Educational Picture Books

We read tons & tons of books and I need variety.  The kids would be happy reading the same books over & over again.  But, I need to explore new ones.  Here are some in our "library basket" right now.  The girls always like to read books about animals, and this one about ladybugs was a hit:

Gail Gibbons' book taught all of us a bunch about lady bugs!  I did not realize they have two sets of wings, that there are 475 types of lady bugs in North America.  The girls learned that they eat aphids and other tiny bugs on leaves.  We discussed a lot of commonalities between ladybugs and butterflies.

 

If you like ocean creatures more, this one was quite interesting & eye-opening:

I have also found a bunch of math picture boosk by Loreen Leedy.  Catherine reads these every day, even taking them to the pool to read during the lifeguard breaks.

Catherine also liked:

We actually read these together at night and have great "math" discussions - without worksheets & pencils ... just talking about math:

I am a bit ashamed that I am just now introducing my kids to this series of books:

The girls loved the glittery scales and I loved the moral lesson about sharing.  Our library has one of the sequels:

I have requested one more in this series from the library and hope to do some sparkly crafts inspired by these books.  Recently we read a book about Chinese characters which the girls loved.  I found another book by the same author:

This book by Huy Voun Lee tells the story of a mother and son at the beach.  The mother teaches her son several Chinese characters, with little stories to help remember how the characters are made.  These were neat books and I wish I knew about them when we were studying China!



Fun Picture Books

I get a lot of book selections from other blogs, so here are some picture books which we have enjoyed recently.  The first one is similar to Harold and the Purple Crayon, except a dog is the main character.  The girls loved this book by Louise Yates:

I have not done it yet, but I intend to give the girls a long strip of adding machine tape and have them draw a story ... on and on .. until they get to the end of the tape!

This year we studied China (including the Silk Road, the Great Wall, and Chinese characters).  This is a book set in modern times which includes Chinese characters:

This cute book is about a little Chinese boy who teaches his friends the Chinese characters for various items on a farm.  My girls loved copying over the characters.  I found it interesting that several of the characters have little stories which are used to teach the children (and I presume adults) how to remember which characters have which meanings.

Another treasure by Anna Dewdney:

In this cute book the child llama gets bored at the grocery store and throws all the food out of the cart.  Mama Llama explains that she doesn't like shopping either, but she likes spending time with her child.  So then the child llama and she clean the store, work together to finish their shopping, and have a special day together.  Several lessons to learn here!

In the tradition of Dr. Seuss, this cute book by Marilyn Sadler was enjoyed by my girls:

I highly recommend it!

Recent Beginner Books

I do these posts for our own benefit as much as other people's benefit - these are some of our favorite books and I may check them out again.  We still get 20-30 books per week from the library.  We literally read them all - several times! 

Most of them are picture books and we read 5-6 in a sitting and tend to do two sittings per day.  Catherine is starting to read them by herself, and Sabrina will look at the pictures by herself.  With such a large volume of books, I need variety.  Plus, I would love for the kids to learn something from the books.  I get a lot of my book ideas from other blogs, so here goes some ones we have read recently.

Here's a cute little book about two girls who like pink by Maryann MacDonald:

The girls loved this book ... especially because they pretend to dye a dog completely pink and make a special, glittery wand.  There are some behavioral issues which are raised in this book ... such as jealousy, coveting, and friendship. 

I have also borrowed a bunch of books about space recently because Sabrina is taking a class about planets.  This one (by Franklin Branley) was interesting and raised some good discussions about life without gravity:

This one, also by Branley, focused on the heat of the Sun and its distance from the Earth:

Another one of Branley's books was a favorite of the girls and did a great job of describing why we have day and night:

This book described what a trip to Mars may be like:

I read a blog about encouraging children to write about simple topics, about "small moments."  The author of that blog was a teacher and trying to encourage her students to choose simple writing topics.  As an example, she suggested this book:

Jane Chelsea Aragon has written a fabulous book about a girl who pours salt in her hands and feeds it to a deer in her backyard one night.  I know that plot seems amazingly simple, but the girls loved this book.  About once a day I ask the girls to "grab two books each from the library book basket and bring them to the couch."  This was a frequently chosen book!

Another favorite book with a very simple topic was this one by Marla Frazee:

It is literally the story of a bunch of people getting on, riding, and then getting off a roller coaster.  I read books like this and think "Why didn't I write this book and sell it?"  This was not only a frequently chosen book, the girls asked me to re-read it even within one sitting.

With our homeschool co-op group (Classical Conversations), the girls are learning a timeline of world history.  One of the "events" is Rome Founded by Romulus and Remus.  The timeline is great, but I also want the kids to actually know what they are learning.  So, I try to get books or watch documentaries about the different events.  So, I found this book by Anne Rockwell:

This is beyond a picture book and actually had several chapters.  Catherine was able to read it by herself, but it is about 50 pages and is longer than the other books in the post.  The girls enjoyed it and it drove home the story of Romulus and Remus: that they were nursed and raised by a wolf and Romulus ended up founding Rome.

Like all historical fiction, the author has added a bunch of extra facts to make the story interesting.  Because this is a myth anyway, the question of whether the added "facts" are accurate or not is probably moot.  But, historical fiction always makes me a bit uncomfortable.  I always fear that the kids will assume all of this information is true, even if it is not. 

Perhaps I have this fear because of my legal career - as an attorney, we always take what everyone says with a huge grain of salt.  One of the first and best pieces of advice I was ever given was: The question is never "is my client lying?"  The question is "what is my client lying about?"  That same distrust can be carried over to all of life.  So, I am a bit uncomfortable reading a book to the girls and saying "part of this is true, part is not ... well actually none of this is true, it is just a myth.  But, you need to learn it anyway." 

That being said, the girls loved this book.  We had a great discussion about mammals nursing their young.  I thought they did not know what nursing was and explained it to them - how mammals produce milk and babies suckle their mothers.  Catherine said "I know what nursing is, Mommy."  I asked her how she knew.  She shocked me when she said "I watched it one time."  Intrigued, I asked where.  She said "With Mrs. Casey and Hannah, at their old house."  They are friends of ours and I assume Mrs. Casey must have nursed Hannah in front of Catherine while babysitting my girls.  Catherine did explain to me that she had never seen a baby human nursing from a wolf, like Romulus and Remus did.  Thank God she had never seen that while one of my friend's babysat her!

Silly Books ...

I had seen on blogs a lot of references to "Pete the Cat," but had no idea who or what that was.  Then I found 2 books in the children's library about Pete the Cat.  On a whim, I checked them out for the girls.  We were in love with them!  James Dean, the author, has struck gold.  I hope he has more coming!

Our favorite one was this one:

The book, like all good children's books, is ridiculously simple.  Yet, it is rhythmical, silly and has a great moral lesson.  Pete loves his white shoes and sings a song about it.  Then he steps in strawberries and his shoes turn red.  Does he cry?  Goodness no!  He sings a song about how much he loves his red shoes.  The books continues in this manner.

After about two readings, Sabrina would "read" this book by herself.  When she sat down and "read" it to Robby, he was so impressed that she was reading now.  I had to explain that she had simply memorized the book.  But, she still sits and "reads" it aloud at least once a day.  She dances in her seat during the songs and loves the silliness of the plot. 

We have also started copying the book's recurring refrain in our daily life.  When something "bad" happens to Sabrina, like she breaks a crayon, I'll say "Will Sabrina cry?  Goodness no!"  This sometimes will distract her from whatever it was that upset her and diverts a potential melt down.  Sabrina is going through some emotional swings, and I am getting creative with my solutions.

The next Pete the Cat book we enjoyed is this one:

This book is also ridiculously simple.  Pete starts with four buttons, which he loves and sings a song "my four groovy buttons ..." As he goes through the book, he keeps losing a button.  The book provides a quick subtraction lesson each time he loses a button.  In addition, Pete chooses not to get upset when he loses a button, he simply changes the wording of his song to "my three groovy buttons," etc. 

I love the life lessons in these books!  If only my kids were as happy-go-lucky as Pete the Cat!  Ironically, I got the Christmas Pete the Cat book from the library and was not impressed.  The plot, and the message, were not nearly as good.  There is one more Pete the Cat book which is on hold at the library for me.  I hope we love that one!

But, we did find a new, fun Christmas book which I had never read on my own.  I saw this on a teaching blog:

The author, Margie Palatini, has written a cute book about a moose family.  The father does everything he can to make Christmas perfect for his family.  The kids found this funny and cute.  It is always interesting to me how so many books use animal families. 

Turtles, Habitats & a Magic Paint Brush

I could not think of a more original title to this post, so I summarized three of the early reader books we have enjoyed this week.  Kind of creates an interesting title, doesn't it?  In keeping with our animal books, we have been reading One Tiny Turtle, by Nicola Davies:

The girls loved this.  We haven't yet, but I hope to do some painting of turtles and of some of the illustrations from the books.  The drawings are great and I love how much the girls learn about turtles while Catherine practices her reading!

Another fun book about animals is Even an Octopus Needs a Home, by Irene Kelley:

This book covers a lot of different habitats which animals live in: from a coral reef, to an ant hill, to a polar ice cap.  The illustrations are great and we were able to have a lot of interesting discussions about differences among animals.  This book is a little deeper than an introduction to habitats, with quite a bit of details.

One book which came with our Georgia Cyber Academy curriculum that the children loved is called Tye May and the Magic Brush by Molly Bang.  This is a little more than an "easy reader" and still a bit challenging for Catherine.  I read it to her a few times before she was able to read it to me.  Great practice!  But, the girls both loved the story.

It tells the story of a Chinese orphan girl named Tye May.  She wants to paint but is too poor to own a brush (enter a discussion about poverty with my girls, who own at least two dozen paint brushes).  In the middle of the night a mysterious woman gives her a paint brush, but warns her to be careful with it.  She begins to paint with it the next day.

Everything she paints with the magic brush comes to life, which has some positive, and negative, consequences.  The girls loved this book!  We have been doing a lot of painting lately.  Now, every time the girls paint, they talk about what would happen if their paintings came to life.  I love blending different subjects together ... art and reading!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

One book which we have recently read and loved is called Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, which is just a silly story about letters climbing onto a coconut tree, falling off, and then climbing back up.  A very fun read:

I have been trying recently to do art projects and other activities based on the books we are reading.  This book was easy, as we made out own letter-filled coconut trees with paper towel tubes, green construction paper, and foam letter stickers:

 Catherine put her letters in alphabetical order in a swirl around the trunk of the tree.

Sabrina's letter placement was completely haphazard:

They love these trees!  I caught them playing "light saber" with them later that night.

What We're Reading This Week

As always, we are reading a bunch of books!  The girls love The Pencil, by Allan Ahlberg:

The book reminds me of Harold and the Purple Crayon, because it is the story of a pencil which draws things.  Everything is just a line drawing until the pencil draws a paintbrush.  Then color enters the illustrations.  When the pencil draws an eraser, the illustrations get fairly silly as various parts get erased.  I keep thinking I should have them do a craft project based on this book, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

Another silly book we love is The Salamander Room, by Anne Mazer.

This book thrilled my girls because the story starts out reasonable and then gets increasingly ridiculous.  A boy finds a salamander and decides to keep it in his room.  As the story progresses, the boy keeps "modifying" his room to accommodate the salamander.

I grabbed this next book because of the title.  I was almost through checking out and did not even open the book before getting it.  But, we just finished a unit on three dimensional shapes and I love getting books that accompany what we are studying.  So, Cubes, Cones, Cylinders and Spheres by Tana Hoban fit the bill.

The book is quite interesting because there is no text, only pictures.  Each page contains a realistic photograph of something which contains a three dimensional shape.  Catherine breezed through this book, quickly identifying each shape.  Sabrina needed some help for most of the pictures.

I have also been trying to get some books which are under Catherine's reading ability, to give her practice and increase her speed.  I don't want her to get frustrated with reading if she is always faced with challenging material.  So, here are some easy readers I got her recently which she liked:

We don't have an pets, so Catherine seems to love any books about animals.  On every few pages, she'll stop and say "Isn't he cute!"  She also enjoys the Biscuit books.

 

This book is set in a classroom, and the children are challenged to count to ten as quickly as they can:

This one is fun because it has a silliness to it, and includes the words "dum, dum, ditty, ditty."  The author, Al Perkins, copies the style of Dr. Seuss.

I hope these books inspire you!

Books We Enjoy

The girls love me to read books to them.  I often wonder if they will ever get sick of me reading books to them.  It is past bedtime as I write this. This morning I read them 2 chapters of Peter Pan.  After we came back from the pool, I read them 2 more chapters.  After dinner I read 8 pictures books to them.  Catherine is asleep, but Sabrina keeps bringing me more books from her room to read to her. 

After 3 sessions of reading today, probably totaling at least 2 hours, she still wants more!  So, I am always looking for book ideas from other bloggers and friends.  Some are misses and we don't enjoy them, but some are hits!  Here are some that I got this week which we loved:

This cute story by Amy Krouse Rosenthal is, basically, life from the spoon's perspective.  Poor spoon feels sorry for himself, thinking all the other utensils have better lives.  But, all the other utensils are jealous of spoon's unique traits.  Also by the same author and illustrator is:

This is another cute story, focusing on the partnership of two chopsticks.  One of the pair gets broken and needs to recover.  When the healthy chopstick tries to make it solo, he learns how much he needs his partner.

Our library has finally gotten in Silverlicious, from the Pinkalicious series.

We own and love Pinkalicious and have read from the library Purpilicious and Goldilicious many times.  Silverlicious is about the girl (Pinkalicious) losing a tooth.  She thinks she has lost her sweet tooth and has trouble getting a response from the tooth fairy.  Very cute; very girly.

Dog Loves Books is great because it has a cute pet for a main character and has a lot of suspense. 

I just learned that this book is part of a series, so I will try to get some more.  This is a little easy for Catherine to read, but she needs to read a high volume of material below her reading level to try to increase her fluency and speed.

I wish I had known about Alaska's Three Pigs when we studied Alaska.  This book retells the story of the three pigs, but there is a lot to learn about Alaska.  The book explains how they build igloos, what the "midnight sun" is, how dog sleds work, etc.  Instead of a wolf huffing and puffing, a grizzly bear does the mean deed.

This was also a good book to teach the children that the same story can be told in different cultures, settings, etc.

The last book which we got out this week and I loved (we also get a bunch that we either don't like or are lukewarm about) is a science one, What's It Like to be A Fish:

This book is an easy reader, educational book about fish.  We learned what fins do, why fish have gills, why humans have lungs, why big fish eat little fish, and other basic, yet interesting, facts about fish.  Sabrina was particularly enamored by the food chain discussion.  She could not believe that bigger fish ate medium sized fish, who then ate little fish.  I keep forgetting that my girls are not born knowing everything I know!

Cat in the Hat ... A Step Further

I grew up on The Cat in the Hat and have read it to my girls all the time.  It is one of our favorites and I am so proud that Catherine can read it now.  I honestly think Dr. Seuss may be the best children's writer ever.  No one can touch his diction and the amazing characters and plots he created.

I was so excited when I recently discovered a new series of books called The Cat in the Hat Learning Library.  These were not written by Dr. Seuss, but the authors Tish Rabe and Bonnie Worth do try to mimic his style.  The Cat in the Hat takes Sally and I (the boy's name is not known), as well as Thing One and Thing Two on educational journeys.  There are at least a dozen books in this series. 

I have requested them all from our local public library.  Only a handful are currently owned by the library.  But, many are being ordered by the library.  So, when the library acquires them, I get them first! 

My girls love space, so this was one of our favorites:

This book describes, at a preschool level, the different types of maps there are: topographical, political, population, etc.  It also teaches why we need maps, how they make them, etc.

Last year we studied habitats in our first grade science curriculum.  This is a great review of deserts: .

I can't wait for our library to acquire more of these books!

Drawing Lessons

We have always done lots of crafts with the girls.  But, I am not an artistic person and have never taken a single art  class.  So, when we were at the library last week I saw a "5 Steps to Drawing ..." book for kids and picked it up.  I gave it to the girls and that same evening Catherine sat for an hour and followed the instructions to draw six different types of bugs.  Sabrina only drew one bug.  But, this book requires a great deal of focus to study and copy each of the steps to complete the drawing.

I was impressed, so I requested several more books in this series from the library.  They came in today.  As soon as I brought them home, Catherine looked through them and started more drawings.  Here are some of the books in the series (they are written by several authors but the books all follow the same patterns).

My girls liked this one the least, which I guess is a little too boyish for them:

Catherine loved this one, which includes directions for drawing a baby:

The animal ones are fun (they also have ones for sea creatures, farm animals, bugs):

I also got 5 Steps for Drawing Monsters.  But, after looking at it myself I did not give it to the girls.  They do not need to learn how to draw vampires, etc.

Lots of fun!

Nature Books

I have been on kind of a nature and animal kick with my picture book selections lately with the girls.  Here are some of our favorites. 

Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg by Mia Posada shows a close up drawing of an egg with some clues (in the text and the picture) which hint at what animal is in the egg.  The next page shows the complete drawing and explains what the animal is.  This was a fun riddle-like book.  Of course after the second time we read it, the girls knew what all the animals were, so the mystery element was removed. 

But, it is a good reminder of some animals that are born from eggs (penguins, ducks, turtles, crocodiles, spiders).  The girls were shocked at how small spider eggs are and how many are contained in the egg sac.  I was shocked that octopi were born from transparent eggs.  I had no idea, but I guess they qualify as "fish" and hence are born out of eggs.

This is a fun picture book which was also riddle-like.  Lots and Lots of Zebra Stripes by Steven Swinburne is all pictures and shows up close (very close) pictures of various patterns in plants and animals.  There is very little text.  When we got to the giraffe page, Catherine ran to the bathroom and got one of her band-aids which was a giraffe pattern (we go through tons of band-aids and have all kinds of colors and designs).  She unwrapped the band-aid and put it next to the picture in the book.  It was a perfect match!

We love the Bear Snores On, the Bear Feels Scared, and all of those books in that series.  I was delighted to find more books by that same author (although not in that series).  Karma Wilson's A Frog in the Bog is a great, sing-songy book about a frog's diet of bugs with lots of rhyming words.  The frog eats one tick, then two fleas, etc.  Half way through the first reading of the book, Catherine said to me "this is a counting book."  Sabrina is learning about rhyming words and this book provides lots of opportunities for that lesson.  

This is another book by Karma Wilson.  It includes some lyrical sections, which the girls loved.  They always want me to "sing" those sections instead of read them.  When Catherine reads the book out loud, she also sings those sections.  This book is set in Antarctica and is about a baby penguin named Pip who gets separated from his parents.  He encounters a bunch of other Antarctic animals and asks them where "home" is.  Each of the animals describe their own home, and not the penguin's home.  Eventually Pip finds his parents and all is well. Great illustrations and a good review of the Antarctic habitat.


I am a bit ashamed to admit how much I learned from Those Amazing Ants by Patricia Brennan Demuth.  I had no idea that male ants did nothing but mate with the queen ant, and then die.  I had no idea that there was a "sick room" in every ant hill for injured ants.  That the ants left little drops of scent when they found food so their fellow ants could follow the trail to food.  I love how much I am learning with the girls!

This book is written in a basic enough level that children can easily understand it, yet I found it fascinating too.  The illustrations are relatively realistic, not at all cartoonish.

I hope you are able to obtain & enjoy some of these books!