If You Plant a Seed Details

Title: If You Plant a Seed
Author/Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Publication Year: 2015
Website: www.kadirnelson.com
Age Group: Baby/Toddler, Preschool, Kindergarten, Early Elementary
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Comments

My kids and I first learned about Kadir Nelson through his book, Nelson Mandela. I completely fell in love with his breath-taking illustrations so I decided to check out everything I could by him at the library. When I pulled this one out of our library stack to read at breakfast, my 8 year old daughter, who likes to preview all my selections, said, “That one’s really good.” I asked, “Is it funny?” She said, “Not really, but a little bit. It’s just really good.”

I was intrigued, because my kids are usually drawn towards the humorous books. As I read through it, I understood exactly why she liked it. There are very few words as the story is told almost entirely through pictures. There is one double page spread that my kids thought was hilarious. However, more than anything else, it is just really sweet, in a way that is not over the top or in your face.

This book teaches kids that we have a choice how we behave and how we treat people. It shows the consequences in a very clear, easy-to-understand way. The author gives us a beautiful, gentle reminder to choose kindness.

Related Links:

Best Books for Kids
Personal Family Favorites
Learning Activities for Kids

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Title: Elmo’s Big Lift-and-Look Book
Author: Anna Ross
Illustrator: Joe Mathieu
Publication Year: 1994
Age Group: Babies/Toddlers, Preschool
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Comments: My 2 and a half year old LOVES Elmo. Even though he’s been potty-trained for months, Elmo Potty Time is still his absolute favorite thing to watch. Prior to this book, a discontinued, super old Elmo board book about fruit salad was his favorite bedtime book.

He loves Elmo so much, he got TWO talking Elmos for Christmas. I’m sorry to report that since Christmas he’s barely touched either one. However, this Elmo lift-a-flap book is by far the present that has gotten the most attention from him since Christmas. Even though I knew he was going to get it, it wasn’t at all what I expected. First, the book was far larger than I imagined it would be. (My husband points out that I should have read the title.)

Second, I thought it was going to be more “fun”. There is one page where you help Elmo find his teddy which sounds fun. However, oddly, even though there are several flaps on the page, the teddy bear is in plain sight. Go figure. This is my son’s least liked page.

Third, I didn’t realize it would be so educational. In addition to the find-the-teddy page, there are specifically double-page spreads on numbers, letters, shapes, and opposites. I thought he knew all his shapes already, but it turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong. However, with the exception of an occasional triangle/rectangle mix-up, he’s now got them all figured out, including ones like octagon and diamond. I was surprised how quickly he learned all the opposites. Even on the numbers page, he’s doing really well. I have to give him a clue like, “Do you remember where the 9 bottles are?”, but with that, he’ll go straight to the number 9 flap.

Letters are going to take awhile longer, but he still loves to flip all the letter flaps and talk about what’s inside. The greatest part is that he is just NOT getting tired of this book. I would say even now, weeks after Christmas, this is still his bedtime pick 6 nights out of 7. I don’t believe in pressuring toddlers to learn academic information, but if they show an enthusiasm, I say take advantage of it! Looking on Amazon, there are lots of other Elmo lift-the-flap books, but after looking at the descriptions, I can’t imagine them being better than this one. I might get him another one or two eventually, but for now I’m going to see how long this obsession lasts.

Included on Lists:

1. Personal Family Favorites: Babies & Toddlers

Related Links

Personal Family Favorites: Preschool
Best Books for Babies and Toddlers
Homemade Fun for Babies and Toddlers

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Title: More More More Said the Baby
Author/Illustrator: Vera B. Williams
Publication Year: 1990
Age Group: Babies/Toddlers
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Comments: Babies and toddlers love repetition. This book featuring three similar stories of a grown-up’s love for a child will enchant your little one. It will unconsciously get your kids thinking about the similarities and differences between these stories.

I especially am happy to include this one in our family’s library as it includes a black and Asian baby in addition to a white baby. One of the family’s is mixed race. Since my kids are in a town which has only a slight variation in the color of its citizens I want them even at this young age that humans come in all different shapes, colors, and sizes.

Recommended By:

1. 100 Best Books for Children
2. Valerie and Walter’s Best Books for Children
3. What to Read When
4. The New York Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children

Included on Lists:

1. Best Books for Babies and Toddlers

Related Links:

Best Books for Kids
Personal Family Favorites
Learning Activities for Kids

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Recommended By:

1. 100 Best Books for Children
2. Valerie and Walter’s Best Books for Children
3. The New York Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children

Comments: This is one of the few highly recommended books for babies and toddlers which my kids (2 and 4) were not overly enthusiastic about. To be honest, maybe part of it is that I don’t really “get” a lot of the poems either (nursery rhymes are kind of weird if you think about them). However, my baby (4 months) seemed surprisingly interested, probably because he was the only one who wasn’t confused by trying to literally make sense of them. I will also say that my preschooler really liked the nursery rhymes he knew (like jack and jill, humpty dumpty, hey diddle diddle, etc.) I think if I’d read my two older kids more nursery rhymes as babies and younger toddlers, they probably would have been more accepting of this book. I’m planning to make a point to read my next kid more Mother Goose and maybe my older children will catch on that, really, nursery rhymes are just for fun.

Included on Lists:

1. Best Books for Babies and Toddlers

The post My Very First Mother Goose appeared first on ResearchParent.com.

Recommended By:

1. 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
2. Valerie and Walter’s Best Books for Children
3. What to Read When

Included on Lists:

1. Best Books for Babies and Toddlers

The post Guess How Much I Love You appeared first on ResearchParent.com.

Recommended By:

1. 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
2. Babies Need Books
3. What to Read When

Comments: I had never heard of the book Dear Zoo before I started researching these book lists to find books for my own kids, which is somewhat surprising, given that my grandma was a children’s librarian and I was the perfect age to enjoy it when it was released in 1982. Both my toddler and preschooler seemed to really like it, though we only got to keep it for a day, so I don’t know how much lasting power it would have had with them. It was clearly too young for my preschooler, but both of them wanted it read multiple times. One thing I really like about this book as opposed to other lift-a-flap books is that not only does it feature flaps (which are a universal hit in this house) and animals, which even the youngest toddlers enjoy, but each page has a different adjective as well for the child to learn (and remember and fill-in-the-blank) while I’m reading. Why did they send the monkey back? “He was too…?” “Naughty!” shouts the 2 year old.

Included on Lists:

1. Best Books for Babies and Toddlers
2. Best Books for Preschoolers

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Title: Ten, Nine, Eight
Author/Illustrator: Molly Bang
Publication Year: 1983
Website: www.mollybang.com
Age Group: Babies/Toddlers, Preschool
Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

Comments: This book is intended for children who are learning to count to ten. Once a child has mastered this skill, this book will probably not hold a child’s attention long as there isn’t a plot. However, for those young little ones who are still learning their numbers, this is a beautiful introduction.

The child will have fun counting the items along with the author. Rather than being straightforward and simple, the items to be counted are diverse and interesting. For example, when counting the “soft friends” all of them are stuffed animals except for one, which is a cat.

The fact that the book features a non-white character is a bonus in my book. I want my kids to grow accustomed to faces with different shapes and skin tones and this is a very unassuming, simple, delightful way to achieve this goal.

Recommended By:

1. 100 Best Books for Children
2. Babies Need Books
3. The New York Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children

Included on Lists:

1. Best Books for Babies and Toddlers

Related Links:

Best Books for Kids
Personal Family Favorites
Learning Activities for Kids

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Recommended By:

1. The Read-Aloud Handbook
2. Valerie and Walter’s Best Books for Children
3. What to Read When

Comments: My son’s Kaiser doctor gave this to him for his third birthday, and he loves it. He wanted it read 3 times in a row as soon as we got in the car after his appointment and has wanted it read several times to him since over the following month. It reminds me of “the house that Jack built”, but silly and cute.

Update: My son is now almost 5 and he and his 2 year old sister still love this book. My son challenges himself to remember the sequence of events, similar to the way he’s working on remember the 12 days of Christmas song. Therefore, not only is the Napping House musical in quality and enjoyable to listen to, but intellectually stimulating as well. Who knew you could get so much mileage out of a cute book for babies and toddlers?

Included on Lists:

1. Best Books for Babies and Toddlers
2. Best Books for Preschoolers
3. Personal Family Favorites: Preschoolers

The post The Napping House appeared first on ResearchParent.com.

Recommended By:

1. 100 Best Books for Children

Comments: This book is very simple and I imagine even a younger child would like it, but this is currently on my 2.5 year old son’s regular bedtime rotation. He knows it so well, he “reads” it to his baby sister. It’s about 2 sisters, a little bit of taunting, and eventual sharing. Right now his sister is too little to want his stuff, but I’m hoping when my son is bigger, remembering Sheila Rae and her peppermint stick will help him with his internal struggle to share with his sister.

Included on Lists:

1. Personal Family Favorites: Preschoolers

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Comments: My 1 and 3 year old kids checked this out from the library and we haven’t been able to give it back for weeks. I asked my 17 month old to put it in the library slot and she practically had a meltdown. It’s a lift the flap book that features cartoon and real pictures of animals. There isn’t much of a story, but they both love it so much I ordered it so we can finally return our library copy.

Included on Lists:

1. Personal Family Favorites: Babies & Toddlers

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