Tuesday, January 31, 2017

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?

21 comments:

  1. I'm not a fan of graphic books either. Good night Moon has to a childhood favorite! I always liked the old illustrated books by Sid Hoff too. We read loads of them to our son when he was young.

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  2. So many great picture book picks! Mo willems is of course fantastic and go llama books are very popular. How Dinosaurs go to School is one my kids like - I don't think I realized there was a series of them. Goodnight moon is also great - my kids are listening to it right now in their listening center actually :) Great list!

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  3. Excellent list!! Sandra Boynton-always great!

    Lisa @ https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/top-ten-tuesday-coffee-table-books-i-want-to-own/

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  4. Some of my daughter's favorites are on your list - Mo Willems, Mercy Watson, The Going to Bed Book...she loved those when she was younger.

    Here's my TTT: https://4thhouseontheleft.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/top-ten-tuesday-ms-favorite-graphic-novels/

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  5. Ahhh The Secret Life of Squirrels is one I've got on the TBR pile. How could I resist it so cute!

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  6. Great choices! The Llama Llama books are so much fun! :)

    Lauren @ Always Me

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  7. How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight and The Secret Life of Squirrels both look great. I love that squirrel and the little mailbox! And that's funny about Goodnight Moon! I did always think it was a relaxing book but now that I think about it I can kind of see your husband's point!

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  8. I love picture books so much! I read so many every week because that's my job. I love all these. Mo Willems can seriously do no wrong!

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  9. Great list! Mo Willems and Sandra Boynton are huge favorites of ours too!

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  10. I don't think that I read any of these with my girls. I remember reading a lot of Dr. Suess with them. I will have to see about getting some of these for my 2 year old twin niece and nephew. Great list!

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  11. I love how picture books can be just as charming to adults as they are to children. Great list!

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  12. What a cute list! I loved Chicka Chika Boom Boom in first grade! We asked for that and The Rainbow Fish to be read over and over. :)

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  13. I love every one of these. Thank you for sharing your favorites.

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  14. How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight is one of our favorites!! My daughter loves Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. They read that one in school a lot. Great list!

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  15. Ah... Alexander is only 3 so we're on the picture books for a while still. I can't imagine moving onto chapter books!! Being from the UK, the popular picture books tend to differ to those in the US so some of these are new to me titles I'll be sure to check out.

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  16. Of course, I love Goodnight Moon -- and I love Wise's other major title, The Runaway Bunny, just as much. Robin's kindergarten teacher used to read them Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, but I never quite got into it. Some of the others you've listed look really cute, and I'll have to check them out.

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  17. I love Goodnight Moon, Sophia love Llama, Llama. The Giraffe Can Dance is a good one too!

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  18. What a great list--and some ideas of books to add to Mouse's library. :-) How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight looks so cute.

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  19. I love, love Mouse Paint and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! I can still quote Chicka Chicka Boom Boom 15 years after my last child read it in kindergarten!

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  20. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was a huge fave of Sebastian's. We still have it in hardcover, and of course Goodnight Moon. Who can resist that story? How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight looks great. Thanks for sharing your list!

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