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the Lord, music, sports/athleticism, and reading. Our girls are still pretty young (3.5 years and 15 mos), yet I hope all of these areas are being implanted in their little lives. Learning to love our God is obviously the most important. They could grow up to be video game players, still love the Lord with all their hearts and I'd be semi-okay with that. :)
Loving books is so very important to me. I'm a reader down to my core. One of my earliest memories is learning to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar at age 4 and being so proud of myself. I remember learning the word "fluorescent" and feeling very advanced. I remember learning the word "chaos" was pronounced ka-os and not as it's spelled, and feeling like a complete dweeb because I had mispronounced it in my head for so long. I love words.
My dad was exceptional at reading to us as children. Heck, well into my high school years, we would gather - all five children - and listen to The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Tom's Midnight Garden, and so many other stories. There's something about sharing a story that is so connecting. I am waiting with baited breath til my girls are old enough to begin reading some of my favorite series aloud.
For the sake of sharing good things, here are some of the books the girls and I enjoy reading. We visit the library quite often (there are four great ones in our area!) - it helps me enjoy the reading process fully when I can get a "change of scenery" from our own books. Nothing beats a warm lap, a child and a book.
A Visitor for Bear
any Fancy Nancy book
Charlotte's Web
Bread and Jam for Frances
The Paper Bag Princess
Mop Top
any Don Freeman book (author of Corduroy)
any David McPhail book
the Little House books - simplified versions of Little House on the Prairie
The Little House
Katy and the Big Snow
Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel
Blueberries for Sal
any Disney movie in book form
any Don & Audrey Wood book
Often, it can be overwhelming going into the children's section at a library. So many books and some are so dumb and annoying to read. Find an author/illustrator you enjoy, and seek out more of their works!! What are some favorites of yours? I always love a good book recommendation...
15 comments:
So sweet! I remember being really into Amelia Bedelia books and the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series.
Jenny, you are speaking right to my heart... I'm in school to be a children's librarian so here are my recs: anything by Monica Brown, Mo Willem's Pigeon series & City Dog, Country Frog, Blue Chicken, Grandpa Green (Lane Smith), I Want My Hat Back, It's a Book (Lane Smith), Children Make Terrible Pets, Along A Long Road, Princess Hyacinth, Wave (Suzy Lee - this book is text-less, which is great for imaginations!), Blackout, Red Sings from Treetops , Sylvester & the Magic Pepple....
Also, Caldecott Award Winners are for illustrations, so you can look at that list if you want beautiful pictures. There are also other awards, such as the Coretta Scott King Award (African-American), the Pura Belpre Award and the Americas Award (Latino) that you can peruse for ideas about other cultures, etc. Also, the ALA (American Library Association) has best of lists! All of these winners & nominees are online.
Can you tell I love children's literature? So glad you are raising readers!
http://www.bookdepository.com/James-Herriots-Treasures-for-Children-James-Herriot/9780312085124
You'll love these endearing stories as will the girls. Great early chapter style book!
I'll second Emily! Mrs. Piggle Wiggle is awesome! I actually started an Amazon Wish List for children's books that I can direct grandparents/aunts & uncles to as Drew gets older. It's so fun to be transported back to my childhood by just looking at the title of the books. Such vivid memories of books like Babar and Caps for Sale and Tiki Tiki Tembo. Sigh. So excited to introduce him to these gems as he gets older!
Amen! Favorite times by far was sitting curled up together on the couch and reading with all five. The saddest day was when Jon and Will wanted to read to themselves. And later when I told them how I missed it, they told me to "get a life". But my joy is that they continue to be life long readers, well beyond where I would have taken them. Will's favorite author is Dickens and Jon reads John Dunne and others, such as The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Of course,my list includes many that boys would love, but I secretly loved them, too, and often stayed awake at night to finish off titles such as Big Red or even the Box Car Children. And an all time favorite picture book given to us by your mom and now given to these little grand daughters in board book form, Quick as a Cricket! And they all still say "Wesley's feet" when we hit the page with the whale on it. Love, LoVe, LOVE reading, but missed out as a child and only started reading in my twenties! And now I listen to classics on my commute to work, just finishing up on my way this morning will be the last of Sense and Sensibility. Reading by far opens up worlds beyond and teaches one to think deeply.
Yes, Boxcar Children and Ms. Piggle Wiggle!! Good ones... and of course there are so many of the older years that I can't wait to dig into...
One of my favorites is Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel, too! Virginia Burton also wrote The Little House, which is cute, too. There are so many others. Here's a few that I can think of right off...
Books by Lois Lenski
Caps for Sale by Slobodkina
Max Lucado (Wemmick books - that may be what Bella is reading)
Make way for Ducklings by McCloskey
Gigi, God's Little Princess (several by Sheila Walsh)
original Curious George by Rey
The Big Red Tractor by Francis Chan
The Princess and the Three Knights by Karen Kingsbury
The Brave Young Knight by Karen Kingsbury
The Legend of the Three Trees
Dumpy the Dump Truck books by Julie Andrews Edwards
Love, love Dick & Jane books and any Margaret Hillert book for early/beginning readers.
Kim, we love ALL of those too! Caps for Sale is such a great one... :-) And the Giving Tree another favorite! Glad there are so many book lovers out there!
Jenny, what about poems for children? Such fun memories. Love love your topic and could sit and read forever but like Lou Ann, the reading bug bit me as an adult. I'm thankful for the new book list I just got off your comment bar. Hooray I'm off to the library today!
I love Bear Sleeps On, and other bear books. My kiddos love them :)
My favorites from childhood were The Berenstain Bear books. They usually have a nice lesson/moral to them, plus the illustrations are great! My mom saved all of them for when I have kids someday.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
"Children become readers on the laps of their parents."
-Emilie Buchwald
You're making a commenter out of me. =) Kevin Henkes books are pretty fabulous. He wrote Chrysanthemum and Julias-Baby of the World among many others, but those two are hilarious. Interesting for the kids but funny for the parents 'cause you'll pick up stuff in the story line and illustrations that your girls will probably miss. There are so many great books and teaching your girls to love reading will give them the motivation to find them!
I'm currently reading "The Read Aloud Handbook" - it's all about the huge importance of reading aloud to children and how it's directly related to their future reading success. Favorites are always changing around here, and I recently started selling Usborne books so we have lots of new ones around. We are particularly enjoying non-fiction; they do a great job making it accessible to little ones. I personally can't wait to read the Little House and Anne of Green Gables books with my girls. Oh books, how I love thee!
I second the motion for Mo Willems. :)
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