Buy it: Snowmen All Year
Snowmen All Year (By Caralyn Buehner) – My daughter and I loved the book Snowmen at Night, so we were so excited to get this companion book. In Snowmen All Year, a boy wishes that the snowman he built was magic so he could stay with him all year. The boy then imagines all the fun things that he and his snowman could do, like swimming, going to the zoo, watching the fireworks, flying a kite and going to the beach. The boy wishes that the snow he used to build his snowman was magic and wouldn’t melt away. And on the last page, you see he gets his wish. My daughter and I love the bright, colorful illustrations of the Snowmen books and fun, rhyming text.
The book recommendations included on this website are books that my daughter Ally, now age 5, and I have read and enjoyed together. I recommend the books that stand out to me as excellent children’s books for writing, illustrations, originality, story and characters. Ally and I hope you enjoy them too!
Buy it: Lulu and the Brontosaurus
Lulu and the Brontosaurus (By Judith Viorst) – Lulu always gets what she wants. So when she asks her parents for a brontosaurus for her birthday, she throws a major fit when they say “no. ” Lulu packs a suitcase and heads out into the forest to find her own brontosaurus. And she actually finds one. But unfortunately, the brontosaurus doesn’t want to be Lulu’s pet, he wants Lulu to be HIS pet. Lulu decides she doesn’t like the idea of being a pet, outsmarts the brontosaurus and escapes. And later when she and the brontosaurus meet up again, they realize that neither one of them wants to be a pet but that they can be friends. During the story, Lulu realizes also that being polite and sweet is much better than being selfish and throwing tantrums. This is a chapter book, but the chapters are short and funny, and feature interesting black and white illustrations. I would recommend it for kids ages 5 to 8.
The book recommendations included on this website are books that my daughter Ally, now age 5, and I have read and enjoyed together. I recommend the books that stand out to me as excellent children’s books for writing, illustrations, originality, story and characters. Ally and I hope you enjoy them too!
Buy it: Children Make Terrible Pets
Children Make Terrible Pets (By Peter Brown) – A bear named Lucy in a pink tutu finds a little boy in the forest. Lucy thinks the boy is so cute and decides to take him home to be her pet. Lucy’s mother warns her that children make terrible pets, but Lucy says she will take full responsibility. Soon Lucy discovers that her new pet is hard to potty train, ruins the furniture and makes terrible messes. Then one day she can’t find her pet. She looks and looks until she finds him with his whole family. They say good-bye and Lucy realizes that her mom was right – children do make terrible pets. But then Lucy finds another usual pet! This book is very funny and will be sure to make you and your child giggle.
The book recommendations included on this website are books that my daughter Ally, now age 5, and I have read and enjoyed together. I recommend the books that stand out to me as excellent children’s books for writing, illustrations, originality, story and characters. Ally and I hope you enjoy them too!
Buy it: Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl
Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl! (By Tedd Arnold) – My daughter Ally asked to go to the store to buy a Fly Guy book because they are so popular with her kindergarten class. I’d never read them before but I was happy to discover that the Fly Guy books are cute, funny and feature simple words for early readers. The books are about a boy name Buzz who has a pet fly named Fly Guy, who can say his name. In each Fly Guy book, the Buzz and Fly Guy have fun adventures together like playing hide and seek, going on vacation or the time Buzz’s grandma swallowed Fly Guy. In Fly Guys Meets Fly Girl Fly Guy and Buzz meet a little girl named Lizz and her pet, Fly Girl. Fly Girl is great at tricks and eating gross things. My daughter always laughs at the pages where Fly Guy eats a rotten tomato and Fly Girl eats a dead worm. This book proves that kids love books that are simple, fun and yes, maybe a little disgusting.
The book recommendations included on this website are books that my daughter Ally, now age 5, and I have read and enjoyed together. I recommend the books that stand out to me as excellent children’s books for writing, illustrations, originality, story and characters. Ally and I hope you enjoy them too!
Buy it: Snow Day
Snow Day (By Patricia Lakin) – This is a great book to get for beginning readers. It features simple beginning words, rhymes, repetition and a very fun story. Snow Day is about four friends – Sam, Pam, Will and Jill – who are excited to go out and play in the snow. They get bundled up and grab their sleds, but when they get to the hill they remember something – they’re supposed to be at school. So they run home quickly to fix the situation. Soon the reader discovers that these four friends are school principals. They each call in a snow day for their school and rush back out to sled together and enjoy the snow day.
The book recommendations included on this website are books that my daughter Ally, now age 5, and I have read and enjoyed together. I recommend the books that stand out to me as excellent children’s books for writing, illustrations, originality, story and characters. Ally and I hope you enjoy them too!
Buy it: The Nutcracker – A Magical Pop-Up Adventure
The Nutcracker – A Magical Pop-Up Adventure (By Nick Denchfield) – My daughter Ally, age 5, has seen the Nutcracker ballet a couple of times and loves it. But before she saw it for the first time, my mother-in-law gave her this book to help her understand the story behind the ballet. This book features an easy to understand telling of the Nutcracker as well as fun flaps to lift and some absolutely amazing pop-up pages. Ally loves to look at this book, which features a “growing” Christmas tree, a spinning Sugarplum Fairy and wonderful pop-ups of the Land of Snow and the Land of Sweets. A great gift idea for children who are about to see or have seen the Nutcracker.
The book recommendations included on this website are books that my daughter Ally, now age 5, and I have read and enjoyed together. I recommend the books that stand out to me as excellent children’s books for writing, illustrations, originality, story and characters. Ally and I hope you enjoy them too!
Buy it: Being Friends
Being Friends (By Karen Beaumont) – Two little girls are great friends despite their differences. One wears gowns and crowns and one likes caps and jeans. One likes playing dress-up while the other likes rocks and tools. One pretends to be a princess while the other pretends to be a chimpanzee. But both girls like counting falling stars, having pillow fights and playing ball. But most importantly they both like being friends. A great story to teach children that being friends doesn’t mean being exactly the same.
The book recommendations included on this website are books that my daughter Ally, now age 5, and I have read and enjoyed together. I recommend the books that stand out to me as excellent children’s books for writing, illustrations, originality, story and characters. Ally and I hope you enjoy them too!
Buy it: The Pout-Pout Fish
The Pout-Pout Fish (By Deborah Diesen) – There is one fish in the sea with a constant pout, who spreads the “dreary-wearies.” The other fish try to get the Pout-Pout Fish to cheer up but he says it’s just the way he is and he can’t help it. Then one fish gives the Pout-Pout Fish a kiss and he finally feels happy. He realizes instead that he’s a Kiss-Kiss Fish and he kisses all his friends and spreads happiness. A cute story about having a positive attitude.
The book recommendations included on this website are books that my daughter Ally, now age 5, and I have read and enjoyed together. I recommend the books that stand out to me as excellent children’s books for writing, illustrations, originality, story and characters. Ally and I hope you enjoy them too!
Buy it: My Mommy Hung the Moon
My Mommy Hung the Moon (By Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell) – A sweet story about all the amazing things mothers can do from the point of view of children. Mothers bake cookies, drive car pools, dance and steal bases but according to their children, they also light up the sun, zap out the thunder, feather the birds, blast off rocketships and sparkle the stars. A wonderful book about the love between mothers and their children and how children believe their moms can do everything.
The book recommendations included on this website are books that my daughter Ally, now age 5, and I have read and enjoyed together. I recommend the books that stand out to me as excellent children’s books for writing, illustrations, originality, story and characters. Ally and I hope you enjoy them too!
My daughter Ally is 5 years old and with Thanksgiving approaching, I wanted to teach her to focus on all the things for which she is thankful.
So I made a turkey body out of brown cardstock and cut 25 “feathers” out of red, orange, yellow, green and purple cardstock. I taped the turkey body up on the kitchen wall with a sign above it that reads “We’re thankful for…” Each night at dinner, my daughter, husband and I take turns taking a “feather” out of a jar on the table and writing one thing we are thankful for on it. Then we tape the feather up on the turkey.
This activity has been a great way to think about the many things for which we are grateful and also to learn about each other. I was surprised by the simple things that Ally is thankful for – her house, her family, food, her pets, etc. She hasn’t listed a toy or a single material THING.
My husband gave thanks for chocolate and our smiles. I’ve found that I’m most thankful for our vacations and family adventures together this year…and of course Ally’s grandparents, who babysit and allow my husband and I to have regular date nights.
As each day goes by and we countdown to Thanksgiving, our turkey gets more and more feathers showing all the joys and gifts in our lives. I know we’ll continue this Thankful Turkey project every year and make it a family tradition. I think I’ll take a picture of the turkey each year. It will be fun to see how the things we are thankful for change …or maybe stay the same.
