Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Favorite Picture Books

I talked about  Luke's reading list back in the summer and had a HUGE response with great recommendations for early/middle elementary readers.  I thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite children's books today so you can jot down some titles for your own kids' collection or make a few selections to put away as birthday party gifts or even shop ahead for Christmas!

I am a SUCKER for books.  S.U.C.K.E.R.  My parents read to us all the time growing up and I love fostering that in my own kids as well.  We frequent the library multiple times a month and we've found lots of our favorites through the library, but we also like to have our own copies of some of our very favorites to have on hand.  Our top-reading pile is ever-changing, but here's what is currently on repeat in our house...

This book CRACKS my kids up because my parents have some pretty pesky squirrels at their lake house (including one that we SWORE was going to attack my dad) and they laugh so hard every time we read it thinking about this scenario unfolding there :)  There are several other "Those Darn Squirrels" books that we've checked out from the library before and they're so so so cute!




The selfish antics of Pig the Pug crack everyone up and the illustrations are giggle-inducing as well...



We've checked Ferdinand out from the library before and anticipating the movie coming out we recently added a copy to our own bedtime library.  The illustrations are simple and the story is sweet and endearing.  We love Ferdinand!


We LOVE Dragons Love Tacos!  It's funny and quirky and the illustrations are precious.  We love it so much we had  a whole day of fun based on it :)  PS -  the sequel is JUST as cute!



Pocket Full of Colors is vibrant and so much fun to look at.  It tells the story of Mary Blair, a Disney illustrator and I love this description... "From her imaginative childhood to her career as an illustrator, designer, and animator for Walt Disney Studios, Mary wouldn’t play by the rules. At a time when studios wanted to hire men and think in black and white, Mary painted twinkling emerald skies, peach giraffes with tangerine spots, and magenta horses that could fly."



When Ada's house becomes smelly she embarks on a mission to find out what's causing it and conducts a bunch of stinky experiments :)  "Inspired by real-life makers such as Ada Lovelace and Marie Curie, Ada Twist, Scientist champions girl power and women scientists, and brings welcome diversity to picture books about girls in science."



I ADORE Rosie Revere!  She tinkers and invents contraptions and creations and when she tries to invent something for her Aunt to use to fly she learns that "you can only truly fail if you quit"  Both Rosie Rever and Ada Twist have wonderfully engaging illustrations, are full of interesting information and historical figures and have WONDERFULLY encouraging and inspiring messages for girls (and boys!).  We LOVE these and Iggy Peck, Architect will be joining our collection soon. 


These books are SO MUCH FUN!  Reading the notes from the crayons and relating that to our own experiences with preferred colors, broken crayons, etc. is fun every time we read.  They're funny and creative and imaginiative and some of our longest running favorite books.  You can read about our family books days based on the first book  HERE.



Who DOESN'T love If you Give a Moose a Muffin?!?! 


We just had  a family book club day based on this book and if you love pizza you'll love this book! :)


These books are ADORABLE!  Underpants are ALWAYS funny and the illustrations are darling.  There's another book (Aliens Love Underpants) as well that we based  a family book club day on.


This was a recent book fair purchase and I swear we've read it every night since then.  It's outrageous and over the top and Griffin laughs EVERY single time we read it :)


Thelma is a regular horse who dreams of being a unicorn - there's a "glitter accident" and she's mistaken for a unicorn and instantly becomes a star.  She realizes that the fame isn't all it's cracked up to be and decides to go back to her old life because there's nothing better than being herself.  Love!


We fell in love with Skippyjon when Luke was in Kindergarten and we went and saw a Skippyjon Jones play and have been adding to our Skippyjon collection ever since.  The original Skippyjon is our favorite - he's a kitten turned swordfighter and it's the cutest story ever!


These two are oldies (from my childhood!) and bedtime staples around here.


One of our all-time-favorites!  Such a fun story and the idea of the farm animals making demands of the farmer cracks my kids up every time.


There you go!  Our current favorites!  I'd love to know your favorite picture books so we can check them out - hoping y'all found something to look for at your library or to order for your at-home collection.

Happy reading, friends!


PS - This post contained affiliate links... thank you so much for reading and supporting my blog!

46 comments :

  1. What great titles! Some of these are our favorites as well. Can't wait to check out the others. Have you guys read Rock, Paper, Scissors? It's by the same author as The Day the Crayons Quit. It's hysterical.

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    1. We haven't!!! But I wrote it down to check out from the library ASAP!

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  2. Thank you so much for the recommendations!! I am always looking for new books for my kiddos!!

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  3. I don't think my kids have ever read Ferdinand! I need to change that asap!

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  4. I just read the Crayon books yesterday! Those are our family's FAVORITE!! We read them all the time. Loved these!

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  5. Oh, these are great suggestions, friend!!! I'm going to pick up some of these asap!!

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  6. I haven't read many of these books, and I needed that little push to change up our bedtime reading list. Also, if you haven't read The Book Without Pictures -- do so! It is hysterical.

    www.FOURPOINTSMOM.com

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    1. We love The Book Without Pictures!!! Great suggestion!

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  7. Children's books are my ALL TIME FAVORITE! We have a mini school library in our home and I always tell the kids we can have too many toys, but never too many books ; )

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    1. I love that sentiment!! My daughter's birthday is coming up and I'm going to tell people to give her books and clothes instead of toys, we already have enough that she doesn't even play with.

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  8. We just ordered Thelma the Unicorn and Dragons Love Tacos from the book order. We are waiting for Dragons love tacos to come out in paperback! We also love the Dinosaurs and underwear books too! such great recommendations here! xoxo ERIN

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  9. LOVE that you're promoting these. I'm a Reading Specialist, and far too few parents read to their kiddos. It makes ALL the difference in the world. Thanks for sharing!!

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  10. You need Dr. Dog by Babbette Cole. It's fantastic! The highlight is when Grandpa toots so hard he blows the roof off of the house.

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  11. As a first grade teacher, I have read and enjoyed many of these books professionally. I also loved the David books, especially No, David! I completely forgot about "But No Elephants" from my childhood until seeing it here. I instantly heard my dad's voice reading it to me. What a fun post!

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  12. I love these books. I read so many picture books a day (being a kindergarten teacher and mom) and love getting recommendations for new books. I cannot wait to find "There's a Giraffe in my Soup" and "Pocket Full of Colors". Skippy John Jones is my nightmare to read...lol...I leave that to the books on tape people :)

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  13. I am writing all of the ones we don't have down for Christmas ideas!! We love books and sometimes going to the bookstore, it's overwhelming with all the options! I love hearing some of your favorites! We love the The Day the Crayons Quit- it's one of our favorites!

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  14. How cute! I am an Elementary Education major and always love seeing your family book days for great ideas and this post is so helpful too! I actually just put a similar post up this morning .. haha!! Thanks for the recommendations!

    Xoxo
    Juliana Grace | www.julianagraceblogspace.com

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  15. Dragons Love Tacos backfired on me. My son loved the book but refuses to eat tacos because he "doesn't want to breathe fire." We explain that only happens with salsa, but he insists he can't have them.

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  16. I love the books you recommended that promote diversity and girl power! Patricia Polacco is a favorite children's author of mine. Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear is also a great book about the origins of Winnie the Pooh. And Last Stop on Market Street is an excellent book to promote service.

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  17. These are some of our favs too!! My kiddos love Pete the Cat, too!!

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  18. Oh you have so many great selections! Some of our (my!) favorites are Mo Willems books! Elephant & Piggie books! Those crack me up!

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  19. Ferdinand is my FAVORITE! I'm so excited for the movie!! And But No Elephants is one of my childhood favorites too! I need to get that one for our house!

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  20. The Bugliest Bug was one of our favorites when my son was little. And Things that Go by Richard Scarry.

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  21. We don't have most of these which is shocking because we read a TON of books. Thanks for the recs! Several of these will be ordered for the kids for Christmas!

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  22. Oh how I love your book post! I think you would all love Peanut Butter and Cupcake by Terry Border. Such a sweet message and great illustrations--- and it's all about food!

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    1. This is one of my students' all-time favorites! (kindergarten) I have way too many to name but the list is great!

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  23. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Evening King, Angelina Ballerina, and the Little Polar Bear books were all favorites for my kids. I have made notes of your books to restock for my grandkids!

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  24. If I Built a Car and If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen are 2 of my most favorite children's picture books! I'm an elementary art teacher and my students LOVE his books and we use them to talk about dream houses, architecture, and are working with our STEM teacher to design and build cars! They have wonderful rhythm to the words and beautiful illustrations!

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  25. Love this post! I just put most of these books on hold at my local library to pick up! Would love another post just like this! :)

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  26. Love your list. So many of these are my favourites- especially the Aaron Blabey ones! You should check out 'The Very Cranky Bear' series by Nick Bland. Actually anything by Nick Bland is pretty awesome.

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  27. First grade teacher..I love a lot of these! I recommend I ain't gonna paint no more. Super cute rhyming book with some boy humor at the end.

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  28. Soul sister! Fellow Canadian! Teacher too! I teach kindergarten (and have three kids - girl, girl, boy) and I still have my favourite children's book BUT NO ELEPHANTS! I read it to my kids for YEARS and I continue to read it to my kindergarten students and they LOVE it. Over the years I have read your blog I have marvelled at a few things you have mentioned (butter tarts! Halloween costumes over snow suits) but I had to comment!

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  29. You've got to read the Knuffle Bunny trilogy, by MO Willems! The 3rd one, Knuffle Bunny Free, makes me cry every time! The kids love these books because they are so relatable and have great illustrations!

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  30. So fun! Our son LOVES books! I mean loves them! I am so glad he does.

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  31. Put a few in my cart of Christmas. Thank you!

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  32. Thank you so much for your reviews! I always see bloggers doing book reviews on the books for adults, but doing one for kiddos is a great idea! Please do more in the future!

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  33. I saw someone else said Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Love that one. Also love the Franklin books- the illustrations are awesome. Just started reading some of those to my three year old. By the same author of Click Clack Moo is Giggle Giggle Quack, which is really cute, too. Another ones that's really good is Stellaluna by Janell Cannon, about a fruit bat that loses his momma for awhile. Then is reunited. It's a bit long, but my kids always loved it. We love Where Did Bunny Go by Nancy Tafuri. She has another one called Will You Be my Friend? with the same animals. Really good and awesome pictures. I could go on, but I'll stop. I love kids books! I have 7 children, oldest is 19, youngest is 3, so I've been reading picture books for a long, long time haha!

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  34. Pete the Cat!! Great themes in each book of not sweating the small stuff!

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  35. Just wanted to pop in to say THANK YOU! for sharing these. I took my boys (twins- 4.5) to the library tonight, was feeling overwhelmed looking at the shelves and remembered this post. We came home with Dragons Love Tacos, Pocket Full of Color, and Giraffe in my Soup! They are excited to read them :)

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