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Young Children's Recommended Books Through over 30 years of working with young children and their families I have come to truly value how important good children's literature is, not only in developing a love for reading, but in establishing strong family traditions. Favorite childhood books, when re-read to our own children, often seem like passing along precious childhood memories. Reading with children is essential for them to develop the interest in and love of reading. Good readers are most often good students and successful adults. Starting with picture books for young children, graduating into few then more words, steadily builds children's language skills and understanding of the world through books — and develops a life-long love of learning. After many years of reading books

to children, and observing their reactions and interest, I have some criteria that I use when choosing good children's literature: Will the book be meaningful for the child? Does it deal with a subject that the child can relate to? Does it help the child to make sense of their world — that is the "job" of children in early childhood. Are the illustrations pleasing and compelling to a child? Does the book use humor? Will the book provoke questions and speculation from the child? Does it make them think more deeply about the contents? Are there opportunities for discussion around the content? As an adult, can you help the child expand on the story in interesting ways? Do you like it? If it is not in some way pleasing to you — you won't want to read it the ten million times that your child will request it to be read! This is a partial list of good children’s literature from years past and from current selections. There has never been a time in history when there has been such an abundance of good children’s literature and your local public library is a great resource to use when deciding which books you want to invest in for your own home library. Linda Hunter, M.A., M.F.T. Director of Education Pretend City (Grandmother of Nine) Download printable PDF version CLASSICS: The Tale of Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter 1902 The Story of Ferdinand Munro Lea 1936 Horton Hatches the Egg Dr. Seus 1940 Make Way for Ducklings Robert McCloske 1941 Curious George H. A. Re 1941 The Little House Virginia Lee Burto 1943 The Carrot Seed Ruth Krau 1945 Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brow 1947 Caps for Sale Esphyr Slobodkin 1947 The Cat in the Hat Dr. Seus 1957 The Snowy Day Ezra Jack Keat 1962 Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Senda 1963 Corduroy Don Freema 1968 The Very Hungry Catapillar Eric Carl 1970 The Snowman Raymond Brigg 1978 MORE CURRENT CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: Peekaboo Morning Rachel Isadora Knuffle Bunny Mo Willems I Have to Go Anna Ross & Norman Gorbaty Yellow Umbrella Jae Soo Liu A Cool Drink of Water Barbara Kerley Hello World Manta Stujie One Seed, One Child Kathryn Cave One Leaf Rides the Wind Celeste Davidson Mannis Where are You Going? To See my Friend Eric Carle & K. Iwamura If I Ran the Zoo Dr. Seuss Yertle the Turtle Dr. Seuss The Lorax Dr. Seuss Abuela's Weave Omar S. Sanchez Amazing Grace Mary Hoffman On the Day You Were Born Debra Frasier Mama, Do You Love Me? Barbara Joosse Papa, Do You Love Me? Barbara Joosse Yo! Yes! Christopher Rashka Hush! A Thai Lullaby Holly Meade My Life with the Wave Catherine Cowan (based on a story by Octavio Paz) The Rainbabies Laura Kraus Melmed Little Oh Laura Kraus Melmed The Gardener Stewart There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly Simms Taback Arlene Alda's 1 2 3 Alda Throw your Tooth on the Roof Beeler My Name is Yoon Recorvits & Gabi Sciatkowska 10 Little Rubber Ducks Carle From Head to Toe Carle Eating the Alphabet Ehlert Is it Larger? Is it Smaller? Hoban More, Fewer, Less Hoban (she has a whole series of great photo books about concepts) We All Sing with the Same Voice Miller and Sheppard M. Greene City by Numbers T. Johnson Alphabet City T. Johnson 1 2 3 to the Zoo Carle Swimm Leo Lionni Little Blue & Little Yellow Leo Lionni Frederic Leo Lionni Whoever You Are Mem Fox Mouse Pain Ellen Stoll Walsh Mouse Count Ellen Stoll Walsh The Turn-around Upside-down Alphabet Boo Lisa Campbell Ernst Teeth, Tails & Tenticles Christopher Wormell All the Colors We Are: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color Katie Kissinger Two Worlds Together in Me Jamie Morgan dePina

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