Top 10 Books for September

This month I decided to ask my kids (they are now 17 and 19) what picture books they remember fondly from when they were little. I was surprised by many of the ones they picked and when I asked them why they remembered them they responded that it was the illustrations that they remembered the most. A couple of the books were remembered because they were books that we read together at bedtime, and others were because they remembered something from the story. So without further ado, here are the top 10 books my kids loved the most when they were little.

The Teacher from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler was the first book picked by my youngest - she loved the entire series. She can barely remember the stories but she loved the illustrations. This child had a very active imagination and the illustrations just captured 
her.

The Dumb Bunnies' Easter (and all The Dumb Bunnies books) by Sue Denim was another of her picks. She has fond memories of her first grade teacher reading these books as well as the books being a hot commodity in the classroom. Whenever the kids were able to pick their own books, these were always the first to go.

Madison also loved all the Berenstain Bears books. One of her favorites was New Baby. We got this book for my oldest daughter when we were getting ready to have Madison. This book has always been on our bookshelf and Madison always picked this book to read. She not only loved the illustrations, but the story.

Madison had a little lovey named BunBun. It came in her very first Easter Basket and from that moment on BunBun was a constant companion. Madison was not very happy when she had to leave BunBun in bed when she started school. When Madison first had this story, Owen by Kevin Henkes, read to her, there was an instant connection. Unfortunately for Madison we could not cut BunBun into little pieces for her to carry around, that would have been too traumatic for her as well as BunBun- she could barely handle BunBun being put in the washing machine.

Madison chose Ribbon Rescue by Robert Munsch because of the illustrations. She loved all of the ribbons and where and what they were used for. She also loved the bride and her wedding dress and how her hair was done. She would study the illustrations of the ribbons and at home she would use ribbons all around the house to make things pretty.

Dandelion by Don Freeman was chosen by my oldest daughter. She picked this book because of the illustrations and because she loved the lesson Dandelion learned, it is better to be yourself. She loved seeing how he changed and how no one was impressed, they liked him better they way he was.

Kelsey picked Ferdinand by Munro Leaf because of the simple black and white illustrations. She loved to draw and color when she was little (she is a great artists still) and these illustrations helped her with her early story telling. She would pick this story all the time for bedtime, and many times she would tell the story just by the illustrations.

Imogene's Antlers by David Small was picked by Kelsey as well. Not only did she love the illustrations but she loved how Imogene just made the best of the situation. Imogene was not sad or upset that she had antlers, she was happy. Kelsey really liked how the illustrations showed how Imogen handled having antlers.

Jamberry by Bruce Degen was at small board book that we had a home. Because it was a board book Kelsey would carry this around with her all the time. The bright illustrations and rhythm and rhyme of the story had her wandering around the house singing this story. To this day, when she sees this book she immediately smiles.

The last book Kelsey chose was Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperump-a-Zoo by Merer Mayer. This book was a very special book, it was mine when I was a kid and it was one of my favorites. We would read it at night before bed and we would have to be very careful with it. The illustrations are amazing in this story and both my girls would spend lots of time studying the pages of this story. They would always find something new in the pages and be so excited to share it.


I know this is probably not the list you were hoping for, but I really had a great time talking with my girls about these books and why they remembered them. If you have older kids, take a minute or two and ask them what books they remember fondly from their childhood and why. The most interesting thing that I got out of this is that the illustrations and the bedtime ritual were more important to my kids when they were younger than the story itself.

Enjoy!

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Top 10 Back to School Books

Yikes! Summer has come and gone and I have not done as much as I hoped to do. I was on vacation a good part of the summer, which left little time for reviewing and creating! I have had time to blog stock however and I am quite jealous of all your creatively inspiring classrooms! For those of you that have started back to school already, I am sorry :( I am sorry you are working while the rest of us are playing working hard getting ready for school to start. No, seriously, I hope the start of your school year was uneventful and is running smoothly!

I know most of you have your standard beginning of school year books that you like to pull out and read like The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn or Chrysanthemum by Keven Henkes or First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg but I thought I would throw a few more your way. Here is my top 10 list of books for the start of a new school year.

In the book This School Year Will Be the Best is about students on the first day of school being asked to share what they would most like to have happen during the school year. The responses range from having a skateboard day to not wanting to be a vegetable in the school play. At the end of the story the students get to draw their day and as the story comes to a close the students think that this will be best school year yet!





A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue is a great story to read the first week of school. You can use this story as a springboard into the difference between tattling and telling in your classroom and the consequences for constant tattling.  Not only does this book have a great lesson but the kids will love the story!

The Night Before First Grade is a wonderful story that is told in rhyme (as all the "Night Before" books are) and deals with the realities of being nervous on your first day of school.

Penny is very excited and nervous for her first day of first grade and is okay knowing that her best friend will be with her, until she gets to school and realizes that her best friend is in another class. As the day comes to a close Penny has had a great day in first grade and overcame her first grade jitters!

Big Bad Bruce is one big bad bully. This story is about Bruce, a bully that likes to pick on things that are smaller than he is, until the day he meets Roxy the witch. Roxy teaches Bruce a valuable lesson about being a big mean bully.

This is another great book that can lead to a class discussion on being mean or a bully and the consequences of such behavior.

Mean Jean is the recess queen and nobody is allowed to do anything until she does. This book gives wonderful examples of how not to behave on the playground, and let's face it we have all come across a "Mean Jean" at least once in our life. This story will be a great lead into talking about playground rules and consequences for "Mean Jean" types of behavior.

Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon is a delightful story about a little girls determination to prove that she can do anything she sets her mind to, despite all the teasing and put downs. This book is great for the start of school because after reading it you can talk about determination and what that means to your students when it comes to doing something a that might be too difficult for them. If Molly Lou Melon can do it, so can they!

Mind Your Manners In School is a collection of stories about all different kinds of behaviors and manners that are appropriate for school. Stories such as friendship, sharing, how to borrow and picking up your things after working. The best one is being quiet when the teacher is giving a lesson :)  With this book you are sure to find a story for a behavior or situation that needs to be addressed in your room.

What's in a name? Everything - meaning, tradition, heritage, honor and sometimes shame. Your name is who you are and when this little girl is afraid to tell her Korean name, one little boy in her class finds out her name and its beautiful meaning and talks her into keeping that name and not any of the names in the name jar. This is a great story for the start of school. You can have your students find out what their name means or why their parents picked the name they did. You can talk about how you are uniquely you and your name is part of what makes you unique and special.

All little boys and girls want to have what everyone else has. This story, Those Shoes helps show that not everyone gets to have the newest "thing" and there is a big difference between "want" and "need". This book can lead to great discussions on acceptance - being friends with someone even if they don't have the newest "thing" and what it means to need something as opposed to wanting something.

Reading Makes You Feel Good, isn't that such a true statement! This is a great book to kick off the school year with just to show your students how important reading is going to be and how it can make them feel good. Showing the kids how reading can be a positive in their life rather than a burden they will (hopefully) have a good year reading and exploring their books.








I hope I have listed something that piques your interest or reminds you of a book you have but haven't pulled out and read in a while. Like I said above, we all have our old standby's, but isn't it fun to find something new?

Let me know of a good book that is not your "typical" read that you enjoy using during the first few weeks of school.

Happy reading!

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