Words Their Way

Remember that book I talked about? It was a book about teaching kids to read. It was good. The reason this post is called Words Their Way is because this post talks about books kids love to read! We go to the library quite a bit, and though the walk is long and our feet get tired and our throats get dry... I love going to the library. I could sit there in the middle of the isles of the children's section just pulling book after book off the shelf, devouring them with my eyes.

Children's books are amazing!!! Here are a few favorites.

Any and all books by Mo Willems
Did any of you watch Code Name: Kids Next Door when you were lil? On cartoon network? I loved that show. One of the writers went on to write children's books, and this is that man. A famous one is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. That book is pretty good. It's just about a pigeon begging the reader to let him drive the bus. Gets kids to shout "NO!" But that book is not my favorite one. I'd say my favorite is Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs. The moral of the story for Goldy is: if you find yourself in the wrong story, LEAVE. It's got a bunch of humor and sarcasm that kids don't quite get yet, but they love the pictures, and grown ups love the jokes. Such as a picture hanging on the wall of the dinosaur's house that has a dinosaur holding his thumbs up and a caption that says "We're natural gas!" He also writes these books, the "Piggy and Elephant" books. Just a pig. And an elephant. And they're best friends. There's a great one where the animals realize they're in a book. 

Guess Again!
Don't remember who this is by. If you do, that's awesome! I love this book! Kids love rhymes, and kids books rhyme a lot. So... this book rhymes! it has words on one side of the page and a picture on the other. The other side is a silhouette of what we're guessing, and the words are a rhyming riddle. For example: He's got big teeth, lots of hair, and is covered in fleas. He climbs on our counter and eats all our cheese! We've set up traps all over the house, but we can't catch this pesky..." and you turn the page to reveal what it is. The kids shout "MOUSE!!!" but when you turn the page? It's a viking. 

Any and all books by Bob Shea
He writes about sharks and dinosaurs a lot, a popular one is I'm a Shark! or Dinosaur vs Bedtime. My favorite, however, is Big Plans. A boy is sitting in a classroom, face to the wall, clearly in time out, plotting his big plans. He says some day he'll have big plans. Plans so big he needs his dad's shoes and tie. And he'll run up the tallest hill in the city and shout "I HAVE BIG PLANS, I SAY! BIG PLANS!!!" Running down the mountain he'll meet a myna bird and say "Hey bird! I have big plans! You in?" and the bird says "I'm in!" Through the story, he wins a city football team, is crowned mayor, gets his big plans rolling, the president calls and says "I hear you have big plans. Would you be my assistant to the president?" the boy says "DID YOU NOT HEAR?! I HAVE BIG PLANS!" And the boy makes himself president, the myna bird vice, and the president is the assistant to the myna bird. He has idaho make him a space suit out of potatoes, has Kansas make him a rocket ship out of barns, and tells Missouri to shape up, because their bad mood is bringing everyone down. He flies to the moon and arranges the rocks to say "I HAVE BIG PLANS, I SAY! BIG PLANS!!!" And it comes back to him sitting in the classroom just plotting. It's darling. The pictures and text are so creative. I love this book.

I'll admit, I spend a lot of time curled up in front of the bookshelf at work reading their books to them. I'm starting a collection of my favorites. What are yours?