If April showers are in your forecast, then it’s imperative that you read James And The Rain with your tots! With expanded text and updated illustrations the 1957 out-of-print copy has been revived!

“James pressed his nose against the pane and saw a million drops of rain.
The earth was wet, the sky was gray, it looked like it would rain all day.”

But a downpour does not discourage James—rather, he grabs his bright yellow raincoat and a gigantic umbrella and sets out on an adventure. He meets up with animals. Do they know of any excellent rainy day games? The animals are encountered in numerically ordered sets, making this classic story a counting book in it’s own right. From one cow, two ducks, three toads…and many more. They splash and slip and puddle jump!

Karla Kuskin uses whimsical text filled with lots of rhyming and repetition, engaging the reader from start to finish. James and the Rain is also filled with wonderful vocabulary words not to be missed.

In celebration of A Week, the alphabet and ABC books everywhere

Did you ever notice that letters don’t always look the same?

“Blocky or small. Thick or tall. Roundish, slope-y, Fancy, or dopey. Letters look different in all different places, That’s because they have different typefaces!” With an alligator made of aaa’s—to a zebra made of zzz’s, alphabeasties uses a multitude of typefaces to create a beautiful and creative ABC book.

This book teaches it’s readers, big or small, about the world of typography and the design of different fonts and letters. Adults and children will both be engaged with the ingenuity as you are able to lift the flaps to reveal the different “beasties” that correspond to particular letters of the alphabet.

The alphabethas never been more interesting! Welcome to the world of fonts!

Most of us recognized yesterday as Valentine’s Day, but it was also the first day of the Chinese New Year. In celebration, this month’s book review focuses on Ruby’s Wish, an endearing story of the Chinese New Year that provides wonderful insights into Chinese culture and particular customs. It’s a must read to children everywhere.

The main character in Ruby’s Wish is a little girl named Ruby who defies all of the social norms for typical Chinese girls. She has a wealthy grandfather who hires a tutor for all of his grandchildren, which means that Ruby is able to be educated, though the story takes place in a time in Chinese history when girls were taught to cook and keep house, not to receive a formal education.

Instead of aspiring to get married, Ruby is determined to grow up and go to University. This is Ruby’s wish, and she displays the determination and hard work needed to make her wish come true.

Follow along as Ruby celebrates Chinese New Year visiting the homes of many of her family members, ending at the home of her grandfather. She bows before him: “Good luck and prosperity, Grandfather.”

“Good luck, little Ruby,” replies her grandfather as he hands her a very fat red packet. Instead of containing money as Ruby expects, the packet contains a letter from a university saying they would be happy to accept Ruby as one of their very first female students. Her hard work paid off!

Ruby’s Wish is such a warm and heartfelt story—especially when you learn that Ruby happens to be the author’s grandmother and that this is a true story! Start the Year of the Tiger off with this remarkably inspiring story. Gung hay fat choy!

A new year has begun, and for many of us that means new beginnings and new dreams. Twelve fresh months ahead—what will we do with them?

In the decision and planning process, we get to utilize one of the greatest gifts we are given: our imagination! As this relates to children, pick up the book, For Just One Day, written by Laura Leuck and illustrated by Marc Boutavant. You and your child will not be disappointed by the places your imagination travels in this creative story, which urges children to imagine what it would be like to be a particular animal FOR JUST ONE DAY!

“For just one day, I’d like to be a busy, buzzing…” (turn the page) “…bee! The flowers would belong to me, if I could be a bumblebee.” “Or maybe I’ll just flutter by and be a monarch…” (turn the page) “…butterfly! I’d fly down low, I’d fly up high, if I could be a butterfly.”

What child hasn’t pretended to be an animal either physically, emotionally or characteristically? This book captures many different animals while adding vivid text and illustrative descriptors; it is designed in such a way that the child has to turn the page to find the answer as to what animal is being imagined. And there is a built-in guessing game with rhythmic clues and vocabulary enhancement, which captures a child’s attention immediately!

The illustrations are not to be missed—on the pages where the child is imagining the animal, the illustrations are simple and softer in color. Turn the page and you get the animals in there habitat, pictured creatively and full of vibrant color! The illustrations leave room for some very creative discussions with your child.

Grab this book, sit down with your child and let your imaginations soar for just one day!

I believe that the more animated you are in reading to your children, the more engrossed they will become in the story. This holiday season, I recommend reading Don and Audrey Wood’s Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear! to your children—the animation in your voice will come naturally as you become the narrator, conversing with a very responsive and precious little mouse. You are sure to capture your child’s attention on page one and it will be held until the very end of the story!

On each page the little mouse depicts a different emotion. The illustrations are captivating; it helps that the mouse is so expressive! It’s impressive to see the emotional progression of the mouse grasping the true meaning of Christmas.

The story begins in the mouse’s house with all of his Christmas trimmings. His tree is adorned with lights and ornaments and surrounded with “lots of presents” for himself. But with the mention of the “big, hungry bear in the cold, dark cave at the top of the hill,” the mouse is terrified. He then becomes pensive as he tries to figure out how to save his presents from the bear—who LOVES Christmas presents. It’s comical to see what lengths he will go to in order to guard his gifts (nailing his door shut, placing tacks all over the floor and much more). A little selfishness as he wants his presents for himself.

Next comes compassion, with the mention that the bear never gets any presents, not even from Santa Claus! The sweet mouse sheds tears for the bear’s solitude and comes up with a plan: With a compassionate, brave heart he dresses up as Santa, loads up his decorations and his gifts and ventures through the snow to the bear’s house. He decorates Bear’s tree and leaves all of his gifts; to his surprise, Bear also leaves a very large present out for him. The gift of friendship is revealed!

When you get to The End, don’t be surprised to hear, “Read it again!”

Merry Christmas!

November brings many things home-baked; November also brings a time of reflection, a time for expressing gratitude and remembrances of all of the little moments throughout the year that mattered the most.

November is also the perfect time to enjoy Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal with your family. It is a children’s book of virtues filled with many lessons in moral development. It brings meaning and wise insight to positive moral attributes and personality traits. Concepts that may seem hard for youngsters to comprehend are grasped because the author centers them around a favorite pastime: baking cookies. What child doesn’t enjoy baking or eating freshly baked cookies?

Using cookies as her motivating subject, Krouse Rosenthal is able to depict examples of character traits. Although the vocabulary may be beyond the level of most children, they are able to grasp the meaning through the relative subject and the illustrations. For example: the story begins with, “COOPERATE means, How about you add the chips while I stir?” accompanied by and illustration of a bunny and a puppy adding chocolate chips to the cookie batter, while the child is stirring it into the mixture. This clearly exemplifies working together! Another page says, “GENEROUS means offering some to others. Please take one. You, too. Anyone else want a cookie?” As a whimsically dressed kitted is passing out cookies from a basket.

Jane Dyer, the illustrator of this story, helps bring the text to life with watercolored pictures of a variety of animals all clothed in old fashioned attire, interacting with children from multi-cultured backgrounds. Her illustrations illuminate the text beautifully and reinforce each introduced vocabulary word.

As you journey down your own path of gratitude this November, and reflect on all of those qualities associated with “home sweet home,” I invite you to take advantage of the wonderful lessons in moral development that this book has to offer. Happy Thanksgiving!

What’s the purpose of the alphabet? Why do we need to learn the sounds of the 26 arbitrary symbols we call letters, spanning from A to Z? Because there is more to it, right? Without this knowledge, we would not be able to effectively create words—then again, one might ask, “What are words?”

Ann and Paul Rand’s Sparkle and Spin: A book about words seeks to help answer that last question. They provide several examples of what exactly words are—for example, “Words are how what you think inside comes out…”

Words can be big or small. Words are the names of objects. Words tell who you are. Words tell what you do. Words can describe. Words are sounds you can make. Words can sound alike. The list goes on, but as you can see, Sparkle and Spin serves as an educational tool towards the awareness of words and lessons in grammar and the English language. It can serve as the perfect catalyst to teach preschoolers and children about nouns, verbs and adjectives. It can also be an introduction to explaining the difference between proper nouns and common nouns. It introduces children to the basic world of words—the rest is up to you, but the opportunities for further exploration are endless!

Sparkle and Spin is also a wonderful expression of graphic design. It is brightly illustrated with a collage-type feel, using bold colors and differentiating shapes. It exudes a classroom feel, especially with the illustration of a chalkboard and chalkboard drawings (and this further makes this book relative to children).

It is said of this husband and wife team that, “together, they created unaffected volumes expressive of the lightness and exuberance of youth, yet ultimately grounded in very real heart.”

It’s so true! I encourage you to get a hold of this great book and read it to your child. Sparkle and Spin provides a purpose to learning the alphabet and an understanding of how letters are put together to form words, and it further explains the importance of words—for without them, we wouldn’t be able to communicate!

Some of the best children’s books are basic ABC books—it’s incredible to see how creative an author and an illustrator can be with nothing more than 26 letters of the alphabet. This month, Pre K Scholars is featuring a classic ABC book that should be on the bookshelf of every pre-reader: Bruno Munari’s ABC. Originally copyrighted in 1960, it remains timeless today.

I have an infinity towards children’s books that aim to expose readers to a world of language and provide a lesson in vocabulary at the same time as being words on a page or a story for it’s audience. Perhaps this is because I taught 2nd Graders who were primarily English as a Second Language Learners and Kindergarteners and Preschoolers, all being a part of a group known as “Early Education”. The commonality between these two groups is that they are all experiencing the English Language for the first time, in it’s primary stages. Therefore, a book that promotes discussion and extension activities about it’s content and it’s use of language is a book of value in my opinion.

ABC does just that. Munari introduces the letters of the alphabet with objects, beginning with the related beginning sound. In doing so, he is sure to add in descriptors relative to size and color, and concept vocabulary which reinforces certain prepositions. For example, for C: “A crow on a cup and a cat in a cage.” Or for V: “vertical violet violin.”

We all know that F is for FUN—how captivating that for F, Bruno Munari introduces some flies that will continue to fly through the pages until, finally, they make the ZZZZZ sound for Z! The words and illustrations alike are appreciated by the children who experience them.

Beyond the literary content, I love the fact that Munari leaves the dedication page open with the intent for each copy of his book to be dedicated personally to the child who receives it!

How fortunate our children are that they have rereleased this past treasure!

Have the summer boredom blues set in yet? Well, what kid would pass up an opportunity to get creative? Get a hold of Not a Box by Antoinette Portis and let the creativity begin—Your child will be entertained from start to finish!

Portis demonstrates how easily our imagination can be sparked. She shows how a plain ol’ ordinary box can be transformed into extraordinary objects. In one scene, “Why are you squirting a box?” receives a prompt response: “I said, it’s not a box.” The accompanying illustration is a bunny dressed up as a fireman; the box has been transformed into a building on fire…

Children love seeing the many transformations of one plain brown box, and they also love the predictability of the “It’s not a box, it’s a_______” repetition throughout the story. They are amazed as they see how it can be turned into a racecar, a robot, a mountain and so much more—just by adding a little imagination.

From an educational perspective, this book is great for the emerging reader. Not a Box provides exposure to several sight words and examples of concept vocabulary. Children are able to understand prepositions like “in” the box, “on top of” the box, and so forth. They may also have some luck phonetically sounding out some simple consonant vowel consonant (c-v-c) words like box, not, top and many more.

Any angle you take, this book is creative and shows children how much fun can be had if we just use our imaginations!

Suggestion: Follow up the story by giving your child a plain brown box, and see what they can transform it into—you may be surprised!

How many moms have experienced a meal with a toddler that includes negotiating the number of bites they must eat of something before they can have dessert? In my family, my mother would coerce us to eat an unfavorable morsel on our plate by saying, “take a bite for your teacher?” We certainly didn’t want to disappoint someone we held in high regard(this trick worked everytime!).

Similarly, Amy Krouse Rosenthal cleverly uses a bit of reverse psychology on finicky eaters in her children’s book, Little Pea. She puts a twist on the oh-so-repetitious parental line, “If you want to grow up to be big and strong you need to eat your vegetables.”

Little Pea is about a little pea who must eat his “candy” dinner everynight before he can have dessert. Well, little pea is just like any other child enjoying a playful life, but frustrated with the fact that he HAS to eat candy every night for dinner. (Can you relate to the mealtime dilemma of negotiating with a finicky eater?)

Aside from being clever, Rosenthal provides an educational tool to toddlers by providing examples of days of the week and color recognition. “Monday, red candy. Tuesday, orange candy.” And so on. Rosenthal also reinforces counting and number value as Little Pea negotiates with his parents for dessert.”Eat five pieces and you can have dessert,” his mother insists. “One…yuck. Two…blech.” He continues until, at last, Little Pea has earned his dessert!

What’s for dessert?

Spinach. And Little Pea licked his dessert plate clean!

Little Pea is such a fun read for both parents and children!