25 Books to Read Aloud with Very Young Children

This post was started just over a year ago but I added in a few books recently so here it is updated.

I couldn't wait to start reading to my children so I started early. I wasn't thinking about education or learning as such at the time; it was more about just being with them and sharing my love of books with them but in doing that for a short period each day I was unwittingly imparting some other benefits at the same time.

This little habit of sitting on my lap having a book read to them - jiggling them up and down, keeping the book away from little grabbing mitts and drool, keeping them interested and attentive - was going to pay dividends later on when we were in situations where we needed to keep little ones quiet: like sitting through  long church services, weddings, concerts, doctors' waiting rooms and graduation ceremonies.

One stinking hot summer's afternoon when I was 38 weeks pregnant and had to go to an emergency dental appointment, my husband rushed home from work, dropped me off at the dentist and headed for the nearest air conditioned building (a crowded MacDonald's restaurant filled with screaming kids). He squeezed our then 5 children aged 2 to 11 years of age around a table and told them to wait while he went to the bathroom. He returned to find them all sitting there with ice creams in their hands looking slightly bemused and a lady rushed over and said she just had to buy them because they were all waiting so patiently & hoped he didn't mind! It was no big deal for them to sit and wait but we've often been surprised that other people think that it's beyond the realm of a child's ability to do so.

Attentiveness doesn't just happen, in my experience. It is something that has to be cultivated. Reading aloud  regularly with our children from an early age definitely helped them to acquire the habit of attentiveness.

The following books worked well for the little ones in our family:

1. Miffy  by Dick Bruna

The girls loved these. We still have a t-shirt Grandma made with Miffy appliquéd on the front.

2. Spot by Eric Hill

Our boys loved the Spot books. There are oodles in the series  - lift the flap and see where Spot is hiding. We have a very worn large book of Spot's Bedtime Stories which was our youngest son's favourite.


 

3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. My daughter, Zana, said this book was voted as the favourite child's picture book in a survey taken in her Children's Literature class at university.

The next 4 are rhyming books which I think work really well with reading aloud to young children.

4. Ten Apples up on Top by Theo. LeSieg

5. Put me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire

6. I Want to be Someone New by Robert Lopshire

7. A Big Ball of String by Marion Holland. This book is longer than the others but the rhyming keeps it flowing.

8. Go Dog Go! by P.D. Eastman - I think everyone in our family could recite this book from memory. My mother-in-law gave us a copy when we were expecting our first child (she's 24 years old now) as it was one of my husband's favourites when he was little. We've still got the original but everyone wants to take it with them when they leave home so I'll have to get some new copies. Definitely a favourite.

9. The Precious Pearl by Mick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen - The Lost Sheep, The Two Sons and the House on the Rock are others in the series.

10. Little Chick's Story by Mary DeBall . A sweet story about Broody Hen and her little Chick.

11. Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik. Four stories about Little Bear are included in this book: What will Little Bear Wear? Birthday Soup, Little Bear Goes to the Moon and Little Bear's Wish.

12. Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion - Harry hates having a bath so he runs away from home. There are at least two other Harry titles.

 

13. Sam and the Firefly by P.D. Eastman. Gus the firefly's tricks have got him into trouble but with the help of Sam the owl, he manages to intervene and avert a collision.

14. The King, the Mice and the Cheese by Nancy and Eric Gurney. A fun story about a King who tries to get rid of the mice in his kingdom but ends up with bigger problems. My kids loved the illustrations in this book.

15. What Would Jesus Do? by Mack Thomas, illustrated by Denis Mortenson. We bought this book when our oldest children were 4 and 2 years of age and we've read it countless times to each of our 7 children so it's just holding together. It's been one of our favourite books to read aloud to young children.

'When I'm faced with a fear or a bad attitude, When I want to be angry or worried or rude, When I don't want to serve, and don't want to love- When only MYSELF is what I'm thinking of - Right from the start I will ask in my heart, WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?'

16. The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese. A little duck stays out on the Yangtze River all night in order to avoid a spanking for being late to return  home to his master's houseboat. First published in 1933.

17. The Bike Lesson by Stan and Jan Berenstein. Our oldest son bought this for his little sister because he loved it and thought it was hilarious when he was little.

18.  The Josephina Story Quilt by Eleanor Coerr. Josefina's Pa reluctantly allows her to take her pet hen on their wagon journey west and on the way Josefina sews patches for her quilt.

 


19.  Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain by Edward Ardizzone. Little Tim desperately wanted to be a sailor and so he becomes a stowaway.


20. The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone. This was our fourth son's favourite book when he was about three years old & I loved reading it to him. It is a great little teaching device for helping children to see that every one needs to help out around the place (especially in a large family or everything goes pear-shaped) but it's done in such a sweet and non-moralising way. Paul Galdone has some great books for older readers or family read alouds also.

21. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. When our children were about 3 years of age they loved this story and others in The Complete Tales book.

22. Peepo by Janet & Allan Ahlberg - my little ones really enjoyed this book but to be honest I probably enjoyed it more because it took me back in my memory to Scotland where I was born and spent the first eight years of my life. The house in the book is so much like I remember homes in Scotland. My Grannie lived with us at different times and there is a picture of a Grannie having a snooze with the washing hanging up all around her trying to dry by the fire and a dad in his army uniform. My dad had to do National Service when we were little so that was another link to the past.

23. Mother Goose  - I've linked to a post I did on Poetry with young children.

24. Charlie Cricket - I just had to add this. Our eldest, JJ, got this on her first birthday. It was just a simple little story about a cricket whose friends helped him overcome his fears and at the end of each page there was a button to press which made a chirping sound. It was her favourite book for a good year and all seven kids liked it and played with the button. A year ago JJ got married & moved out of home so we went through all our books so she could take hers with her (sob!) and we found Charlie Cricket. He'd lost his chirp but the sound button had lasted over 20 years. So here he is as a tribute to the company who made such a long lasting product:

25. How to Make an Apple Pie & See the World - a book my children loved at a young age but also one that they've enjoyed later on. You can see why here.

Handicrafted Christmas

I've been hoarding up ideas for handicrafts the younger two can make and give as Christmas presents.
This was one project I'd had in mind for them to do and they completed one each yesterday. The original idea was inspired by this.
We used two canvas frames which cost about $2 each and they sorted out a range of fabrics from remnants of my patchworking projects. I tossed up between just using ordinary glue thinned out with water 50/50 which some people use instead of Mod Podge but decided not. I found the cheapest Mod Podge supplier in Australia and ordered from them. If you spend $50 or over you get free postage. Matt Mod Podge was used to glue the fabrics onto the canvas and then the gloss lustre went over the top, which gave it a little sheen.




Another of the projects was inspired when we had some trees chopped down about six weeks ago but we couldn't do anything until my husband and one of the older boys had some time to cut it into smaller pieces. After a morning's work with a log splitter we had some smaller logs left over from next year's firewood stash:

Then we had to wait a couple more weeks for them to slice up some of it into this:

The darker bits just behind the circles of wood are sliced banksia cones, which my children always called 'banksia bombs' because they drop off the trees and they like throwing them at each other.
And then I found what I've been looking for for quite some time. My husband's Grandma used to do woodburning or pyrography (ie to draw with fire) and I'd wanted to try it for handicrafts but could only find expensive industrial tools, as in hundreds of dollars. Then I tried eBay and found this:

As you can see it's made by Weller which is a reliable brand.  I found it at Discount Traders for around $40 and was very happy with their service. We've got so much wood around the place we should be crafting for years so we should get our money's worth and I'm happy to have found the tools for a handicraft that a teenaged boy would enjoy.
The kit came with instructions and a few patterns but if you google pyrography, pokerwork or wood-burning you'll find lots of places with free patterns. Apparently hardwoods are best for pyrography as soft woods such as pine have too much sap but you can also use it on leather, candles and empty cereal boxes!

There is an E-Museum of Pyrographic Art here.

'Maybe Christmas,' he thought, 'doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!'

Nativity by Tintoretto (c.1550-1570)

We're in the middle our terms' work and I wanted to continue our regular schedule  in the lead up to Christmas but also allow room for celebrating Advent & preparing for Christmas. So what I've done is to stretch out a week's work into one and a half to two weeks. I do this from time to time if I need to fit in extra things that I think are important or if we've had a lot of interruptions.

As in previous years I've adapted music appreciation, poetry, folk songs, picture study and handicrafts to the season and this year I'm reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens aloud and will also have some other Christmas books on hand for free reading.

We were reading of Scrooge's encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Past in A Christmas Carol this week. In Dickens' allegorical story the Ghost takes heartless old Scrooge back to the long forgotten scenes of his boyhood days:

'The school is not quite deserted, said the Ghost. 'A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still.'

They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the back of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be.

I've read Dickens' book before so I know the ending. It's really a story of Redemption.

Scrooge is a grotty, detestable & wicked old man who cares for no one and deserves nothing but judgement...but the unbelievable happens and Scrooge is transformed. Dickens' story illuminates what is at the heart of Christmas:

"The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:9

We're listening to this folk song again this year. It really does capture the joy and Good News of Christmas.

This year we're listening to the full version of Handel's Messiah. In the past we've used excerpts but Cindy's Handel's Messiah Schedule for Advent has made it easy to fit in. Just 6 to 10 minutes a day in the lead up to Christmas is very do-able and if you haven't started it yet there's still time. A few of the pieces are very short so you could easily fit two into a week and get it done.

I didn't think I had a full recording so we started off using this one on YouTube.

Then I discovered a secondhand CD I'd bought a few months ago and realised it was the version Cindy used on her schedule so we got that out only to find that instead of two CD's there was only one, so I'll be going back to YouTube for the second half. Just as well I only paid a dollar for it.

The approximate time for each section is included in Cindy's post, but an outline of the different parts is here which might be helpful and the text used by the singers is here.

The Story of Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden

C.S. Lewis famously wrote that he was 'almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story.'
I didn't read this book when I was a child but I thought it was just lovely when I read it for the first time as an adult.

If you have a little girl (or a little boy) don't miss this book. If you're an older girl, like me :) don't miss it either.

Around the age of six and up would be a good time to give it to someone or it could be read aloud to a younger child - if you don't mind having a cry while you're reading. The edition below is 57 pages long with charcoal illustrations throughout but the book was first published in 1958 and there have been numerous versions, including one illustrated by Barbara Cooney.

Like teddy bears, the dolls held out their arms. Toys, of course, think the opposite way to you. 'We shall have a little boy or girl for Christmas,' said the toys.

The toys knew what homes were like from the broken dolls who came to the shop to be mended.

'There are warm fires and lights,' said the dolls, 'rooms filled with lively things. We feel children's hands.'

'Bah! Children's hands are rough,' said the big toy owl who sat perched on a pretend branch below the dolls. 'They are rough. They can squeeze.'

'I want to be squeezed,' said a little elephant.

The toys thought that all children have homes, but all children have not.

"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst."

1 Timothy 1:15