Reading List

Oliver is finally at the age where reading him books is exactly as I imagined it would be with a child.  We can curl up in bed together as I read him a bedtime story and the stories are ones that even I as an adult find clever or amusing.  Since I think Oliver responds well to learning from books, I enjoy finding books on specific subjects.  We gotten the standard books on being a big brother, potty training and brushing his teeth, but before we took a trip to the Jersey Shore, I bought him some books about the beach.  And each year at Christmas, I add a few more books to the stash I only bring out at the holidays. 

Where do I find good books?  I ask my teacher friends and other parents.  I see what books my kids are attracted to at the library or in their ECFE classroom.  Sometimes I just randomly search the Internet.  Before that trip to the beach, I typed "ocean" into the search box on Amazon and started reading reviews.  Various organizations publish lists of good books, like Children's Notable List, which the Association for Library Service to Children compiles annually. 

So this is what Oliver is reading at age three:

• Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan
• Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal (Illustrator)
• The Seashore Book Charlotte Zolotow and Wendell Minor (Illustrator) - This one has a special place in my heart, because it's about a mom whose son asks her to describe the seashore to him.  I got this book shortly before Oliver and Soren saw the ocean for the first time. 
• Beach Day by Karen Roosa and Maggie Smith (Illustrator)
• Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault and Lois Ehlert (Illustrator)
• Clarabella's Teeth by An Vrombaut
• Happy Birthday, Moon by Frank Asch - This was a fitting book to give Oliver for his birthday since he always points out the moon to me. 
• Even Firefighters Go to the Potty by Wendy Wax, Naomi Wax and Stephen Gilpin (Illustrator)
• Oliver Finds His Way by Phyllis Root and Christopher Denise (Illustrator)
• If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff and Felicia Bond (Illustrator)
• Grow Flower, Grow! by Lisa Bruce and Rosalind Beardshaw (Illustrator)
• Llama Llama Red Pajama and Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney
• Freight Train by Donald Crews
• Olivia by Ian Falconer
• Apple Trouble! by Ragnhild Scamell and Michael Terry (Illustrator)
• The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
• Snowbaby Could Not Sleep by Kara LaReau and Jim Ishikawa (Illustrator)
• The Construction Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
• All for Pie, Pie for All by David Martin and Valeri Gorbachev (Illustrator)
• Any of the Courdoroy books
• Any of the How Do Dinosaurs...? books (How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms? How Do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends?)