Children

Carpenter spins a fun poem about her silly son, Nicholas, in this beautifully illustrated picture book by Mark Wayne Adams.

This is a Caldecott winner that I have been reading to my children in bed for years. It chronicles the story of courage, perseverance and redemption between a young Parisian girl and her mother’s boarder, “The Great Bellini.” A really nice story for all ages to hear.

Fun parody of “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes that is sure to be a read-aloud hit in your classroom.

Over the holidays my wife and I often reviewed with our own three children how to clean up their own messes and the value of working together. This book provides a great lesson for all children who need to learn a thing or two about efficiency and teamwork. Heck – I use it for my corporate presentations!

Featuring magnificent illustrations by S. Saelig Gallagher, this beautiful story of a daughter and her single, hard-working mother is a must for Mother’s Day.

A nice story about an African boy's first trip to the market. My baby girl enjoyed listening to this pleasant tale.

I could not find cover art in Amazon for this book, so I have attached another book in the Alistair series (Alistair and the Alien Invasion). All of them are great, and I would suggest you first try out Alistair's Time Machine. Alistair constructs a time machine for the science fair, and he travels throughout history. The machine does not work at the science fair, and a dejected Alistair wonders how he can prove to adults that it works. Meanwhile, a bunch of woolly mammoths linger outside his school. This is a very amusing and enjoyable story that any kid will love.

Even though this won the Caldecott Medal in 2001, I somehow had never heard of this fun book of Presidential trivia. What I like most about the book is its central premise: ANYONE can be President.

. Part of the Time Warp Trio series, this is yet another book from Scieszka that will encourage little boys to love reading. Some great phrases in Latin and plenty of laughs.

The lovely story of a loner curmudgeon who ignores his neighbors until the day a mailman delivers him an anonymous valentine. The unexpected gift changes the way Mr. Hatch lives his life, and he becomes an outwardly generous and caring person…until the day the mailman returns to announce he mistakenly delivered the valentine to the wrong address. Read the book to find out what happens next (hint: do you think I would steer you toward a depressing book?).

You may be better acquaintedwith this author as the creator of "Bloom County." This is a great book to illustrate the fun children can have with words. It is funny, and it even has a moral, to boot.

A Caldecott Honor Book, and rightly so. The watercolor illustrations are extraordinary in this touching story of an immigrant boy who takes a job lighting the streetlamps in New York City to support his large family.

I have seen greater demand among kindergarten and first-grade teachers and parents regarding great nonfiction titles for students. Joy Cowley is a delightful author, and this book is really precious because of Nic Bishop’s wonderful photography. I used this book this past year with students alter Simon Cowell compared an American Idol poor contestant to a tree frog (that provides a good lesson to kids: no matter how important you think you are, you do not have the right to call people names). Check out Cowley’s book on chameleons while you are at it.

Only a little boy understands that this giant with a taste for metal is actually quite gentle. Fearful adults finally turn to the giant to save them from a space-bat-angel-dragon. What is amazing about this story is the strong theme of world peace, and I have to tell you that the movie version of this story is one of the most underrated films of the past 20 years (along with Groundhog Day).

My daughter Kate loves me reading aloud this book to her every night. A girl who loves pink is teased by all the other girls who insist black is the “it” color, but she finds a kindred spirit who mixes pink and blue to create a beautiful purple cake. “That’s the kind of girl I want you to be friends with,” I always tell Kate.