Kids Books We Love

We love the library! We visit at least once a week. I love wandering down the aisles and choosing books based on their cover. I have found some great books that way.  Lately I have been thinking of trying to get some of my own writing published, so I have been researching various children's book publishers and reading their titles.

The children and I sometimes have very different standards when it comes to books. Eddie tends to favor books featuring his favorite TV characters, regardless of the quality of the writing. Violet tends to like books with crisp, colorful illustrations. I appreciate clever stories with interesting illustrations.

Here are some of our favorite children's books that we have discovered over the last few months:

Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site
by Sherri Duskey Rinker & Tom Lichtenheld

Eddie absolutely loves this book, and so do I. The illustrations are great and the text has great rhythm and rhyme. I love reading kids' books that are easy to read aloud without stumbling over awkward near-rhymes. I especially love this book because it is a great bedtime story for kids who love tractors and trucks. It seems like most kids' books involving tractors are boring, but not this one. Eddie and I highly recommend it!

A Dog is a Dog
by Stephen Shaskan

This book caught us all by surprise. When I checked it out as part of my research, I certainly didn't expect to like it as much as I do. It is so simple, but so entertaining. The first time I read this book to the children, Eddie and I both laughed out loud. It is still great on repeat readings and Violet loves to look at the pictures. I hope to see more by this author in the future.



Learning to Ski With Mr. Magee
by Chris Van Dusen

Here is another book that has great rhymes. I appreciate children's authors who don't try to dumb their writing down for kids. This book uses the word "succulent" and it totally works. The illustrations are amazing, the story is funny, and we all love this book. Van Dusen has written other "Mr. Magee" books as well. We have also read A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee and Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee, both of which were good, but not as good as this one. I also just read The Circus Ship by this author and thought it was great as well.



The Princess and the Pig
by Jonathan Emmett & Poly Bernatene

These days, I am always searching for good books for girls. I especially like books that teach kids positive values and that it is okay if things don't work out quite the way you think they should. This one definitely fits the bill. It is a story of mistaken identity as a princess and a pig switch places. I love that in the end the princess is happier not being a princess. The illustrations are a lot of fun, too.

There's Nothing Like a Puffin
by Sue Soltis & Bob Kolar

Violet absolutely loved this book. I didn't find it terribly interesting, but the illustrations are simple, but wonderful. The other thing I like about the book is that it teaches kids about comparing and contrasting. And reading it to Eddie led us to learning all about puffins on the internet.