Educational Books, Toys: Savvy Essentials: A Preschooler's Ideal Home Library
Savvy Essentials: A Preschooler's Ideal Home Library
When you find a truly wonderful preschool teacher, you see your child anew. You notice what delights and what intrigues and what puzzles your little one from that teacher's perspective instead of your (sometimes jaded) own. Wouldn't it be grand to have that great teacher take a look at your bookshelf, subbing in some of her favorites and suggesting some great ones that you want to add immediately to your wish list? Grand, indeed, it would be -- and it is! The Savvy Source asked some of the great teachers and directors of preschools across the country to tell us what they consider to be the ideal home library for a preschooler. Here are their essentials:
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault, and Lois Ehlert
This book is a widely-loved modern classic, frequently--and properly, we think--cited as the very best, very first place to start for leading your child through the alphabet. It is bright and tropical, with a rhyme that has a calypso beat to it that kids (and their parents simply adore). We all have so many stories of little ones whose faces simply light up at the sight of the book--there's something about the hot pink and orange and green color scheme and the silly antics of nutty lowercase letters or the fantastic rhyming cadence that tells the wise early preschooler that this is book she wants to hear again and again (and again and again). And what better way to while away an afternoon than basking in a little tropical glow and chanting your way up the coconut tree with the alphabet. It sounds just delightful to us.
Blueberries for Sal
by Robert McCloskey
Sal is a bit scruffy. Her hair hasn't seen a brush for a few days. Her overall straps keep slipping down. But has a more endearing girl ever toddled across a blueberry field in the pages of a children's book? We think not. Under her father's clearly adoring yet unsparing gaze (McCloskey based this and his other Maine books on his own family), Sal tags along with her mother on a picking expedition, but is too busy gobbling berries to keep up. When she and a blueberry-munching bear cub get their mothers mixed up, a gentle comedy of errors ensues. With its gorgeous blue-black illustrations of the Maine hills and wildlife, this book remains an enchanting tale of summer and its pleasures.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz
This tale of Alexander's truly rotten day has been a cherished favorite since its publication in 1972 because parents everywhere can relate to that feeling of having one of those days. Kids love it too, but we notice that parents find it especially funny ... and reassuring. What we've also noticed is that, while Alexander looks like maybe a kindergarten-age kid, your preschooler may well laugh right along with the story because he too knows the feeling! No, the terrible day of a three-year-old isn't exactly like the terrible day of a bigger kid, but it isn't exactly unlike it, either. Getting sticky, tripping, getting soaked, not being acknowledged, not getting dessert, having to sleep in pajamas you hate and generally being cranky and miserable? Sounds like one or two (million) kids we know! So, add this classic to your bookshelf early, and find out just how much it resonates with your little one now as well as years from now.
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?
by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
If only you had dinosaurs in your house at bedtime?. Sure, your paint job might take a beating with all those scales and tales, and your downstairs neighbors would really bellow about the footsteps, but bedtime would be a cinch. And if you don't believe us, ask your child after you read this book together. The authors of this great series use all the examples of what a dinosaur would never do (roar, pout, sulk, slam his tail, demand one story more, etc.) to inspire your own little one to abandon all of his own age-old stalling tactics and go to bed. And like all good dinosaurs, we're sure yours will remember to give you an extra kiss before lights-out. It's a wonderful series of books, and if this one sticks in your little one's imagination, by all means turn to the ones on How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms? and How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? and the rest. Who knew that manners were so important in the prehistroic age?!
One Fish, Two Fish
by Dr. Seuss
It's a silly book. It's a strange book. It's the perfect introduction to Dr. Seuss. In this most nonsensical of nonsense poems, Dr. Seuss teaches rhythm, rhyme and the delights of manipulating language. He also teaches the fundamental precept of Seussian philosophy: "Everyday, from here to there, funny things are everywhere." Our children know that already, but we parents do need the reminder once in a while. Thank goodness for Dr. Seuss!
Are You My Mother?
by P.D. Eastman
A perennial favorite since its publication in 1960, this story is absolutely engrossing to most toddlers and preschoolers. A mother bird whose egg is about to hatch flies off in search of food, so when the wee birdie emerges, he finds himself all alone. His first question: where is my mother? Off he goes in search of said maternal parent, but meets instead a kitten, hen, cow, and dog, none of them birds, he learns, and none of them his mother. The intrepid little newborn continues on his quest, encountering even unlikelier candidates in the form of a plane, boat, and enormous digger. It's a regular page-turner for the preschool set!
The Snowy Day
by Ezra Jack Keats
This classic (1963) celebration of a snowfall in the city remains one of the loveliest children's books on any theme. (It is also noteworthy for its very big first: it was the first color picture book for young children to feature a small African-American hero.) On this happy morning, Willie wakes up to discover his familiar urban world transformed by a blanket of snow. We follow his little red-capped figure on a day of snowy discoveries. Keats's watercolor and cut-out images are spare and simply stunning. This was the first in the author's series of books about Willie's adventures, all of which we love and heartily recommend.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
by Eric Carle
We've never seen a preschool classroom we loved without a roughed-up copy of this classic in the reading corner. We at the Savvy Source are, of course, devotees of Mr. Carle's work, both hall-of-fames like this one and the lesser known. The repetition, the joyful engagement with even the youngest listener, the collage illustrations that are somehow delicate and rugged at the same time (like our little ones themselves). This is a book that places your child squarely in the middle of the text--reenacting the action, predicting the next page, even as the punch line. It's about the animals, but it's really about you reading and your preschooler soaking it all up. No wonder kids adore it!
Good Night, Gorilla
by Peggy Rathmann
You may know this as a picture book classic, a silly and charming tale of mischief at the zoo. Did you also know it's a mini I spy book? A first hint at the many stories within a story that animate so many of the books we adore? Yes, your little one will laugh at this funny story about a gorilla that moonlights as the local pickpocket and frees himself and his companions for an impromptu overnight at the zookeeper's house. But add to the peals of toddler laughter (and no, we don't know any more wonderful sound), the charm of a toddler's knitted brow as she hunts for the long-suffering mouse and his banana cargo, the color-coded keys and cages of all the animals, the balloon that floats up from the gorilla's cage in the escape and stays visible, even if only a teeny, tiny bit, on every page thereafter -- except of course the black-out page, but then your little one can match up the sets of surprised eyes. No wonder this story is an all-time great!
Goodnight Moon
by Margaret Wise Brown
We must confess that we didn't fully appreciate the charms of this universally adored bedtime poem until we read it to our own little bunnies. In the soft dark of a child's room, after cajoling your own little one into bed with all the painstaking "good nights" of his own that he has to bid to everyone and everything--ah yes, then we got it. Like many of her other works, Goodnight Moon is full of the enchantment of the everyday world. The repetition, the gentle rhymes, the skewed perspective of the simple but smart illustrations (keep your eye on that scurrying mouse), the straightforwardly lovely way that we watch this little bunny delay and delay and then settle in for the night (no scolding, just a whispered hush). It is really the quintessential bedtime story, rightly so.
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