That Cat may eat all of their food and take all of the goodies out of their Christmas stockings, but he will soon learn not to mess with the mice. The mice come up with a plan, after consulting the resident old wise rat, and soon the mice are able to play and scurry about without having to worry about that mean old cat sneaking up on them. It’s a problem that one little jingly bell can solve.
The reindeer are waiting and waiting and Santa is late and they just can’t figure out what could be keeping Santa. They finally go and knock on Santa’s door and it turns out Santa wasn’t late…the reindeer had the wrong day. Cute rhyming story with a line that repeats that will have your little one chiming in to “help” you read the story.
Rebecca Bloom is preparing her famous latkes on the first night of Hanukkah when three of the latkes jump out of the pan and escape. Rebecca, the cantor, the rabbi, even the mayor end up chasing after the latkes to the edge of town. You’ll never guess what happens once they jump into the river, but everyone does end up getting to eat some yummy latkes with applesauce. Not only is this a cute story, but I love that the latkes repeat the same line on every page. This is great for beginning readers as they can help you read along with the story. This feature is also great for little ones, too. They love to hear the repetition and it won’t take them long until they are chiming in with you every time you get to that part of the story.
Any author who can bring the magic of a holiday alive in the form of a haiku is going to spark my interest. Not only does this book deliver, but the illustrations are vibrant and beautiful. The haiku format is creative, keeps things simple so that the youngest children will enjoy and understand the basics of Hanukkah and it might even spark the older children into trying to come up with their own Hanukkah haikus.
My own kids are slowly growing out of me reading them pictures books, but when they were younger I would sometimes pick up a book at the library that wasn’t just a story with pictures, but a story that was actually a song…a story meant to be sung. Our oldest liked these books, our youngest did not. Our youngest would politely say, “Just read it, Mom.” Well, this is one of those books. A very cute story about a bunch of aardvark angels that help the post office get all of the Christmas mail to all the corners of the earth and, yes, you have to sing it. 🙂
All Bear wants to do is help decorate the tree, but Papa won’t let him. This is the perfect book for toddlers and preschoolers who are always wanting to help, but are always being told they are too small or aren’t allowed to help because they might break something. Bear leaves the room in tears, but Papa finds a very special job for Bear that leaves everyone smiling.
The children in this Thanksgiving book are thankful for playdates, dress-up hats, piggyback rides, puddles and all the things that your preschooler might be thankful for, too. Most of all, they are thankful for their family. A simple rhyming book that your preschooler will be able to relate to. I also love the illustrations in this book. I love the illustrations in this book, too, so rich and full of detail.
Thanksgiving poems that are cute, clever and probably easy enough to read that your early reader might be able to tackle them on their own. Poems are also great for early readers because the rhyming helps them predict/figure out what unknown words might be and poems aren’t usually long and cumbersome. It takes a lot of energy and concentration to figure out all of those words when children are first beginning to read, so poems are a great way to practice reading and fluency with something short that won’t tucker them out too fast. A sense of accomplishment is something you always want to strive for with early readers and poems are a great way to achieve that goal.
Dee donates a can of peas to her school’s food drive and it turns out that her class is going to get to go help serve a Thanksgiving meal at the same place where all of their donated food went. While she is there Dee saves the day by making her “famous” vegetable medley dish and she also makes a friend. This is a great way to show children that donating food is important and that is does actually go somewhere and get used by others. This book would be such a great springboard for some great discussions.
If you have a little history buff in your house, then they will love this historical fiction that tells how Abraham Lincoln pardoned the first turkey because his son, Tad, mistakenly had thought it was a pet and had grown so attached to it that he couldn’t bare to see it on their Thanksgiving table. It all ends well and they end up having ham and chicken instead.
