Children

A funny tale of President Taft seeking the source of a heavenly aroma as he gets off the train in a small town.  Makes you hungry reading it.

A great introduction into the good and bad of America:  baseball and segregation.  Great photos and anecdotes.

A nice look at the grand U.S. of A.

I love rhyming books.  A great way to learn animals, this book includes illustrations from the wonderful Steven Kellogg.

This is one of my favorite children’s books, as it includes several hilarious different takes on traditional fairy tales.  Kids crack up at this book.

Another laugher that kids adore, especially when they get to particpate:  “Click, clack, moo!  Click, clack, moo!   Clickety, clack, moo!”

If you want to get a jump-start on Halloween, this book is a load of laughs.  Friendship is also its theme, but this book has a happy ending.

Bizarre and brilliant, this beautifully illustrated book is a great stimulus for children’s curiosity.  Wiesner is to children’s books what Picasso was to art:  constantly challenging our notions of how things are supposed to be.  Watch out for flying frogs in the middle of the night!

Hate to end on a somber note, but this book is appropriate for this month.  This is a great book for teaching children about 9-11 on this, its second anniversary.  First graders wrote it, and all of us can learn from it.  Published by Scholastic, if you have a difficult time finding it.

If angels exist, Shel Silverstein is one of them.  I imagine this man has single-handedly made people of all ages smile.  Like the producer realizes in the 1941 film Sullivan’s Travels, that’s a mighty powerful thing.

What a great lesson this book teaches, and with pictures by Eric Carle, this is a crowd pleaser.  There’s nothing like a short, funny book that rhymes.  Johnny Cash (RIP) could have made a great song version of this book.

I saved the best for last.  This is just a sweet, inspirational story.  I have no idea why there is not a major motion picture about this incredible human being.  Read this book if you are tired of events on the nightly news.

The author’s mom, Helen Tabibian, gave me a copy of this book, and I immediately recalled reading it to my students many years ago.  This is a great book for sparking students’ curiosity toward science and history.  Great illustrations, as well.  This will get kids looking out their bedroom windows and using their imaginations.

The beautiful story about a poor Appalachian girl who proudly wears a coat made from the rags of her neighbors, only to find herself ridiculed by her classmates.  Touching and uplifting, and a good lesson.

I thought I’d throw in at least one funny kids’ book.  This hilarious retelling of the three little pigs, as explained from the wolf’s point of view, is sure to make you laugh.  Like he says, poor wolf just had a horrible case of the sneezes one day.