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.
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