Annalyn has always loved books, and one thing that’s made that possible – or at least easier – is the book-themed baby shower my friends Amy and Mandy threw for me before she was born. They asked everyone to buy a children’s book instead of a card that I would eventually just throw away.
(Little did they know that nearly four years later, I’d still have a ziploc bag full of baby shower cards sitting in between an unopened baby book and my scrapbooking supplies!)
Those friends started Annalyn’s little library, and I’ve loved seeing it grow over the past few years as she continues to enjoy looking at books and listening to us read to her.
I love to read, so encouraging my daughter to do so seems natural. But I’ve been surprised to learn just how many children’s books there are! And not all of them are good ones. Just last week, we took a trip to the library and checked out about eight books – and not one of them was worth reading a second time. On the other hand, a couple months ago, we checked out several books that were so good I renewed them and we read them, repeatedly, for an entire eight weeks!
Today is Dr. Seuss’s birthday, and the NEA (National Education Association) takes this opportunity to celebrate reading across the nation with Read Across America Day. In honor of the big day, I thought I’d tell you a bit about Annalyn’s favorite books – most of which happen to be classics. (It’s a miracle, right? Considering my lack of classic reading accomplishments?!)
“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
~ Dr. Seuss
- If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (She loves all the If You Give… books, actually. We have a collection of four, plus three individual books – AND a CD!)
- Knuffle Bunny (We also love Mo Willems’ Pigeon books, too – although that pigeon is kind of a drama queen!)
- Good Night Moon (It might seem like a baby book, but we still read this one at least once a week.)
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (I love this book, too. It’s just so fun to say, “Skit skat skoodle doot, flip flop flee!”)
- Dr. Seuss’s ABC (I’m not just saying this to be nice to the guy on his birthday. Annalyn requested this one so many times as a toddler that when we flew back from Nashville last year, I could easily recite the whole thing from memory.)
- Caps for Sale (Annalyn’s babysitter gave this book to her when we left for full-time daycare. It was Annalyn’s favorite at her house – and now it’s a favorite at ours. Although, I still can’t figure out why these monkeys say, “Tsz, tsz, tsz” instead of “Ooh-ooh, ah-ah.”)
- Duck & Goose (I bought several of these books for Annalyn’s first birthday. She finally has the attention span to enjoy the longer books, but she still likes the short board books, too.)
- Clifford the Big Red Dog (We only own one Clifford book, courtesy of a Chick-fil-A kids meal. But every other week, Annalyn brings home a Clifford book from her preschool’s library. Clearly, he’s a big hit!)
- Winnie the Pooh (On the weeks she doesn’t bring home a Clifford book, Annalyn brings home a Winnie the Pooh book. She’s definitely a girl who knows what she likes!)
- Anything with Disney princesses (I don’t let the princess craze run too free in our house, but she does have a small stack of books featuring her favorite Disney characters. Her latest acquisition is a Sleeping Beauty book that she’ll barely let go of except for bathtime.)
And here’s a bonus for you: It’s not a classic, but one of our recent finds is probably my favorite children’s book ever. Ducks Don’t Wear Socks is hilarious and clever, and even though we finally returned it to the library, all three of us continue to quote it on a regular basis!
What kind of books do your children – or you – like to read?
Reading (mostly) classics works for me, so I’m linking up to Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family. I’ll also link up to Top Ten Tuesday at OhAmanda next week. And if you haven’t noticed, this post is full of affiliate links, so feel free to shop away in honor of Read Across America Day!
oh my gosh, i read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie to my oldest nephew so many times i thought i’d have it memorized forever. never mind the fact that he’s now 19 and i’m somehow incredibly old…
How DOES that happen, anyway? I’m pretty sure we both have a couple of the If You Give… books memorized. Which means, of course, no skipping pages for me!
My son(now 23!) always loved ‘The Mitten’. We had an old paperback version from Scholastic books, but there is a nice Jan Brett version with great illustrations
I’ll have to look that one up. Thank you for the suggestion!
My daughter (2.5) loves Raindrop Plop, I Love You More than Rainbows, Pigs Love Potatoes, Roar of a Snore… as well as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. She also likes I Wear My TuTu Everywhere and Are You My Mother? …as well as any kind of book that has a flap covering part of the page where you ask “who am I?” or something along those lines. Really, she’ll read just about anything… but those are definitely her favorites.. and I can do at least 3 by memory!
My daughter LOVED lift-a-flap books when she was younger! She actually pulled one out just the other day and practically read it to me! :)
Some of our favorites are Curious George, Duck and Goose, Dr. Seuss. Currently Julia is on a huge Angelina Ballerina kick and only wants to read those books. Hannah {1.5} loves Fancy Nancy. I think mostly because she loves saying her name {which sounds a bit like Fan Nan}. One of my personal favorite kid books is Duck for President. Makes me laugh every time we read it.
We have some Fancy Nancy books, too, but we haven’t tried Angelina Ballerina. Thanks for the suggestions!!
Is “If You Take a Mouse to School” included in that set? Because it kind of makes me want to kill myself. It came from a Chick Fil A meal and I think I finally threw it away. I know. It takes a lot for me to throw a book away, even a cheap little stapled one.
It is in that set. Why do you hate it so much? I’m not sure it’s hit me as any worse than the others…
Really, the question is what kind of books DOESN’T Lincoln like to read? Because he is a reading maniac and will demand the books from his top bookshelves (I’d been collecting kids’ books for years before he was born) to read. You know, the LONG Dr. Seuss ones like Thidwick the Moose.
Link loves the “If you Give” books, and his other favorites rotate every few days. It’s a little hard to keep up with, but I’m so thankful he’s already a reader!
Dr. Seuss books ARE long, aren’t they?!
Today I read How I Became a Pirate to Becky’s (@thevioletfig) kindergarten class in honor of Read Across America! It was so fun!
Annalyn is into pirates right now, thanks to Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney. I’ll have to check this one out!
Me: currently, The DNA of Relationships
Mallory’s current fave: Edward Fudwupper
Caroline’s current fave: Big Wide Mouthed Frog
Lydia’s current fave: Mommy’s Best Kisses
I don’t know ANY of those books! Now I’m off to find them on the library website…
The Bear series by Karma Wilson is one of my favorites. Someone gave us Bear Snores On and I read it every night to my three kids while expecting my fourth. I loved hearing them repeat the key phrase. There are several more now and they are all just fun and easy for kids to catch on to and participate in the reading.
Those books sound fun – thank you for the recommendation!
Thanks for the suggestions! :) I also like Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type, Thomas’s Snowsuit, and The Monster at the End of this Book. :) And Matilda, but that’s for when she gets a little older probably. Maybe a year if she’s anything like Matilda. ;) My students always love Caps for Sale, but I agree with you: why “tsz tsz tsz”??
Just found it kind of funny that I read “Caps for Sale” with a student today, and “Matilda” came up in discussion at a team meeting. :)
I’ve heard of Click, Clack, Moo but not the snowsuit and the monster books. I love the suggestions – I’ll have to look for them at the libvrary!
Also known as the LIBRARY. Sheesh.
The monster book is really old (it’s from when I was little;). It’s a Sesame Street book.
When my girls were little their favorite classics were Where the Wild Things Are. Go Dog Go!, Madeline, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Sylvester and the Magic Peeble. Now, my oldest, age 10, reads Harry Potter. My youngest, 9, and I are reading Misty of Chincoteague.