Tell Me What to Read: Picture Book Edition
So. . . the last round of Tell Me What to Read just about killed me.
I haven’t even bothered to write about The Dante Club because, believe me, you do not want to read my review of it which would basically boil down to “took me eight hundred check-outs to finally finish the stupid thing.”
Also, to be completely honest, I finally just checked out the abridged audio and just powered through it on double speed. (And there was this one murder (several occur in the book) that was, I kid you not, one of the most graphic, horrible descriptions I’ve ever read of a dead body. I just had to press the “skip 15 seconds ahead” button a couple of times before I threw up). I think you might guess that I would not recommend this book.
It was a rough period of my life, and I’d prefer not to speak of it again.
So, let’s make things easy on me, shall we? I need low-commitment right now and that’s what I love about picture books. Even if it’s terrible, it’s never going to take more than about 30 minutes to get through.
Leave me the title of one of your favorite picture books and I’ll read 10 (or more if I’m feeling very very ambitious, which, I probably won’t) of them, selected at random. And then I’ll share my favorites. Get excited.
Ella thinks this is way better too. And it’ll be a fun little project for the two of us before Baby #2 makes her appearance.
I am really looking forward to seeing this list! My recommendation is The Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis. It is a super sweet story about two sisters who find a creature called a bog baby. The illustrations are some of the most enchanting I have ever seen!
My favorite picture book right now is Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French. I think I may love it even more than my child does, which is saying something.
Our favorite picture book for 2-3 year olds is Where is the Green Sheep? For 4-5 year olds I get excited when they pick The Adventures of Bert by Allen Ahlberg. (Or the next one, A Bit More Bert.) It's just a fun one to read out loud. It is out of print but I first found it at the library. For girls, I love Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor. I resisted the Fancy Nancy epidemic, but she has really great parents, something you don't see in a lot of kids' books. For an activity with older kids, I love Stone Soup.
Sorry I have one more! If you haven't read Fanny's Dream by Caralyn Buehner, you really should. Especially now. 😉 (I think the authors went to Utah State.)
I just read Mo Willem's Goldilocks and the 3 Dinosaurs and it was spectacular.
More Bears! by Kenn Nesbitt and Troy Cummings. Makes all my kids laugh.
I love A Bad Case of the Stripes. It's so brilliantly illustrated.
Tree Ring Circus by Adam Rex
One of our favorites is The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen.
I feel so bad about the whole Dante Club fiasco! I "recommended" that book before I had read it because I was hoping that I would be able to finally read it. But I still couldn't get past page 30. I love the idea of the book, just not the execution of it.
Now for a picture book recommendation…I promise it won't have any murders in it!
My 3 year old Hallie loves What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Ann Schwartz. It pretty much is read every night, and we've been reading it since she was a baby. I got it as a baby shower gift. If you haven't already picked this one up, then it is a must!
I really love Squid and Octopus Friends for Always. The illustrations are divine!
Bear Snores On is my 2 year olds favorite. Also Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site.
Bear Snores On is my 2 year olds favorite. Also Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site.
My girls are currently obsessed with I'm Bored by Michael Ian Black.
I love Bog Baby also but since that is already recommended I will choose two other wonderful books: Bella and Bean by Rebecca Kai Dotlich and A Tree Named Steve by Allen Zweibel.
How very brave of you to actually finish The Dante Club!
The Ox Cart Man!
How Rocket Learned to Read, by Tad Hills. I gave this to my friends' daughter for Christmas last year, and it was really cute.
I Know a Rhino by Charles Fuge and I Went Walking by Sue Williams
"Stand Back" Said the Elephant, "I'm Going To Sneeze!"
…funny voices encouraged!
because you know this is impossible for me to limit to one:
1 – I love you stinky face and Good Night Princess Pruney Toes by Lisa McCourt
2 – Dinosaur vs. The Potty and Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea
Priscilla and the Pink Planet. It's like Seuss without all of the nonsense. And a really cute story.
"The Seven Silly Eaters." Hands down my favorite.
So many good book suggestions already! I am so picky about picture books, but I loved all the Kevin Henkes mouse books as a child and love most of them as an adult. My favorite (both then and now) is Chrysanthemum. I can't wait to read all these suggestions and see what you like. I also struggled (unsuccessfully for years) to get through The Dante Club. Now that I know it's not just me, I can stop moving the book from state to state and just give up.
Pooh. I was going to suggest "The Seven Silly Eaters" and I see someone beat me to it! I love that book. SO, another book we love it "On Meadowview Street". That one definitely caught my daughter's attention because she'll randomly mention it every few months and I'll have to recheck it out from the library. I may consider it as a holiday gift so we have our own copy!
We love Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. My 2 year-old chooses it often.
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney and Enemy Pie by Derek Munson
And "You Will Be My Friend" by Peter Brown
Robot Zombie Frankenstein by Annette Simon
Rhyming Dust Bunnies and The Doghouse – both by Jan Thomas. My 3 y.o. already has "The Doghouse" memorized.
Angie
I've been reading a lot of picture books that came out this year. One that I really love is "Goldilocks and Just the One Bear" by Leigh Hodgkinson. It's fun! This time it's grown-up Baby Bear who wanders into the now grown-up Goldilocks' family house in the big city. He basically does the things she did to his house (on accident of course) and they meet eye-to-eye and recognize each other.
I also vouch for "The Seven Silly Eaters" by Mary Ann Hoberman. It's been our family's favorite for years. Some others I recommend are "Goldie and the Three Bears" by Diane Stanley and I love all the books from Bonnie Becker in her "A Visitor for Bear" series too. I could go on and on. You may need to hold Tell Me What to Read picture book version weekly!
A few Christmas suggestions
Snowmen at night
Snowmen at Christmas
Mortimer's Christmas manger
My penguin Osbert
Small miracle ( this one is all told with pictures)
I've got a vehicle-crazy boy, so that will influence my recommendations: Little Blue Truck (Alice Schertle) and Tugga-Tugga Tugboat (Kevin Lewis) are both big hits in our house and really fun to read out loud.
Strangely, his favorite this holiday weekend has been an old book of my husband's that my MIL dug out, called Professor Wormbog's Gloomy Kerploppus (Mercer Meyer). There are tons of little jokes in the artwork that older kids would get, but my son just loves the funny solution to what is wrong with the Kerploppus. I'm not sure if I should be worried that the scratch n sniff still mostly works, 35 years after publication.
Small Pig by Arnold Lobel: I loved it when I was a kid and still love to read it to my kid.
One of my favorite Christmas books is Santa's Favorite Story in which Santa tells the true meaning of Christmas.
Starry Safari or To The Beach both by Linda Ashman. Love her.
All of Bill Peet's books, but particularly Cowardly Clyde. Although his books require a longer attention span than most picture books.
I don't know the rules. Can I suggest more than one? A few of our favorites (that might have come from you, haha, so disregard at will)
http://www.amazon.com/Basher-ABC-Kids-Simon/dp/0753464950/?keywords=abc+kids+basher&qid=1353474629&ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Bye-Bye-Big-Bad-Bullybug-Emberley/dp/0316017620/?qid=1353385723&s=books&sr=1-1&keywords=big+bad+bully+bug&ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_1
http://www.amazon.com/Meeow-Big-Box-Sebastien-Braun/dp/1906250863/?qid=1353385666&s=books&sr=1-1&keywords=meeow+and+the+big+box&ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_1
http://www.amazon.com/Can-Help-David-Hyde-Costello/dp/0374335265/?keywords=i+can+help+costello&qid=1353385626&ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
Also I am lazy and just gave you Amazong links.
Our favorite picture book at the moment is Snip Snap! What's That? by Mara Bergman. Such a fun read!
47 Beavers on the Big Blue Sea – Phil Vischer
For the past six months or so (more?) we've been checking out an I Spy book (by Walter Wick) every few weeks. We LOVE them. And after so much practice, my kids are surprisingly pretty good at the actual riddles (vs me just having them look for obvious things on the page). If you're doing it this month, go for the Christmas one. Or pick any that looks good to you! LOVE THEM.
We get most of our picture books from your recommendations, but one (I think) we found on our own is Me Hungry by Jeremy Tanker. Super cute and definitely shorter than a 30 min time commitment
Hey Janssen. Here are a few recommendations. 🙂
old but super fun to read – Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One by Kate Duke
fun for little ones – Press Here by Tullet(it's interactive and great fun)
interesting info – Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet(about the invention of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Balloons)
bittersweet, but one of my favorites – Our Tree Named Steve by Alan Zweibel
the one I'm reading to Kindergarten tomorrow – Not a Stick by Portis
my favorite book to read aloud – Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel
my favorite Christmas book – December by Even Bunting (better for older kids, I think)
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. Best Princess story EVER