Top 100 Picture Books list (in progress)

I've been glued to A Fuse #8 production at School Library Journal the last few days -- a great list of the top 100 children's picture books is being unveiled (as recommended by members of the kidlitosphere).  I sent in my top picks about a month ago and so far...... none have appeared on the countdown.....  Watch with me as the top 50 are announced, I wonder if (and where) my suggestions show up!   I believe the question asked was "what are the top 10 most important picture books" and so....  it will be very exciting!  The summaries of each book are great and it's a wonderful resource for ideas!!!  Enjoy!!

P.S.  Shall I share my votes?  

1. The Little Engine That Could

2. The Snowy Day

3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

4. Caps for Sale      (#17) 

5. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (#33) 

6. Goodnight Moon

7. Dear Zoo

8. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (#24)

9. Trains by Byron Barton

10. In the Small Small Pond

Mom's concerns about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

So I have been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to my 4.5 and 2.5 year olds (and the baby, who is marvelous and now almost SIX months old!  Time flies!)  Our reading time has been fantastic, we all gather in the living room and the boys putter with toys a little bit while they listen to the story.  We are around page 61 and Charlie is entering the factory after meeting Mr. Wonka.  Both the boys love listening to the story and are very interested.

I mentioned in the other post about how I was scared of the oompa loompas (particularly in the movie, with their eerie song).  I browsed ahead and I am worried about whether I should continue reading the book..... soon Augustus Gloop will behave badly, fall into the chocolate river, get sucked up the tube, and his parents will freak out.  Honestly, it still freaks ME out.  I'm a little disturbed by what happens to the kids in the chocolate factory.  My first reaction is to skip the rest of the book.  That's not a good lesson in starting what you finish.  I wonder if the kids will have a better reaction than me, I wonder if I can read the story in a way that minimizes the fears and the events that I find disasterous and be more positive.  I think maybe I could use it as a little lesson for my boys, talking about how Augustus really should not have drank out of the chocolate river and using the book as an example in manners and behaving well.  Perhaps I can make it work out in a way that is good for the boys.  

I am a little worried though.  I was a serious child and I'm a pretty serious person and I am concerned that the kids are not freaked out by the story.  My kids are sometimes serious and sometimes little goofballs.....  I wonder if we can take the story as a goofy, make-believe thing.

I would love to hear your advice!

Jim Trelease's Retirement Letter

I just stopped by Jim Trelease's web site and saw his retirement letter posted January 31, 2008. With my four-year-old starting preschool I had dreams of having Jim come to our school to speak -- I love his book, The Read-Aloud Handbook, it's absolutely inspirational for parents and educators.

Best wishes to Jim and his wife Susan for a happy and healthy retirement, with wonderful travels and lots of time reading with the grandchildren!

Note: Oops! Looks like I'm about a year behind... but check out Jim's letter and Web site and book anyway... it's great stuff.  (And a happy one-year retirement anniversary to Jim!)

Great Children's Book Recommendations

Here's a wonderful article by Mr. Sheehy at A Teacher's Writes about his children's top 20 favorite children's books, according to the kids.  

The 20 Best Children's Books ... according to my children, so far.

Great recommendations, I look forward to reading some of the titles mentioned that we have not yet read.  

Also, check out James Patterson's new web site:  Read, Kiddo, Read.  I was particularly pleased to see Dear Zoo included -- it's one of our very favorites!

2009 Blogging and Reading Goals

I shared some of my 2009 blogging resolutions with Cecelia at the Baby Kid blogs, and she's posted a roundup of what several blogging moms are planning.  My #1 goal is to spruce up Mommy's Favorite Children's Books with a new design... I'm so excited!  Thank you to Cecelia for asking this important question about "what's your goal?" to help blogging moms get focused for the New Year.

Also, I'm signing up my family for Marietta's 2009 chapter book challenge at The Bookworm's Booklist. (Check it out!) Spending time reading with my family is one of my top priorities.  I look forward to checking out more chapter books as the boys are just getting to the perfect ages to start enjoying them more and more. 

Have a wonderful 2009, I hope you achieve your goals!

Exploring Chapter Books

After making two recent trips to the library to explore children's reading materials (and ease up on my Amazon.com spending), my oldest son (just turned 4 in Oct.) and I have given more early readers and chapter books a try, and I have a better sense of what he likes.

The most important observation is that at this time, he prefers books to have pictures on every page. He also grows impatient if there is a longer paragraph with only a small picture. I was wondering and possibly dreaming that my young-four-year-old could listen using only his imagination but we're not there yet. However, he is very much interested in longer stories (as long as we start early enough -- and we need to work on that and giving ourselves more time in the bedtime routine).

He enjoyed a Breyer Stablemates book called Snowflake -- although he urged me to skip the text-only pages, the illustrations held his interest well and we got a pretty good sense of the story anyway. (I love horses and although the story has all female characters, I think my son enjoyed it too!) Snowflake is a level 3 reader and now we'll be exploring more 2's and 3's before moving up. We did a level 4 last night that was much too much text and not enough images.

I was surprised that A did not enjoy the picture only books we've tried so far. He instructs me to read the words and seems disappointed there are none. We'll try again when he's a little older.

I've got my copy of The Read-Aloud Handbook
ready and hope to use it next time as a trusty guide for future library adventures.

November Carnival of Children's Literature - The Gift of Reading edition

Welcome to the November 2008 edition of carnival of children's literature.

The theme for this carnival is The Gift of Reading. As the holiday season soon approaches, people will start planning their holiday celebrations and gifts for their loved ones. I felt the Gift of Reading is the perfect theme for the November carnival -- a well-chosen book is a wonderful gift, especially to a young reader. 

One of the reasons I blog about our favorite books is to support our family's commitment to reading. I hope to make gifts of books a significant tradition.  I was lucky to learn to read, to have parents and siblings that read to me, and to enjoy reading throughout childhood.  I'm not a sentimental person, but one of my favorite gifts is a dictionary my mom gave me for my 12th birthday, I still have it and it is a nice reminder of my family's commitment to education and learning.  

This carnival is dedicated to the gift of reading. Enjoy!

On Literacy and The Gift of Reading...

Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page shares the article A Gift for All Seasons at Foreword magazine.  

Amy Smith presents tips from her family's read-aloud experiences on How to Maximize Learning During Story Time at Kids Love Learning.

Need inspiration?  Have a look at The Babes at Read, Read, Read.  Adorable!

Book Reviews and Children's Literature Gift Ideas...

Cinderberry shares a book that looks like a lot of fun and would make an interesting gift:  The Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes.

Rebecca Reid shares several alphabet or ABC books, also known as Abecedaria at Rebecca Reads

Steven Bush presents We Belong Together and Queen Vernita’s Visitors at Book Dads: Fathers That Read!.

Peter Jones shares a children's book with a magical topic, A Modern Tale of the Tooth Fairy. 

Becky Laney presents Gift Ideas for 2008 #1 posted at Becky's Book Reviews and Fly Me To The Moon: Fun Gift Ideas 2008 at Young Readers.

Lynn shares Unique Books & Gifts for Your Hard-to-Please Literary Friends at Imaginary Blog. 

and Gifted Authors....

Tarie presents an interview with Paula Yoo, whose novel Good Enough is nominated for a 2008 Cybils award in the young adult fiction category.

That concludes the November carnival -- thank you contributors and visitors! Visit the next Carnival of Children's Literature at Jen Robinson's Book Page on December 17.

Admiring TV-free families

After reading The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, I am thinking again about limiting or eliminating our family's TV time. Trelease says in his book that kids can handle a maximum 8 hours a week before their education test scores begin to decline. My boys are still very young (ages 2 and almost 4) and I am afraid to track how much television we watch -- it's a lot. This is one of the failures of my parenting -- it started innocently enough.... we began watching Signing Time sign language educational videos (which are wonderful and I still love them so much), and then catching a few half hour episodes of kids programming...... but it has snowballed. We have a DVR and so Curious George (another family favorite) is always easily accessible -- probably much more available than it should be.

In high school, two of the smartest kids I knew were siblings who had no TV at home. They were both very intelligent (the oldest was accepted to MIT for college), and though I don't know what they did with their time, I'm quite sure they were avid readers. I really have no doubt that my children will be smarter and healthier if we watch less.

At these ages, it's so much more about my willpower than the kids'. We use television as a parenting crutch, and while I think we might be reducing our overall viewing, it's not easy. We tend to watch first thing in the morning (particularly if the kids are up early) and before bed (but we still read after that). I should be doing more reading with the kids in place of watching television, and the kids do play more when it is turned off. Last night we went to the library, which was wonderful, but my oldest wanted to check out a Thomas DVD, and we did... I have heard it might be best to go cold turkey but I don't know if I've got the strength. My excuse right now is that we have a newborn coming very soon and I think I *need* the TV while we are re-adjusting as a family and I am alone with two toddlers and a newborn. However, I really, really want to significantly reduce our viewing... I think it's important. I'm just weak.

Is your family tv-free or do you limit television?

I love resale shopping for children's books!

I love getting good deals on children's books, and one of my favorite ways to save money on books is buying them used at resale. Yesterday my husband took the boys to the public museum and I ran errands, which included a great shopping trip at a children's resale shop that is blessed with a large inventory of books. The books are very reasonably priced ranging from $0.50 to about $4.00. I can't resist a children's book for $1.50 and came home yesterday with a total of 20 new books for the boys for about $30 and feeling extremely satisfied.

Time flies in the store while I am browsing the books -- I try to read or at least skim most of the book to get a sense if it's a good fit for our family.  I could easily spend an hour sitting on the floor of the store with a stack of potential purchases, but that time is enjoyable and worth it to me.

Even if none of these 20 books become all-time favorites, I know we'll have some very good reads. I highly recommend searching out resale shops and events in your area. (Pretty soon a nearby community hosts a GIGANTIC family resale that draws many sellers and 100s of buyers -- it's wonderful (although I may be too pregnant at that time to attend or enjoy it.)) I love buying gently used kids' clothes at resale too, so it's a double benefit of shopping.

As much as I would like to be a frequent library user, I often find resale more attractive because I like owning the books, we can keep them, they can get misplaced without incurring fines, and I'm not worried about wear and tear. I also think resale is great for selling off some of our family's belongings when things get a little too crowded, even our bookshelves.

It's fairly easy to find great titles at resale -- especially popular series like Curious George, Dr. Seuss and various reading level books.  I've been lucky to find many interesting and some truly wonderful children's books while resale shopping, and a favorite book is even more fun when it only cost a few dollars. 

This morning I pulled out all 20 new books and it was like Christmas for the boys. We had some wonderful reading time together.