Top Ten Tuesday - My Favorite Picture Books

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic from the Broke and the Bookish is all about the graphics. Since I'm not a huge fan of graphic novels I'm going with picture books.  At 7 the Tornado is getting a little past picture books and we've moved on to reading chapter books at night.  While I like the chapter books I'm missing the picture books!  Luckily he's able to read them to me now which is almost as good!  Here are some of my favorites -

1.  How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague - This was one of the first series we really started reading and the dinosaur hijinks were just so fun!  When he got a little older and became fascinated by dinosaurs it was fun to figure out which dinosaur is doing what and find the name which is always hidden somewhere on the page.  There are a number of books in the series but this one is my favorite.

2.  Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney  - This was one of those random library grabs and it quickly became one of our favorite bedtime reads.  I think I went on and ordered our own copy after 2 days because I knew we were going to be reading it a lot and we did!  We got the rest of the Llama Llama books and they're all good but this one is just great!

3.  Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh - When the Tornado was in a preschool he came home talking all about this book called Mouse Paint.  They had read it at story time and he had loved it.  With some help from Amazon Prime I had my very own copy 2 days later and could see why he liked it so much.  There's mischievous mice and a a lurking cat and the added benefit of showing what happens if you mix different colors.

4.  Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown - This is one of those books you get at baby showers.  I think it's mandatory to have a copy of this book if you have an infant.  My husband and I are very split on this one.  I love it and it gives him the creeps with the old lady sitting in the corner and saying good night to everything.  It's a great book to read in a rocking chair because you can slow the pacing of your reading and rocking which had a very relaxing effect on a colicky infant once upon a time!

5. The Secret Life of Squirrels by Nancy Rose - This is a book we got fairly recently just as he was growing out of picture books and I'm so sad about that because it's awesome!  The whole premise is that squirrels live essentially just like us and the pictures of photographs of squirrels getting their mail from tiny squirrel sized mailboxes and taking baths in tiny squirrel sized bath tubs and it's amazing and hilarious.  If you have  small child or know a small child get this book!

6.  Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems - This was another random library grab and I was blown away by the way the dialogue was done and just how fun the whole concept was!  What kid wants to go to bed?  And it's impossible to resist a loud mouth pigeon who doesn't want to go to bed any earlier than they do!

7.  The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton - Anytime I see the cover of this book my brain instantly starts screaming "The sun has set not long ago now everybody goes below to take a bath in one big tub with soap all over scrub scrub scrub!"  I can keep going but you get the general idea.  This one is such fun to read aloud and Boynton's writing is amazing!  We had a ton of her books but this one is the universal favorite around here!

8.  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault, and Lois Ehlert - This is such a great preschool age book because it features all the letters so it's easy to work into just about anything educational but the letters are falling out of a tree which just makes it a fun book!  Plus the title is said about 100 times and it's just fun to say getting louder and louder as you go!

While I miss the picture books I have had a good time introducing chapter books and these are 2 of our favorite intro chapter books!

9.  Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo - This series is the perfect pick for kids that are just a little too old for picture books but aren't quite old enough for many of the chapter books.   The illustrations are full color and absolutely gorgeous and Mercy Watson is a pig who is always creating chaos - normally while trying to get an extra helping of her favorite food.  The sisters who live next door are an extra fun bit of humor!

10. Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye by Geronimo Stilton (aka Elisabetta Dami) - These were some of Eleanor's favorite books when she was little so when I was looking for something for the Tornado to read they instantly sprang to mind and I can see why she loved them so much.  The text is wonderfully and creatively done.  If the word is fuzzy the letters look fuzzy and all kinds of other things.  It's all very colorful and eye catching and the stories are such fun to read as well.  They cover a huge range of subject matters from space to Vikings (though they're called Micekings) and there's even time travel involving dinosaurs.  Plus, unlike a lot of children's books they're fun for the adults as well!

What picture books are your favorite?