Just wanted to share a couple of the books my kids are loving right now. I bought How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? before I even had kids because I picked it up one day in a bookstore and couldn’t leave without it. The story is cute and I think the illustrations are just completely fabulous! The expressions on the dinosaurs faces look exactly like a kid’s face in the same situation. Each book is a gentle reminder about good behaviour, playing nicely and polite manners and my kids love them. We own a few and have borrowed the others from the library and we can’t get enough of them.
Another favourite right now is Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton. Boynton’s books have become pretty popular over the past few years. I’ve loved them since we first picked them up when my daughter was brand new and we own a lot of them. Kids and adults alike will enjoy the quirky sense of humour and fun rhymes. Hippos Go Berserk is a counting book about a spontaneous hippo party. Who doesn’t love a hippo party???
The other book that my one year old can’t get enough of is the classic Dr. Suess Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. It gets a bit repetitive but there’s no denying it has a certain charm and my kids love it like their father did when he was their age. I had never even heard of this one until I had my kids but now I can’t imagine our library without it.
One of Avery’s most often requested books is A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon who is also the illustrator. I can’t resist a book with both a great story and wonderful pictures and this book delivers both. The themes are all about self-confidence and accepting differences. It’s all about Camilla Cream who wakes up one morning covered in stripes. The situation only gets worse as it soon becomes apparent that her appearance changes with the comments and suggestions of others until she is covered with feathers and crystals and roots and tails and more. It is a fun read with a great moral.
[Edit: Guess I should pay attention to details, particularly when they are right on the cover of the book. Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb is written by Al Perkins!
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March 16th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Thanks for the recommendations Shannon. We’ll have to check them out. We also own a copy of ‘Hand Hand Fingers Thumb’ - one of the originals from when I was wee! It is a great one and the rhythm seems to soothe Andrew. I also recommend Dr. Seuss’s “ABC” and “In a People House” by “Theo LeSieg” (aka Dr. Seuss).
March 16th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Thanks Shannon. I like recommendations like that. I reserved them from the library…
March 17th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
My kids love the How Do Dino’s series and the Sandra Boynton books…but now we have more to check out…thanks!
March 18th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Hand, Hand… is great, but it wasn’t written by Dr. Suess. Al Perkins gets the credit for that one.
Robert Munsch is also a great addition to any kids library. Paper Bag Princess, I Have to Go, Angela’s Airplane, and the list goes on.
There’s also a series by Thornton W. Burgess, and I loved them when I was a kid. They have lessons about pride, consideration for others, contentment with what you have and other lessons in the same vein. Paddy the Beaver was one of my favorites. There are 20 in that series, and I recommend them.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Oops! Pay attention to authors, Shannon!
We read a TONNE of Robert Munsch. He’s been pumping out new books in the past few years like you wouldn’t believe! Some are better than others. But Avery loves them. I’ll have to check out Paddy the Beaver. 
March 20th, 2008 at 2:35 am
My kids are total wusses. They were too scared of the cover to read “A Bad Case of Stripes”.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised; one of their favourite DVD’s is the wimpy “Peep and the Big Wide World”.
So, my kids’ current favourite books, which I highly recommend you check out are:
“The Incredible Book Eating Boy” by Oliver Jeffers (it is pretty new, so you might have to ask the library to buy it…),
“Don’t Grown-ups Ever Have Fun?” by Jamie Harper (okay, I lied, it is one of MY favourites…),
and their favourite Sandra Boynton is “Snuggle Puppy”, but only I think because Greg made it into a crazy song.