Books to Inspire, Thrill and Engage Children
Illustrator Mark Pett creates another beautiful wordless book in The Girl and the Bicycle. A young girl and her brother are walking down the street, when she spots a beautiful green bicycle in the store window. She works and works and works to earn enough money to buy it, only to discover it's gone when... Continue Reading →
I will admit, when I first read The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown, I wondered, "what is the point of this book?" (Honestly, I thought the same thing about her more famous book, Goodnight Moon. But I grew to love it as I read it to my babies before bed.) However, after reading The... Continue Reading →
Who could write a picture book about a giant meatball? What on earth could it be about? And can it be any good? Robert Weinstock wrote Giant Meatball, and at first I wondered if it was any good. But the further along I read, the more I enjoyed the story. Young listeners will enjoy the... Continue Reading →
This delightful picture book follows a girl, her little brother and her grandmother as they tour the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Little do they know that the girl's balloon, left in the care of the photographer outside the Gallery, is leading the photographer, and a growing group of people on a chase around the... Continue Reading →
Linda Sue Park is one of my favorite authors (see reviews of other books here, here and here), so when I saw she had written a picture book, I snatched it up. I was hoping it was as good as her chapter books, and I was not disappointed! Xander is a panda, and a panda... Continue Reading →
Albert the duck is the carpenter at Pleasant Valley School. One day he comes to work and finds a note from the principal, asking him to build an alphabet for the children. Albert has tools and a box of wood, but he soon finds it's not enough to get through the entire alphabet. He comes... Continue Reading →
Do you remember when Ramona Quimby (from author Beverly Cleary) suggested to her father that he turn on the "dawnzer light"? Her family laughed so hard because she misunderstood the words to the national anthem - "by the dawn's early light." Olive, the dog, has a similar problem. As she walks through town during the... Continue Reading →
In Eggs 1 2 3, author Janet Halfmann combines a counting book with a nature book. As she takes readers through the number 1 through 10, she also introduces them to different egg-laying animals - from birds to butterflies, and bugs to fish. Betsy Thompson's paper art is a perfect compliment to the counting. Parents... Continue Reading →
My cousin is having a baby, and instead of cards they requested that we give books. I scoured my shelves, looking at the board books and picture books I had saved from when my children were tiny. Of course I couldn't find a single book I could give up! In my scouring, I came across... Continue Reading →
I think I'm going to have to create a new category for my books - Wordless Books. It seems like an oxymoron - how can you have a book with no words? - but I've been finding quite a few at my library, and they are lots of fun. The Boy and the Airplane by... Continue Reading →
Cultivating Readers 