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100 Best Books for Young Children
Go to: Ages Birth to Two
Ages Two to Four
Ages Five to Eight
Resource Links: Links to author web pages and/or
activity sites are provided for many of the books in the resource links section.
Book summaries are from Amazon.com.
Amazon.com has additional information on
most of the books. You can also "google" a
title or author for more links.
We would like to dedicate the continued
efforts of this committee in memory of Paula Elkin, a retired teacher/guidance
counselor, whom we lost during the compilation of this list. She was a strong
advocate for the children of Indiana County. She will be missed.
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A Good Day | Kevin Henkes | This short tale, simply told and cleverly illustrated, follows four small animals, each of whose day takes a turn for the better and all of whom unwittingly contribute to a young girl’s pleasure. |
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/childlit.html
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Baby Danced the Polka | Karen Beaumont | An energetic baby jigs, polkas, and cha-chas with a variety of stuffed animals hidden behind flaps in this rhyming story that will likely inspire both participation and imitation on the part of little listeners. | |
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Brown Bear, Brown Bear | Bill Martin Jr. | The gentle rhyming and gorgeous, tissue-paper collage illustrations in this classic picture book make it a dog-eared favorite on many children's bookshelves. On each page, we meet a new animal who nudges us onward to discover which creature will show up next: "Blue Horse, Blue Horse, What do you see? I see a green frog looking at me." This pattern is repeated over and over, until the pre-reader can chime in with the reader, easily predicting the next rhyme. |
http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/brownbear/index.htm
http://www.billmartinjr.com/home
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Crocodile Beat | Gail Jorgenson |
There's a party going on down by the river! All the animals are there --
ducks and elephants, monkeys and birds, even bears and a snake. They're
all dancing, singing, and stomping their feet, with King Lion himself
leading the song.
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Daddy Kisses | Ann Gutman |
What could be sweeter than adorable baby animals snuggling with their
daddies? This simple board book with warm illustrations feature a
variety of animals and celebrate the affection between fathers and
children. Cuddles and kisses will surely abound when reading this
aloud!
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| Global Babies | Charles Bridge | But they'd better watch out. Old croc's waking up and he's hungry! Luckily, King Lion is very brave. He'll save his friends without missing a beat! | ||
| Go Dog Go | P.D. Eastman | Green dogs, yellow dogs, big dogs, little dogs. Dogs who prefer cars, dogs who favor skis. All represent the diversity a child will find in the world. | http://www.seussville.com/ | |
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Good Night Moon | Margaret Wise Brown | Perhaps the perfect children's bedtime book, Goodnight Moon is a short poem of goodnight wishes from a young rabbit preparing for--or attempting to postpone--his own slumber. He says goodnight to every object in sight and within earshot, including the "quiet old lady whispering hush." Clement Hurd's illustrations are simple and effective, alternating between small ink drawings and wide, brightly colored views of the little rabbit's room. | http://www.margaretwisebrown.com/ |
| Guess How Much I Love You | Sam Mcbratney | Fresh as a fiddlehead fern in spring, this beguiling bedtime tale features a pip of a young rabbit and his indulgent parent. Searching for words to tell his dad how much he loves him (and to put off bedtime just an eentsy bit longer), Little Nutbrown Hare comes up with one example after another ("I love you as high as I can hop!"), only to have Big Nutbrown Hare continually up the ante. Finally, on the edge of sleep, he comes up with a showstopper: "I love you right up to the moon." (Dad does top this declaration too, but only after his little bunny falls asleep.) | ||
| Honey Baby Sugar Child | Alice Faye Duncan | Rhythmic, somewhat dialectal prose combines with Keeter's warm and expressive oil paintings to convey a sense of song and motion across the pages of this simple book. Heartwarming scenes of an African-American mother and child cuddling, playing, dancing, and napping together are sure to evoke powerful feelings of love, nurturing, and security in both parent and child. | ||
| Hop on Pop | Dr.Suess | A condensed, board book version of the classic bestseller, perfect for babies and toddlers. Introduces the youngest readers to the wonderful world of Seussian word play. | http://teach.fcps.net/trt4/Dr.Seuss.htm | |
| I Am a Bunny | Richard Scarry | This colorful, sturdy board book follows Nicholas Rabbit through the seasons, in a simply-told story with charming illustrations. | ||
| Maisy Makes Gingerbread | Lucy Cousins | The endearing white mouse gathers the ingredients she needs and makes gingerbread cookies. As she's cleaning up the dishes, two friends arrive "Just in time for an afternoon snack." | Maisy' Fanclub | |
| More,More, More Said the Baby | Vera B Williams | From beneath the tickles, kisses, and unfettered affection showered on them by grownups, the children in Vera B. Williams' Caldecott Honor Book cry out for "more more more!" The stars of three little love stories--toddlers with nicknames like "Little Pumpkin"--run giggling until they are scooped up by adoring adults to be swung around, kissed, and finally tucked into bed. Quirky watercolor drawings and colorful text feature multiethnic families, and young readers will rejoice in seeing the center of all the attention: the wiggly, chubby, irresistible toddlers. (Baby to preschooler) | Harper Collins Kids | |
| On The Night You Were Born | Nancy Tillman | Kindergarten-Grade 2—Rhyming text extols and celebrates the uniqueness of a newborn. "Because there had never been anyone like you…ever in the world." As the news of the birth travels, creatures around the world celebrate. "When the polar bears heard, they danced until dawn." "…the geese flew home." | Nancy Tillman Web Page | |
| Pat the Bunny | Dorothy Kunhardt | Dorothy Kunhardt's interactive book for babies and toddlers was one of the first of its kind when it was published in 1940, and it has since sold over six million copies. We pat the soft fur of the bunny, play peek-a-boo, look in the mirror, and then do it all over again. | ||
| The Foot Book | Dr.Suess | The Foot Book is a quintessentially Seussian classic. Left feet, right feet, slow feet, quick feet, even fuzzy fur feet make their way into Dr. Seuss's "wacky book of opposites." | http://atozteacherstuff.com/pages/250.shtml | |
| Barnyard Dance | Sandra Boynton | In Barnyard , farm animals dance a boisterous, breathless, knee-slapping reel called, with great panache, by a fiddle-playing cow: ``Bow to the horse. / Bow to the cow. / Twirl with the pig if you know how.'' | ||
| The Very Hungry Caterpillar | Eric Carle | This book follows the ravenous caterpillar's path as he eats his way through one apple (and the pages of the book itself) on Monday, two pears on Tuesday, three plums on Wednesday, and so on, through cherry pie and sausage - -until he is really fat and has a stomachache | Google the title for lots of links | |
| Where's Spot? | Eric Hill | Spot's mother searches for the irascable puppy at dinnertime. Where could he be? | http://www.funwithspot.com/ |
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A Kitten Tale | Eric Rohmann | Once there were four kittens who had never seen snow. The first three kittens are wary—snow is cold, it’s wet, it covers everything. As the seasons pass and winter begins to loom, the three skittish kittens worry. But the fourth kitten is getting excited. Snow will cover everything! “I can’t wait!” | |
| A Splendid Friend Indeed | Suzanne Bloom | Children will recognize their relationships with friends or siblings in this creative, pointed picture book. Polar Bear is reading when Goose comes rushing in, pulls the book from the bear's hand, and begins reading himself. The same thing happens after Polar Bear starts writing. Even more frustrating are Goose's persistent questions about what the bear is thinking. But after hearing a note Goose has written about his "splendid friend," Polar Bear realizes that Goose is a splendid friend, too. Bloom gets maximum effect with minimum words, in part because of Goose's energetic dialogue. | http://www.paonebook.org/ | |
| A Tree is Nice | Janice May Udry | The Caldecott award-winning book that speaks simply and elegantly of the many pleasures a tree provides. | ||
| A Weekend With Wendell | Kevin Henkes | Sophie and her parents count the hours until Wendell's weekend visit is over. Not only does he wreck Sophie's toys and dominate their games, but he also messes up the house and is generally a troublemaker. However, once Sophie manages to turn the table, she decides Wendell may not be so bad after all. | http://www.kevinhenkes.com/ | |
| Are You My Mother? | P.D. Eastman | A baby bird is hatched while his mother is away. Fallen from his nest, he sets out to look for her and asks everyone he meets -- including a dog, a cow, and a plane -- "Are you my mother?" | ||
| Bear Snores On | Karma Wilson |
One by one, a whole host of different animals and birds find their way
out of the cold and into Bear's cave to warm up. But even after the tea
has been brewed and the corn has been popped, Bear just snores on! See
what happens when he finally wakes up and finds his cave full of
uninvited guests -- all of them having a party without him! |
http://www.karmawilson.com/ | |
| Caps for Sale | Esphyr Slobodkina | A peddler walks around selling caps from a tall, tottering pile on his head. Unable to sell a single cap one morning, he walks out into the countryside, sits down under a tree, checks that all the caps are in place, and falls asleep. When he wakes up, the caps are gone--and the tree is full of cap-wearing monkeys. | ||
| Chick Chicka Boom Boom | Bill Martin Jr. | In this bright and lively rhyme, the letters of the alphabet race each other to the top of the coconut tree. When X, Y and Z finally scramble up the trunk, however, the weight is too much, and down they all tumble in a colorful chaotic heap: "Chicka Chicka . . . BOOM! BOOM!" All the family members race to help, as one by one the letters recover in amusingly battered fashion. | http://www.billmartinjr.com/home | |
| Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type | Doreen Cronin | Farmer Brown is dumbfounded when his cows discover an old typewriter in the barn and begin experimenting ("All day long he hears click, clack, moo. Click, clack, moo. Clickety clack moo"). Things really get out of hand when the cows began airing their grievances. Lewin (Araminta's Paint Box) conveys the fellow's shock as he reads: "Dear Farmer Brown, The barn is very cold at night. We'd like some electric blankets. Sincerely, The Cows." When Farmer Brown denies the cows' request, the bovine organizers go on strike. | Doreen Cronin web site | |
| Clifford the Big Red Dog | Norman Birdwell | Emily Elizabeth has a big red dog--the biggest, reddest dog on her street, and his name is Clifford. How big is he? He's so big that when he runs after cars, he catches them in his mouth, and his doghouse is bigger than Emily Elizabeth's house. Needless to say, he makes an excellent watchdog. | PBS Site | |
| Corduroy | Don Freeman | A winning, completely childlike picture book in which a stuffed bear waiting hopefully in a toy department finds a home with a little girl. | ||
| Everybody Brings Noodles | Norah Dooley | Carrie organizes a Fourth of July block party in her neighborhood. As she goes from house to house making the final arrangements, she is delighted to learn that everyone is preparing some kind of pasta, her favorite food. Mrs. Hua will contribute yellow sesame noodles; Anna-Eleni is bringing orzo; Fendra, a macaroni salad; and so on. That evening, the revelers enjoy eating, playing games, and entertaining one another with a hip-hop dance, a flute solo, an original rap song, and drumming. | ||
| Harold and the Purple Crayon | Crockett Johnson | One evening Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight. But there wasn't any moon, and Harold needed a moon for a walk in the moonlight. Fortunately, he had brought his purple crayon. So he drew a moon. He also needed something to walk on. So he drew a path... | Scholastic Discussion Guide | |
| Hello Goodbye Window | Norton Juster | The kitchen window at Nanna and Poppy's house is, for one little girl, a magic gateway. Everything important happens near it, through it, or beyond it. Told in her voice, her story is both a voyage of discovery and a celebration of the commonplace wonders that define childhood. It is also a love song devoted to that special relationship between grandparents and grandchild. | ||
| Inside Mouse, Outside Mouse | Lyndsy Barrett George | A narrator introduces readers to two mice: "Inside my house there is a mouse,/Outside my house there is a mouse." The inside mouse sleeps in an old-fashioned clock, while the outside mouse snuggles in a tree stump. Line by line, with side-by-side, full-page illustrations, the story unfolds, tracing each mouse's journey from its home to the window of the house, where the two meet face to face, one looking out and one looking in, and say "Hello." | ||
| Is Your Mama A Llama? | Deborah Guarino | An enchanting animal guessing game for preschoolers. Lloyd, a baby llama, asks each of his friends, "Is your mama a llama?," and all respond in turn with a rhyming description of their mother that is answered on the following page. | Scholastic Extension Activities | |
| Kitten's First Full Moon | Kevin Henkes | A simple, charming story about a naive little kitten who mistakes a round, shining moon for a bowl of milk. Kitten laps at the sky's creamy circle, but she is surprised when she tastes bugs instead of milk. Then she chases the milk-bowl moon through the garden and field to the pond, where she climbs a tree, discovers another milk bowl shining in the water, and dives in after it. Finally, "wet and sad and tired and hungry," she returns home to find, at last, a true bowl of milk, out of the sky and on the porch, waiting for her. | ||
| Knuffle Bunny | Mo Willems | Trixie, Daddy, and Knuffle Bunny take a trip to the neighborhood Laundromat. But the exciting adventure takes a dramatic turn when Trixie realizes somebunny was left behind | Author site | |
| Leo the Late Bloomer | Robert Kraus | Leo isn’t reading, or writing, or drawing, or even speaking, and his father is concerned. But Leo’s mother isn’t. She knows her son will do all those things, and more, when he’s ready. | ||
| Little Blue & Little Yellow | Leo Lionni | Little blue and little yellow share wonderful adventures.One day, they can't find one another. When they finally meet, they are overjoyed. They hug until they become green. But where did little blue and little yellow go? Are they lost? | ||
| Llama Llama Red Pajama | Anna Dewdney | Llama, Llama red pajama waiting, waiting for his mama. Mama isn’t coming yet. Baby Llama starts to fret. In this infectious rhyming read-aloud, Baby Llama turns bedtime into an all-out llama drama! Tucked into bed by his mama, Baby Llama immediately starts worrying when she goes downstairs, and his soft whimpers turn to hollers when she doesn’t come right back. But just in time, Mama returns to set things right. Children will relate to Baby Llama’s need for comfort, as much as parents will appreciate Mama Llama’s reassuring message. | Author Web-Site | |
| Miss Rumphius | Barbara Cooney | Seeking adventure in faraway places, Miss Rumphius fulfills her dream and then sets out to make the world more beautiful. | ||
| Morris the Mouse Hunter | Vivian French | Morris is good at licking and purring. His mother wants him to be good at running and jumping, and bouncing and pouncing. For Morris is fat—too fat. Mom says "no more food until you have caught a mouse," but how will Morris ever catch a mouse when all he dreams about is food? But there's a mouse in the house whose mother thinks he's too fat as well. And until he's been chased by a cat, he knows he won't get thin. So Morris and the mouse come to an agreement whereby they get their food without even flexing a muscle! | ||
| Olivia | Ian Falkener | Olivia, a delightful little pig, is Everychild. She's good at lots of things, especially wearing people out--including herself. When she gets dressed, she tries on everything; at night she's ready to go to sleep, but only after four stories | Kids Read | |
| Rotten Ralph | Jack Gantos | Rotten Ralph is a mean-eyed, saw-toothed, bright red cat, so bad he makes Awful Alexander (see above) look like a goody-goody. In fact his behavior is a seamless mix of bratty kid and badmannered tomcat | ||
| Say Hello Vanessa | Marjorie Weinman Sharmat | A very sweet story about a mouse named Vanessa who overcomes her shyness. | ||
| Stone Soup | Ann McGovern | A clever young man tricks an old woman into believing that soup can be made from a stone. As the pot of water boils with the stone in it, he urges her to add more and more ingredients until the soup is a feast "fit for a king." | ||
| Swimmy | Leo Lionni | An exquisite picture book. A little fish, the lone survivor of a school of fish swallowed by a tuna, devises a plan to camouflage himself and his new companions.--(starred) School Library Journal. | ||
| The Doorbell Rang | Pat Hutchins | Victoria and Sam are delighted when Ma bakes a tray of a dozen cookies, even though Ma insists that her cookies aren't as good as Grandma's. They count them and find that each can have six. But the doorbell rings, friends arrive and the cookies must be re-divided. This happens again and again, and the number of cookies on each plate decreases | ||
| The Grouchy Ladybug | Eric Carle | the story of a bad-tempered bug who won't say "please" or "thank you," won't share, and thinks she is bigger and better than anyone else. As children follow the Grouchy Ladybug on her journey, they will learn the important concepts of time, size, and shape, as well as the benefits of friendship and good manners. | ||
| The Midnight Unicorn | Neil Reed | Millie loves unicorns: she makes clay figures of the creatures and frequently visits a statue of one in the park. On one such trip with her father and Casper, the family dog, the statue comes alive. With Casper at their side, Millie and her new friend fly through a rainstorm, to snow on a mountaintop, to a warm desert, and into ocean breakers. The trio land on a rainbow that leads them to a herd of unicorns on a beach, where they fall asleep. | ||
| The Mitten | Jan Brett | Brett creates a dramatic picture book with the story of Nicki, a young boy who has lost a mitten in the snow and the animals who try to make a home of it. |
http://www.janbrett.com/ |
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| The Rainbow Fish | Marcus Pfister | The Rainbow Fish, with his shimmering scales, is the most beautiful fish in the ocean. But he is proud and vain and none of the other fish want to be his friend--until he learsn to give away some of his most prized possessions. | ||
| The Snowy Day | Ezra Jack Keats | The 1963 Caledecott Medal winner, The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats’s lushly illustrated story of Peter, a young boy experiencing the year’s first snowfall, has delighted millions of readers. | http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/ | |
| The Umbrella | Jan Brett | When Carlos drops his umbrella to climb a tree for a better view of the animals, they all cram into the banana-leaf umbrella as it floats by--from the little tree frog to the baby tapir to the big jaguar and more. It gets so crowded in the umbrella that there isn't even enough room for a little hummingbird! So over the umbrella tumbles, everyone falls out, and poor Carlos comes back wondering why he didn't see any animals all day. | ||
| The Very Lazy Ladybug | Isobel Finn | The very lazy ladybird likes to sleep all day and all night. And because she sleeps all day and all night, she doesn't know how to fly. One day, she decides she wants to sleep somewhere else, so hops onto a kangaroo, but that's too bouncy, the tiger is too noisy, but the elephant's trunk is great. | ||
| Tikki Tikki Tembo | Arlene Mosel | Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo is the full name of the firstborn son in the Chinese family of this story....This old folktale of what happens when the boy falls into a well. | ||
| Too Much Talk | Angela Shelf Medearis | A brightly illustrated retelling of a folktale from Ghana concerns the fun that starts when everything starts talking, including the farmer's yams, the fisherman's fish, and the weaver's cloth. | ||
| Up, Down, and Around | Katherine Ayers | Inside a colorful garden, some plants "grow up," while others "grow down, and still others grow "around and around." This catchy, rhyming refrain, with some variation, introduces children to an abundance of garden vegetables and legumes, including corn, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, potatoes, broccoli, beets, green beans, okra, onions and tomatoes, as well as the ambiguous pumpkin, and follows them from seed to plant to lunch. The different plants are shown sprouting under and above ground, and youngsters will delight in the bird- and mole's-eye perspectives. | http://personal.chatham.edu/faculty/kayres/ | |
| William's Doll | Charolot Zolotow | More than anything, William wants a doll. "Don't be a creep," says his brother. "Sissy, sissy," chants the boy next door. Then one day someone really understands William's wish, and makes it easy for others to understand, too. |
| A Baby Sister for Frances | Russel Hoban | When a baby sister arrives, Frances the badger finds a charming way to prove her own importance.' A familiar family situation, treated with understanding and humor. | ||
| A Chair for My Mother | Vera B. Williams | After a fire destroys their home and possessions, Rosa, her mother, and grandmother save and save until they can afford to buy one big, comfortable chair that all three of them can enjoy. | ||
| A Dinosaur for Mrs. Toggle | Robin Pulver | Mrs. Toggle, Mr. Abel the custodian, Mr. Paige the librarian, and a class full of ethnically diverse children all prepare for the arrival of a new student, a dinosaur. The children research the habits of dinosaurs, the custodian builds a special desk, and the school cook promises to provide an appropriate lunch as soon as she finds out whether it's a meat-eater or a vegetarian. But Mrs. Toggle is still perplexed as to how she will fit the newcomer into her class until the principal, whose phone call she has misunderstood, shows up with the new pupil, a little girl named Dina Sawyer. | ||
| A Gift of Gracias | Julia Alverez | After their olive crop fails, Maria fears that her family will have to abandon their farm on the new island colony. Then, one night she dreams of a mysterious and beautiful lady shrouded by trees with branches hung with hundreds of little suns. They are oranges like the ones Maria's parents once ate in their homeland, Valencia, Spain. That very day, Maria and her family plant the seeds that soon yield a magnificent orange grove and save the farm. But who was the mysterious lady who appeared in her dream and will Maria ever find her again to say gracias? | ||
| Abuela | Arthur Dorros | While riding on a bus through Manhattan with her grandmother, a little girl imagines that they are carried up into the sky and fly over the sights of New York City, in an evocative study of the loving bond between child and grandparent. | ||
| Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day | Judith Voirst |
Alexander knew it was going to be a terrible day when he woke up with
gum in this hair .And it got worse... His best friend deserted him.
There was no dessert in his lunch bag. And, on top of all that, there
were lima beans for dinner and kissing on TV! |
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| Arrow to the Sun- a Pueblo Indian Tale | Gerald McDermott | An expression of the universal myth of the hero-quest, this beautiful story also portrays the Indian reverence for the source of life: the Solar Fire. Vibrant full-color illustrations capture the boldness and color of Pueblo art. A Caldecott Medal Book. | ||
| Blueberries for Sal | Robert McCloskey | Sal and her mother set off in search of blueberries for the winter at the same time as a mother bear and her cub. A quiet comedy of errors ensues when the young ones wander off and absentmindedly trail the wrong mothers. | ||
| Can you hear A Rainbow? | Jamee Riggio Heelan | Chris, who's about 10 years old, explains how he uses sign language, hearing aids, lip reading, and other visual clues to compensate for his condition. He compares himself to both a hearing friend and a deaf one, pointing out similarities and differences. | ||
| Charlie the Caterpillar | Dom Deluise | As Charlie the Caterpillar meets one group of animals after another playing together and having fun, he asks if he can join in. But each time he's told not welcome -- because he's ugly. As winter approaches, Charlie spins himself a cocoon. When spring arrives, the cocoon opens and out comes Charlie -- now a beautiful butterfly. Everyone wants him to be part of their group. But Charlie puts these fair-weather friends properly in their place in this heartwarming story about the meaning of true friendship. | ||
| Cinder Edna | Ellen Jackson | The famous Cinderella and her neighbor Cinder Edna each worked sunup to sundown for their wicked stepmother and stepsisters. But while Cinderella had the good fortune to be rescued by her fairy godmother, Edna was strong, self-reliant, spunky--and she lived happier ever after | ||
| Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs | Judi Barrett | If food dropped like rain from the sky, wouldn't it be marvelous! Or would it? It could, after all, be messy. And you'd have no choice. What if you didn't like what fell? Or what if too much came? Have you ever thought of what it might be like to be squashed flat by a pancake? | ||
| Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus | Mo Willems | When a bus driver takes a break from his route, a very unlikely volunteer springs up to take his place-a pigeon! But you've never met one like this before. As he pleads, wheedles, and begs his way through the book, children will love being able to answer back and decide his fate. In his hilarious picture book debut, popular cartoonist Mo Willems perfectly captures a preschooler's temper tantrum. | ||
| Happy to be Nappy | Bell Hooks | Renowned feminist and social critic bell hooks takes on... hair! "Hair for hands to touch and play! Hair to take the gloom away." This rhythmic read-aloud is, on the surface, all about hair: nappy, plaited, long, short, natural, twisted, "soft like cotton, flower petal billowy soft, full of frizz and fuzz." Comb through the surface and find a celebration of childhood and girls and the freedom to express individuality. | ||
| Honey, I Love | Eloise Greenfield | A little African American girl with a gap-toothed grin proclaims she loves a lot of things: the way her Southern cousin talks, splashing in the swimming pool, making the "laughing" sound with her friend. The poetry has a charming cadence: "I hold her arm and kiss it / 'cause it feels so soft and warm / Honey, let me tell you that / I LOVE my mama's arm / I love to kiss my mama's arm." The picture that illustrates that verse is particularly nice. The watercolor art, which features children who look as if they could be living down the block, will draw readers close. | ||
| Let's Talk About it: Extraordinary Friends | Fred Rogers | Written for the child without special needs--the child with the questions--this book opens up a difficult subject to discussion. Mister Rogers challenges the stereotypes that often plague children with special needs and celebrates six children who are extraordinary friends. Share this book with all children--to spark communication, to attack the stigma, to bridge the gap between children with different abilities. Mister Rogers is the perfect person to write a book like this, with respect and the same gentleness that has characterized his television show for decades. | ||
| Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse | Kevin Henkes | Lilly loves everything about school, especially her cool teacher, Mr. Slinger. But when Lilly brings her purple plastic purse and its treasures to school and can't wait until sharing time, Mr. Slinger confiscates her prized possessions. Lilly's fury leads to revenge and then to remorse and she sets out to make amends. | ||
| Little Red Riding Hood; A Newfangled Prairie Tale | Lisa Campbell Ernst | A feisty, bike-riding heroine, her tractor-driving grandmother, and a wolf with a hankering for Grandma's award-winning wheat berry muffins -- this is not your grandmother's Little Red Riding Hood! | ||
| Madeline | Ludwig Bemelmans | Set in picturesque Paris, this tale of a brave little girl's trip to the hospital is as appealing today as it was in 1940. The combination of spirited heroine, timelessly appealing art, cheerful humor, and rhythmic text makes "Madeline" a perennial favorite with children of all ages. | ||
| Make Way for Ducklings | Robert McCloskey | It's not easy for duck parents to find a safe place to bring up their ducklings, but during a rest stop in Boston's Public Garden, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard think they just might have found the perfect spot--no foxes or turtles in sight, plenty of peanuts from pleasant passers-by, and the benevolent instincts of a kindly police officer to boot. | ||
| Marshmallow | Clare Turlay Newberry |
Oliver is a tabby cat who is always the center of attention.Marshmallow
is a baby rabbit who moves into Oliver's home. At first Oliver does not
welcome Marshmallow, but the little bunny's charms are impossible to
resist. This is the true story of how Oliver and Marshmallow become
friends. |
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| Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree | Robert Berry | A tale of a Christmas tree too tall for Mr. Willowby's parlor. The butler whomps off the top and gives it to the maid, who finds even the treetop too tall for her table. So she chops off the top of her little tree, which is retrieved by the gardener--and so on. In the end, the one tall tree has provided smaller Christmas trees for seven homes. | ||
| Mrs. Toggle's Zipper | Robin Pulver | Poor Mrs. Toggle! The zipper on her fuchsia-colored coat is jammed and she can't get her coat off. "A great choice as a read-aloud for an entire class or a read-alone for a private giggle, this is sure to strike a chord with anyone who has ever shared Mrs. Toggle's difficulty. | ||
| Officer Buckle and Gloria | Peggy Rathmann | Officer Buckle puts everyone to sleep with his painfully dull if informative lectures on safety, until he takes on a new partner, Gloria, Napville's new police dog, who knows just how to liven up Officer Buckle's safety speeches. | ||
| Paper Bag Princess | Robert Munsch | The Princess Elizabeth is slated to marry Prince Ronald when a dragon attacksthe castle and kidnaps Ronald. In resourceful and humorous fashion, Elizabethfinds the dragon, outsmarts him, and rescues Ronald--who is less than pleasedat her un-princess-like appearance. | ||
| Snow Flake Bentley | Jacqueline Briggs Martin | The inspiring 1999 Caldecott Medal-winning biography of a Vermont farm boy who grew up to become a world-famous expert on the scientific secrets and ephemeral beauty of snowflakes. With great patience (and tolerance for cold fingers) he was one of the first to successfully photograph snowflakes. | ||
| Stellaluna | Janell Canon | Knocked from her mother’s safe embrace by an attacking owl, Stellaluna lands headfirst in a bird’s nest. This adorable baby fruit bat’s world is literally turned upside down when she is adopted by the occupants of the nest and adapts to their peculiar bird habits. Two pages of notes at the end of the story provide factual information about bats. | ||
| Sylvester and the Magic Pebble | Willian Steig | One rainy day, Sylvester finds a magic pebble that can make wishes come true. But when a lion frightens him on his way home, Sylvester makes a wish that brings unexpected results. How Sylvester is eventually reunited with his loving family and restored to his own donkey self makes a story that is beautifully tender and perfectly joyful. | ||
| The Dog Who Cried Wolf | Keiko Kasza | Moka is a good dog. But when Michelle, his little girl, reads him a book about wolves, being a good dog suddenly seems awfully boring. Wolves get to run around doing whatever they want. No one ever makes a wolf dress up for a tea party. So Moka decides to run away to the wild. But what will happen when the real wolves show up? | ||
| The Keeping Quilt | Patricia Polacco | From a basket of old clothes, Anna's babushka, Uncle Vladimir's shirt, Aunt Havalah's nightdress and an apron of Aunt Natasha's become The Keeping Quilt, passed along from mother to daughter for almost a century. For four generations the quilt is a Sabbath tablecloth, a wedding canopy, and a blanket that welcomes babies warmly into the world. | ||
| The Kissing Hand | Audrey Penn | In this contemporary classic Chester Raccoon seeks love and reassurance from his mother as he ventures out into the world to attend his very first day of school. | ||
| The Napping House | Audrey Wood | Delightful cumulative rhyme leads up to the consequences of piling too many sleepy people and animals in a cozy bed. | ||
| The Runaway Bunny | Margaret Wise Brown | A little bunny keeps runningaway from his mother in an imaginative and imaginary game of verbal hide-and-seek; children will be profoundly comforted by this lovingly steadfast mother who finds her child every time. | ||
| The Story About Ping | Marjorie Flack | On a day like any other, Ping sets off from the boat he calls home with his comically large family in search of "pleasant things to eat." On this particular day, he is accidentally left behind when the boat leaves. Undaunted, the little duck heads out onto the Yangtze in search of his family, only to find new friends and adventures--and a bit of peril--around every bend. | ||
| Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig | Eugene Trivizas | When it comes time for the three little wolves to go out into the world and build themselves a house, their mother warns them to beware the big bad pig. But the little wolves' increasingly sturdy dwellings are no match for the persistent porker, who has more up his sleeve than huffing and puffing. It takes a chance encounter with a flamingo pushing a wheelbarrow full of flowers to provide a surprising and satisfying solution to the little wolves' housing crisis. | ||
| Thunder Cake | Patricia Polacco | Grandma consoles her frightened granddaughter by telling her that the dark clouds of the impending storm are nothing more than the ingredients for a Thunder Cake. | ||
| Two Cool Cows | Tobey Speed | What Millie and Maud, two cool cows from the Huckabuck farm, decide to do some late-night jumping to the far side of the moon, the Huckabuck kids chase after, wondering if they'll ever see their new black button-back boots again!. | ||
| When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry | Molly Bang | Everybody gets angry sometimes. For children, anger can be very upsetting. Parents, teachers, and children can talk about it. People do lots of different things when they get angry. In this Caldecott-honor book, kids will see what Sophie does when she gets angry. | ||
| Whoever You Are | Mem Fox | Fox has composed a simple refrain to celebrate human connections in this lovely picture book. "Little one, whoever you are," she explains, there are children all over the world who may look different, live in different homes and different climates, go to different schools, and speak in different tongues but all children love, smile, laugh, and cry. Their joys, pain, and blood are the same, "whoever they are, wherever they are, all over the world." | ||
| Wilfred Gordon Mcdonald Partridge | Mem Fox | Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, a rather small boy, lives next door to a nursing home in which resides Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper, his favorite friend, because she has four names as well. When Miss Nancy "loses" her memory, the intrepid Wilfrid sets out to find it for her. |
| Random House | http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/index.pperl |
| Reading is Fundamental | http://www.rif.org/ |
| Scholastic Teacher Resources | http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/home.jsp |
| Children's Picture Book Data Base | http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/welcome.php |
| Dr. Seuss | http://www.seussville.com/ |
| Children's Literature Web Guide | http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/ |
| Kiddy House: Literature based lessons/activities | http://www.kiddyhouse.com/ |
| Pro Teacher- literature activities- hundreds of titles | http://www.proteacher.com/070009.shtml |
| A-Z Teacher Stuff | http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Lesson_Plans/Literature_Activities/index.shtml |
| Literature Lesson Plans | http://www.sldirectory.com/libsf/resf/bookplans.html |
| PA One Book | http://www.paonebook.org/ |
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