodiles and snakes, to birds... Continue Reading →
In Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox, Wilfrid lives next to an old people’s home, and he knows everyone who lives there. He overhears his parents discussing his favorite person, Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper. They say she’s lost her memory. Wilfrid doesn’t know what a memory is, so he asks all his friends... Continue Reading →
I was digging through my bookshelves recently, looking for books I could donate, when I came across one of my children's favorites. I read We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury so many times I think I can still almost recite it from memory. As it sat on my desk... Continue Reading →
Children will enjoy this picture book, featuring a boy named Will on his sled. It contains rhyme and rhythm and repeating - loved by all children - plus a surprise ending. Adults will enjoy all of the above, and the interesting illustrations. Vladimir Radunsky illustrated The Story of a Boy Named Will by Daniil Kharms,... Continue Reading →
Cultivating Readers 