Don’t Be Silly, Mrs. Millie – Judy Cox

Mrs. Millie likes to tease her class by playing with words. She tells them to hang up their goats, take out their paper and penguins, wash their hands with soap and walrus, eat gorilla cheese sandwiches for lunch, sit on the bug for story time and put on their bats and kittens before they go outside. The kids think she is hilarious and they have fun correcting her.

Bark, George – Jules Feiffer

George's mom tells him to bark, but he meows, then she asks him again "Bark, George." and he quacks, then oinks, and moos. When George's mother gets frustrated she takes him to the vet who reaches inside of George and pulls out a cat, a duck, a pig and finally a cow. Finally George can bark. On the way home George's mom says to him again, "Bark, George", but to her surprise he says "Hello."

Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling

A book of silly stories with lovely rhyming and word play to answer children’s questions about natural phenomena like how the camel got his humps, why whales only eat tiny, tiny fish and how the elephant got his trunk. Based on oral traditions of India and Africa.

Loaves of Fun – Elizabeth and John Harbison

A social history of bread for children. Full of interesting stories of people and bread as well as many activities and recipes.

Tuesday – David Wiesner

A book of very few words. “The events recorded here are verified by an undisclosed source to have happened somewhere, U.S.A. on Tuesday…” It leaves much to the imagination. The images are of a strange night when frogs lifted off on their lily pads and flew through the sky to a nearby town “somewhere” around 8:00 on Tuesday. Great for early storytellers.

Everybody Bakes Bread – Norah Dooley

Carrie is sent out into her (very multicultural) neighbor hood on a “fools errand” to find a three handled rolling pin. On her quest she talks with her neighbors and eats bread from all different cultures. Discovering that everybody eats bread. A great multicultural story.

Bread, Bread, Bread – Ann Morris (The Around the World Series)

The around the world series consists of books mainly focused on photographs taken all over the world of something specific. Bread, Bread, Bread is full of wonderful images of bread being made and eaten all over the world by children and adults. The photography in these books is beautiful. A great book to start conversations in class.

The Giving Tree – Shel Silverstein

The story of a boy and his tree. The tree loves the boy and as he grows up she gives him everything she has to offer from the apples on her branches to her trunk itself. Seemingly a metaphor for parenting. Themes of love, friendship, and giving. Repetition.

Are you my Mother? – P.D. Eastman

A baby bird begins to hatch so it’s mother flies away to collect food. The baby bird comes out of it’s shell and begins on a quest to find his mother. He asks all kinds of animals if they are his mother and finds her in the end. Great predictable text and images. Lots of repetition.

Corduroy – Don Freeman

After the department store closes at night Corduroy slips off of his shelf and goes in search of his missing button. The story explores all of the kinds of adventures one might have in a department store after dark. Themes of a desire for home and friendship, and courage.

Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing – Judy and Ron Barrett

A large text book about what would happen if animals wore clothing. Very silly with great images especially for beginning readers to follow along with. Important themes: animals already have clothing (fur, quills blubber etc.) A great introduction to “what if”.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Judy and Ron Barrett

In the town of Chewandswallow is a regular town except that they don’t have any grocery stores, and restaurants are just buildings with out roofs because in Chewandswallow meals fall from the sky like weather. The weatherman predicts what they will have for each meal and people always carry around utensils. One day the weather gets out of control and the people of chew and swallow have to escape and find a new place to live. It is a beautifully illustrated book full of fantasy and wonder.

sequel - pickles to pittsburgh

Alexander and Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – Judith Viorst

This book is great because it is about a boy named Alexander who is simply having a terrible day. Nothing is going his way at all. The book ends and Alexander's day has not turned around. But he learns that everyone has bad days once in a while. Great for talking about bad days, even better because some bad days (like Alexander’s) don’t get better.

Where’s Chimpy? – Berniece Rabe

Misty can’t go to bed without her stuffed monkey chimpy. She and her daddy retrace her steps and find lots of things (and eventually chimpy). This simple, predictable story is illustrated with photographs of Misty, a girl with downs syndrome and her real daddy. Special needs.

Good Night Moon – Margaret Wise Brown

A classic bedtime story. Very predictable text. Great for beginning readers. The images correlate directly to the text so story telling is made easy even for non-readers.

The Tale of Despereaux – Kate DiCamillo

Despereaux Tilling was born with his eyes open. He was never good at just being a mouse. He enjoys reading and listening to music and when he meets, touches and talks to a human princess the mouse council sends him to the dungeon to be eaten by the rats. A devious rat has plans of capturing the princess and Despereaux must save her. Themes of courage, being different, honor, love, hope, power, good and evil, dark and light.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis

Four children; Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are sent to live with their uncle in the country. They discover a wardrobe that leads them into another world, Narnia. In Narnia time passes many times faster than in our world and the children must go on an epic adventure to save the world from an evil witch. Themes of courage, love, loss, hope and good vs. evil.

Love That Dog – Sharon Creech

The journal of a boy named Jack. His class is learning about poetry and he doesn’t want to write poetry because “ boys don’t write poetry, girls do.” Jack discovers his love of poetry through the poems his teacher presents to the class. The relationship between Jack and his teacher is a powerful one. Jack writes poems about his dog Sky.

My Father’s Dragon – Ruth Gannett

The first book in a series of three. The story of a boy named Elmer Elevator who after meeting an old cat is on a journey to save a dragon on Wild Island. A very magical book full of talking animals and Elmer’s quick wit which gets him out of all kinds of trouble.

The Stories Julian Tells – Ann Cameron

Julian tells magnificent and exciting stories that are often not the truth. Usually they get him in some sort of trouble but his clever father always seems to understand the good in Julian’s enhancement of the truth. African American Children. Julian is the older brother of Huey. A book of 5 stories.

Ramona the Pest – Beverly Cleary

Ramona Quimby is a kindergartener. She is working on issues of self control and desire. She often gets exactly what she wants by making “a great big fuss”. Ramona is an individual but still wants to be like the other girls with shiny red boots. She also wants to kiss Davy and marry Henry with her earthworm engagement ring. Very entertaining book. Word play. Family.

Tico and the Golden Wings – Leo Leoni

Tico is a bird that does not have any wings. He dreams of having golden wings and one day the wish bird appears and grants his wish. Tico’s friends cast him out because he is different and “thinks he is better” (Tico doesn’t think he is better, his dream simply came true). Tico gives away all of his golden feathers to people who need them and black feathers grow in their place. Finally Tico has plain black wings like his friends and they accept him back into the group. Themes of exclusion, diversity and sameness. Should friends support their friend who is different or better at something than them or cast them out until they give up their skill or belongings and are just the same as their comrades?

Swimmy – Leo Leoni

Swimmy is a little black fish that lives in a school of red fish until one day a giant fish comes and eats everyone except for Swimmy. He goes off in search of a new school of fish to be a part of and finds another red school that hides behind a rock all the time in fear of being eaten. Swimmy becomes the leader and teaches the fish to swim together to look like a giant fish. He becomes the eye. Connections to race, leadership and working together.

Little Blue and Little Yellow – Leo Leoni

Little Blue and Little Yellow are best friends. One day they hug each other so tight that they turn green and when they go home their parents don’t recognize them. They come back together and cry big yellow and blue tears, collect themselves back together and go home as little blue and little yellow again. They tell their families what happened and they all realize that it’s okay for the colors to mix. – A nice book for talking about color mixing. Can be connected to race.

Inch by Inch – Leo Leoni

The story of an inchworm who escapes being eaten by birds by measuring things for them. One day the mockingbird asks him to measure his song and if he cannot he will be eaten. The worm at first does not know what to do but ends up out witting the bird by measuring the song all the way off into the fields far away and escaping.

Frederick – Leo Leoni

Frederick is a mouse. His family is preparing for a long winter collecting food and working hard while Frederick is lounging around thinking, collecting colors, words and sunshine (his own kind of winter time supplies). His friends let him do his thing and when the winter gets long Frederick is able to “feed” his friends with the color and stories and sunshine.

Cornelius – Leo Leoni

Cornelius is a young crocodile who unlike all of the other crocodiles came out of his egg able to walk standing upright on two feet. Everyone tells him to walk on four feet like everyone else but Cornelius likes that he can stand up tall and see things that no other crocodiles can see. He learns tricks from a monkey and no one seems to care until one day when Cornelius walks away angrily and when he looks back everyone is trying to do the same tricks he showed them that he can do.

Brown Bear Brown Bear – Bill Martin and Eric Carle

A very repetitive and predictable book GREAT for beginning readers. “Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see?” “I see a red bird looking at me.” “Red Bird Red bird what do you see?” “I see a yellow duck looking at me.” Bill Martin’s words along with Eric Carle’s illustrations are amazing. This book is irresistible to children of all ages.

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes – Mem Fox

This story is very repetitive and predictable, almost like a song is a very rhythmic and is full of beautiful illustrations. The story of all of the different babies being the same at least in having ten fingers and toes is beautiful.

The Bouncing, Dancing, Galloping ABC – Charlotte Doyle

An alphabet book that connects the letters with life in a much more interesting way than simply “A is for Apple”. With lines like “A is for asking ‘Please ride me around.’” the book has a much more useful feel. The way that the words starting with the letter in focus are highlighted in a color is also very nice.

A Gathering of Days – Joan Blos

The diary of Catherine, a 13 year old New England girl in the 19^th century. Deals with questions of morality. Addresses death (of her best friend), role reversal big life changes (the remarriage of her father) and slavery. Very well researched with a lot of accuracy in the language.

Oliver Button is a Sissy – Tomi DePaola

Oliver Button doesn’t like to do the things that boys are supposed to do. He likes to dress up and dance and sing. He does not like to play ball. The children at Oliver’s school write on the wall that OLIVER BUTTON IS A SISSY. When Oliver’s parents sign him up for a dance class he gets to be a very good dancer and his teacher encourages him to sign up for a talent show. Oliver does not win the show but the children at school change the words on the wall to say that OLIVER BUTTON IS A STAR.

Brave Irene – William Steig

Irene’s mother, the dressmaker, has fallen ill and she can not bring the duchess her new dress for tonight’s ball. Irene takes it upon herself to brave a ferocious windy storm and deliver the dress herself. The wind takes on a personality of it’s own and torments Irene till the very end. At one point Irene even considers what the point in living even is.

Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak

The story of Max, a child who has been sent to his room without supper for being a “wild thing”. Max creates a world for himself in his room and becomes the king of the wild things who “love him so.” He ends up back in his room with dinner waiting for him.

“More, More, More” Said the Baby - Vera B. Williams

Three “love stories” about babies and the adults who love them. Great colored images, paintings mainly. Predictable text. Nice repetition.