Books Children Love (Revised Edition): A Guide to the Best Childrens Literature

---

Through beautiful, vibrant illustrations, woven in with music and cultural references, the world of visual arts, music, and dance can be opened to children and can help to get their own creativity flowing. For the design alone, this book merits the title of Book of Excellence, but children will also be drawn to the engaging illustrations and simple, rhythmic storyline of newborn chicks and their mother. The townspeople make instruments out of recycled materials from the landfill and create an orchestra that travels worldwide.

Practitioner login area

Art can have a positive impact on a community. Everyone benefits by creating beautiful places and things and that is an important message for children. Before they can read, children often closely study the pictures to give hints and reminders about the text of the story. Show Me Happy , the infant-toddler selection, is filled with wonderful photos of children from diverse backgrounds engaged in play or connecting with other children or adults. Infants and toddlers love to look at faces and will likely study these photographs for extended periods of time. Best in Snow , the preschool selection, is a beautiful book, with stunning photographs of animals and nature in the snow.

School-agers are sure to be intrigued by this engaging story of the early days of photography.

Покупки по категориям

Read more in this issue about some great books that use photos to tell or support the story. What is the real world to a very young child? It starts as a small circle of loved ones who care for and comfort a baby and expands rapidly with each day bringing new experiences to all the senses.

A baby arrives with no language yet masters hundreds of words by age three. Toddlers march toward independence acquiring opinions and strong feelings along the way. And preschoolers have made great strides in mastering running, jumping, and balance. Young children are driven by an innate curiosity, a desire to learn more about how the world works. For young readers, books are often the source of great stories full of fantasies, talking animals, and pretending; however, books can also offer an introduction to the real world.

How does night turn into day, darkness to light? It is an example of art answering the questions of science — and in a beautiful way. Finally, Out of the Woods tells a true story of survival, of humans and animals finding shelter from the ravages of fire in a most unusual place. The real world is full of wonder that even very young readers can experience through literature.

Kevin Henkes is as delightful as the 50 award winning books he has authored and illustrated. Kevin went to New York at age 19 to become a writer and held this one job for all of his professional life — and young children and those of us who read to them are grateful! Perhaps you can recall the illustrations or catchy rhymes or a whimsical story.

And you may have read that same book to your children.

These writers can tap into the world of a young reader, helping them explore their own thoughts and feelings or they can open new worlds of ideas and faraway places. With this issue we celebrate 15 years of Growing Readers Review. What could be more fun than sharing a good story with a young reader? How about a good reference book? Compare a classic fairy tale with an encyclopedia? Seuss and put in Webster? Maybe not, but what if facts came in beautifully illustrated volumes that encouraged youngsters to learn about the world and follow their burgeoning interests?

Infants and toddlers may have their first glimpse of wildlife in Some Babies are Wild. These tiny readers — babies themselves — will gently learn about a variety of species in a way that may very well spark an interest in animals, science, and more. Mama Built a Little Nest is also a book about animals and science.

100 best children's books

And like Some Babies are Wild, it brings scientific facts back to concepts that children can understand: And what about a book that could bring out the inner da Vinci or Velazquez? Get into Art People may be just the prompt needed to spur an interest in art or in becoming an artist. With a few electronic taps, they will have libraries of information at their fingertips.

But touching, holding a book, enjoying the uniqueness of each volume now can create a joy of learning and a portal to new interests. Smiles turned to giggles as your infant saw you disappear and return — over and over again. Whether it's the whimsy of the unexpected, like seeing your face emerge from your hands, or the make-believe of playful songs, youngsters love to "get in the game. Wooden books provide surprises for even the very youngest readers. They don't feel like the board books these children have come to know and they don't sound like paper pages.

Watch your infant react to these new books. Your child will quickly see what the villain is up to and shout warning messages to save the day. And for our sophisticated school-agers, a tale of crayons going on strike will entertain.

It’s your turn:

Children often assign emotions to inanimate objects like stuffed animals or action figures, and here they learn that even their everyday crayons have feelings. Play is the important work of childhood. These whimsical stories will entertain and bring forth participation from even the youngest readers. As parents, we are our children's first teachers. We encourage our preschoolers to become problem solvers.

Here's what she said:. I won't threaten to burn his toys, or bar him from playdates. A tiger mother I may not be. A few years ago at a back-up center, some preschoolers were looking at examples of modern art. They talked about the colors, composition and technique of Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian and others and then took matters into their own hands.

They painted in the style of the artist that appealed to them, and the center was filled with beautiful creations. Each day parents enjoyed the growing gallery. Now in back-up care, children attend when their regular care is not available, so some time can pass between visits. And over that time, teachers change center displays focusing on the children's latest work. One little boy returned to the center two months after the art activity.

He took a quick look around and demanded, "Where is my Matisse?! They are naturally visual artists and performers, and may just draw their inspiration from the books featured in this edition of Growing Readers Review. Sorting out the world is the job of children.

And there is so much to learn. When caring adults answer the needs of infants, these very young children learn that the world is a responsive place and that they can feel secure. Toddlers move from the realm of "mine" to actually being able to share a favorite toy. And preschoolers become more and more adept at solving problems large and small.

Children are curious learners and gain knowledge daily through all of their interactions and observations. And good children's literature offers a rich start to just about every topic of interest to a child. Tap the Magic Tree is an almost magical, interactive introduction to the four seasons. Even the youngest readers will see and hear the rhythm of nature. In Sophie's Squash, a pet veggie delightfully explores the ideas of love and patience. For older readers, Nasreddine presents the difference between criticism and wisdom.

And finally, Wonder gives us an extraordinary lesson from the words of a year-old. This book is filled with lists of books that children will love. It is very thorough and has books for all ages and reading abilities. I love how this book is well-organized into sections of various types of literature and age-appropriateness. I decided to buy it to have a solid resource when choosing what chapter books to read to my 4 and 6 year olds. It was recommended to me by my kids' school librarian.

I'd recommend it to anyone. It nurtures their imagination and creativity, lets them explore other worlds, and opens their minds to new truths and knowledge in appealing, inspiring ways. But how can we sort through thousands of children's books to discover the really worthwhile ones?

Reading for Kids | Best Children’s Books | Child Literacy | Bright Horizons®

Elizabeth Wilson offers us a newly revised, comprehensive guide to the very best in children's literature. In , a team of experts put together this list: How many have you read? You can use our special tools to search hundreds of reviews of children's books by age category and theme.

We also asked the nation to vote for their favourite top 10 from these best books, and here is the definitive ranking:. Your guide to our favourite children's books from the past year: We review lots of new books every month, and here's where you can find the ones we liked best of all. Want to keep track of all the stories you've read and enjoyed?

• Making Sense of the Troubles: A History of the Northern Ireland Conflict
• Negotiation: Buy more cheaply, and get better prices when you sell (Instant Guides)
• Cataract and Refractive Surgery (Essentials in Ophthalmology)
• Windows® Phone 7 For Dummies®
• Bonneville Stories
• A Different Diamond (Softball Star Book 1)