Author: Aaron Becker
Sometimes it is hard to read a book with no words. But this one is a picturesque, imaginative and adventurous journey powered by a red marker. My five year old has narrated the story to her dolls and is marvelous book to help children unlock their imagination. This is one of the books that makes you feel how does an author come up with such themes. A brilliant read
Author: Caspar Salmon
Illustrator: Matt Hunt
My daughter can count up to large numbers. The minute I read the title she said “this is so easy”. But throughout the book, she could not stop giggling as the author kept making us count to 1. The illustrations support the main theme of the book and are filled with suspense and intrigue.
A fantastic read
Author: Ed Young
Seven Blind Mice are trying to identify a strange object in their path. Each one goes on each day of the week to figure out what the object is. My daughter guessed the object right on the first page but it was still a lot of fun to read through the book as the illustrations are colorful and there is even a moral to the story. The book is easy to read and there are several words that a kindergartener can sound out and read. It is a thoroughly enjoyable book even for smaller children
Author: Matt De La Pena
Illustrator: Christian Robinson
Any time one can travel on a city bus with their grandmom on a leisure trip, one should definitely do it. Grandmoms are wonderful people in building community. This book is no exception. My daughter is a first generation America living in the American suburbia , so both buses and grandmas are novelty. She was happy to read about the bus driver who could do magic, a guitar playing passenger and of course had many questions about the last stop on market street.
Author: Kevin Henkes
A pig, a bear, a bunny, an owl and a dog are waiting by the window side. They are all waiting for something. While they wait, they experience the moon, rain, thunder, winds and their days goes on. They have newer friends who join them from time to time. Some stay with them and some do not. This book is pretty much a metaphor for life. My daughter has been at a school from a very young age and I did not use the book as a teaching moment but I can see how the book could serve as one. When five more friends joined the main five, my daughter taught it was the perfect time to start counting them.
Author: Meg Rosoff
Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
Boris, Morris, Horace and Doris eat ravenously. They are hungry, selfish, stinky and bossy. When the foursome start cooking, chaos ensues but they produce an extremely attractive pudding. Do they eat this wonderful product of their labor with order and will they be satisfied? My kindergartner loved the book and has been asking her sister (who is the baker of the house) to make the one massive cookie recipe mentioned in the book. Sophie Blackall’s pictures put you right in the middle of the kitchen where the boars are pulling off their delicious, delectable dessert.
Author: Deborah Marcero
This is possibly one of the most colorful books we have read. Each page has multiple things in multiple different colors. All of them are neatly packed away in a jar. I had a little bit of difficulty explaining to book to my daughter but then she was so fascinated by all the things the lead character, Llewellyn was collecting in his jars. He collects memories in jars and stores them away. He makes friends while collecting these jars and even ships these memories across seas. This book comes to life with its colors and clever drawings.
Author: Doug Salati
“A picture can convey a 1000 words”. Doug Salati’s hot dog is a perfect example for that famous idiom. He captures the dog’s frustration, desperation, elation and every other emotion with his wonderful pictures. My daughter loves the beach and carries a stuffed animal which is a sea lion. Both the beach and the sea lion make an appearance in the book making it a near perfect choice. This book demands a lot of detail in its pictures to move the story along and Salati absolutely nails it.
Author: Juana Martinez- Neal
A girl with a really long name wants to know the reason behind her long name. Her dad goes about explaining the story behind each person whose name is a part of her name. What follows is a wonderful passing down of family heritage and how we all really are standing on the shoulders of giants. As a child born in America to immigrant parents I often feel my kids lack the grounding in their own heritage and culture (mea culpa), this book provided me with an opportunity to talk about my daughter’s grand parents, great grand parents. There is even some spanish thrown in alongside some of the images and my daughter is naturally curious about languages, so we did read a few words of spanish as well
Author: Lindsay Mattick
Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
This is one of the coolest origin stories. The story is about the man who found Winnie in Winnie the Pooh and also the man who created Winnie, the character. As I was reading the book, my daughter wanted to whether it is really a true story. She also wanted to know what is war. We had a little bit of conversation about war. Sophie Blackall is a tremendous illustrator and she never fails to deliver.
Author: Mac Barnett
Illustrator: Jon Klassen
This book is one of my daughter’s favorite books. There are many times she has gone back and asked Sam and Dave to dig their hole in the right direction. Jon Klassen is a hero. He transforms a simple book with this wonderful and uncomplicated illustrations. I couldnt help but notice the amount of white space in each of the pages letting each page breathe. I will add this book to my collection at home. Also, advice to my five year odl to the friends is to listen to their dog.
Author & Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
A boy wants a cat desperately. He is begging his parents while shopping, while bathing and even while reading a bedtime story. Finally, his parents agree. They adopt a cat but the cat turns out to be an introvert. How the boy turns around the cat’s behavior and not only makes his cat happy but an entire community of cats purring is the rest of the story.
Sophie Blackall is a decorated storyteller. She brings the boy’s joy, despair and triumph to life with her illustrations. My daughter really loved the page where the boy gets to choose a cat from a “stable” of cats at the shelter. She even picked her own cat to adopt from the picture. She also noticed that we had read the book that his mom was reading to the boy at bedtime. The book was “They all saw a cat“. I thought that was a nice touch by the author to call out yet another decorated book.
Author: Julie Leung
Illustrator: Hanna Cha
A mom reads a richly illustrated bed time story to her toddler about going on an expedition to figure out the truth about dragons. The pictures make you feel as if you are right in the adventure with him. The truth sayers are two old women living in very different landscapes and showing him two different dragons. Do I reveal the truh about who the truth sayers are? I guess I will leave it to the book.
Author: Bao Phi
Illustrator: Thi Bui
A Great book with beautiful illustrations. A young Vietnamese boy accompanies his father one early morning on a fishing trip. This fishing trip is not for fun but to put dinner on the table for that night. Dad shares his memories about fishing at a different pond in Vietnam. While it is hard for a five year old to grasp the themes of war and displacement, it was quite easy for her to relate to a kid spending time with her father and the family gathering around the living table.
Author: David McKee
Elmer is like Rudolph, the reindeer. The one animal unique in his herd. Unlike Rudolph, whose reindeer mates did not allow him to join in reindeer games, Elmer is loved for his goofiness by his fellow elephants. They turn gloomy when he is not around and thats when Elmer realizes that his true value is in standing out and not fitting in. I am not sure my five year old got all of the intent behind the book but she definitely found it interesting that there is an elephant in the herd who was colorful and not grey.
Author: Vera Brosgol
Hands down, this book has the best title. I am sure most parents with kids will agree. Jokes apart, this is heart warming tale about a grandma who wants to get finish with her annual pet project but is disrupted by her grandkids of all ages. She leaves the house to finish this project but like all grandmas, she makes her bed, tidies the floor, makes tea and then bolts with her belongings. It is quite unfortunate that as she leaves her house she encounters bears who don’t understand English, goats who mistake her wares for snacks and aliens without ears. But like all Grandmas, she stops at nothing to finish the job that she has undertaken. A happy ending ensues.
Wonderful book. This might even teach the kid to build her boundaries and practice some self love.
Author: Meg Fleming
Illustrator: Jarvis
My 5 year old is learning to read and this book is perfect with its short sentences and a simple story. Definitely recommend this book.
Author: Gennifer Choldenko
Writer: Dan Santat
Most of us count our parents as role models worthy of emulation. This is a story of one such boy who wants to be fearless as his dad. Most of us like that hand on the back, an invisible force that we rely on to guide us through tough, troubled times – it could be a friend, God or a picture. For the boy in the story, the guiding force is a little doll. This is a simple heart warming tale told through some creative illustrations and my daughter loved the pages in the soccer fields and at the rock climbing wall. Definitely recommend it for 5 and above.
Author: Shawn Harris
This book is a visual treat. The first page opens in the city in a color depicting the lack of open spaces in the city – black. The mood improves in the second page as if we drive out to the faraway open spaces. The book bursts with color from there on. The best part is that the dash of colors seems like something a kid would color given a blank page. Its simple, yet delicate. It conveys a complex theme which requires the child to think hard so it did not go down well at bedtime but I have read this to my daughter at other times and she loved it.
Author: Mark Teague
Opposites attract is the theme of many romantic comedies and Teague applies this time to an unlikely friendship between a cat and a dog whoa re waiting to be adopted at their local shelter. Felipe is the snooty, proper cat and Claudette is the dirty, rambunctious dog. They dont get adopted even after multiple adoption events. Then one of them gets to go to a permanent home and what happens to their bond is the plot. We have an adopted dog and the girls have been asking us for a cat so the book went down very well with our five year old. This is a very simple book with adequate images to convey the mood.
I hate to preach from this blog but considering the animals that are available for adoption, always consider adopting pets rather than buying them from a breeder.
!['Felipe and Claudette' [Orchard Books/Scholastic]](https://www.jacksonville.com/gcdn/authoring/2019/03/24/NFTU/ghows-LK-8486d578-d55d-2e9c-e053-0100007f70da-98105bc5.jpeg?width=300&height=400&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
Author: Tom Gauld
This is a refreshing spin on traditional fairy tales. A royal couple, having endured many years without children, turn to a scientist and a witch to give them offsprings. They are gifted with a wooden robot and a log princess. The log Princess comes with a pre-existing condition – one that causes the twists and turns in the story eventually leading to a happy ending. The book is filled with positive characters and weaves a wonderful story of sibling love between two unlikely siblings. The illustrations are straight out of a fairy tale. Richly deserves all the honor it has got.
Author: Rosemary Wells
As a critic, it is easy to point out that the pictures are unremarkable and there is no plot but very few things matter if it entertains the child and makes them want to read the book multiple times. There is a treasure hunt going on in the house and the clues are in the pages. My five year old who is beginning to read opened the flaps and read the clues by herself, which made her feel empowered. There are a couple of characters in the book who cannot read and the elder characters read the clues for them which is also a wonderful touch to ensure younger kids that it is ok if they cannot read and they can always seek help. The clues are easy and the book ambles along at a wonderful pace. I even found out what a parlor is, thanks to the book.
Author & Illustrator: Oge Mora
I can smell Omu’s Red stew – Out the window, Out the door , down the hall, toward the street, around the block, through the pages and just like her many neighbors, even I feel like knocking on her door. This book is celebration of food, community and sharing. It reminded me of growing up in India and my great grandmother cooking/sharing her stuff with the rest of the community. Food is a great unifier and this book is a refreshing read at a time in the world where more and more people are feeling lonely. It is a straightforward message that needed to be said and it is depicted deliciously.
Author and Illustrator: Brendan Wenzel
Here is a spoiler : Pay attention to the pictures. If you just read the story, you are going to miss the point. The details are in the pictures and they paint a truly remarkable “perspective”. Mr. Wenzel deserves the credit for saying so much with this pictures using a cat with its whiskers, ears and paws. I am still awestruck at the point the book makes and I also felt that I should have read this book to my 5 year old a little bit later. I felt she was not in the mindspace to fully grasp the book. This is a stupendous book but you should know the right time to read it to your child. They need to be a little bit more evolved mentally to get the full meaning of the book. Take a bow, Mr. Wenzel!
Author & Illustrator: Corey R Tabor
If there is a Hall of Fame for kids books, this book should belong in it. Mel is a Kingfisher who is trying to get out of his nest and fly for the first time. She is going to do it in the absence of his mom. She steps right to the edge of her branch and has an epic fall. The entire ecosystem living in that tree comes to her rescue but none of them can save her from falling straight down into the pond. What happens next forms the plot? The emotions of all the fauna in the tree are vividly captured as Mel is doing her thing. This is a story of despair and triumph so breathtakingly brought to print. This book and its author deserves all the kudos it has got.
Ps: My daughter loved the ladybug’s reaction. I felt the helplessness and joy felt by the ants.
Author: Ying Chang Compestine
Illustrator: Crystal Kung
Ra Pu Zel is a clever retelling of the more famous long haired Princess story – RaPunzel. Just like Rapunzel, Ra Pu Zel has. long hair and she lives the majority of the story in a tall tower. Of course, there is a savior who is going to get her out of the tall tower. But this savior is markedly different. My daughter loved the book. I felt it broke the usual norms of Princess stories and I loved the “food” component in the story which was not about eating vegetables and eating healthy.
Author: Todd Sturgell
When a dung beetle follows a turtle and a host of other animals on a mission to reach Antartica, there will be surprises and laughes along the way. When my daughter laughs for scatological humor, I smirk at how the fruit does not fall too far off the tree. The author keeps emphasizing throughtout the book that his intent was to give us animal facts and not the silliness that has ensued. At one point, he even quits. Does the turtle and its friends reach Antartica and rewrite history about species found in America is the rest of the plot.
Author: Jason Carter Eaton
Illustrator: John Rocco
There is hardly a toddler who doesn’t liek trains even if they have never seen or beein in one. A train is much pretty treated like an animal pet throughout the book and the boy gives it a name, teachers it manners, establishes ground rules for it. The graphics are highly entertaining and the writing is very creative. I liked the page where the kids bring their planes, trains and automobiles for a meetup.
Author: Diane Redfield Massie
Illustrator: Steven Kellogg
There is a famous saying “If you think you are too small to make a difference, you have never been in bird with a mosquito”. True to that saying, a small nocturnal bird keeps the entire zoo of much larger animals awake at night due to its singing. The rhyme scheme keeps repeating throughout the book and if you are not careful, you could be singing it when you are checking out groceries the next day morning. How do the large animals get their sleep back forms the rest of the plot? The drawings are nothing to write home about but the plot itself is very entertaining.
Author: Simon Philip
Illustrator: Kate Hindley
The cover shows a rather bewildered boy with a present in his hand in front of a house hosting a party. The title is “You must bring a hat” . The boy does not have a hat. This book is a riot with a cast of animals and a very strict party host. Also, when you show up at a party, read the invitation clearly. It also helps to know your numbers. My daughter loves books with a ensemble of animals with their own idiosyncrasies.
Author: Dr. Seuss
The Lorax speaks for the Trees. It aims to nurture the environmentalist in your child asking them to preserve old tress and plant new ones. Like all Dr.Seuss books, the characters are drawn with great imagination and with a hint of silliness. The greedy corporate Once-ler is drawn as an invisible entity with only his hands and eyes revealed. For a five year old, the broad theme will be appreciated but the long book is a little tiresome. This is possibly a second grade book where she can enjoy the rhythm patterns and such. At five, this is a great book to just see the wonderful illustrations of this book and of course the underlying message.
Illustrator: Pete Oswald
I once heard a standup comedian joke that “in Europe, if we see a mountain we leave it alone. But in America, people hike it”. I am not sure how true is that statement but this book is yet another example of America’s wonderful hiking culture. There are no words in this book. The kids have to use their imagination and construct the story. The pictures are uncomplicated and convey a very simple story of travel, togetherness and nurturing. My daughter enjoyed the different landscapes the story moves through and the animals they see. We hike a lot as a family and she really enjoyed pictures about what the kid packs for a hike.
Author: Greg Gormley
Illustrator: David Barrow
A bear goes on a journey to find out who he really he is. He searches far and wide to see if he fits into the mould of the other famous bear species. He has distinguishing features that makes him belong to none of them. Eventually, he finds himself. Even after he meets the first species, my daughter was thinking and calling out he is a certain kind of a bear. But in the end, he turns out to be something she did not expect which I thought was a nice twist to the ending. This is a feel good story with good illustrations that bring out the different varieties of bears.
Illustrator: Alison Jay
A book with no words. Such books are sometimes hard if they are not simple enough for a kindergartner to verbalize. Alison Jay produces a simple yet rich book in terms of pictures. The story is straightforward and promotes conversation. My daughter spun the yarn from the pictures once with me and since it was a book with no words, she could talk about it eloquently with her elder sister. She could describe the scenes vividly and have a very nourishing reading experience.
Author: David LaRochelle
Illustrator: Lain Cho
As I continue reading these books to the five year old, dragons seem to be emerging as one of the really attractive books for kids. This book has 100 dragons. The author turns them to ballerinas, surfers, poodles, unicorns, werewolves and even football players. He ships them off to Hawaii, France, Sweden, New York City and to states in all directions of the United States. He gives them sunglasses, Tutus, guitars and drums. They travel in cruise ships, planes and trains. Such a rich, diverse landscape of storytelling only means the pictures need to be near perfect. Lian Cho does a brilliant job with her illustrations. My daughter couldn’t stop pointing at all the silly things the dinosaurs were doing. This is a fantastic book.
Author: Philip C Stead
Illustrator: Matthew Cordell
When we got books from the library the last time, we did not get to this book for a while as I prioritized read the books with the medals and honors. Oh! How wrong I was. This book turned out to be one of the most enjoyable. A kid with a mission and his grandmom with a mission of her own. Dogs of all shapes, sizes and family situations. More importantly, with some really nice names – Wilbur, Orville , Thelonious, Monk , E.B . Mr. Stead beautifully blends Grandparent love with civic action. Does the ending of the book leave room for a sequel?
Author: Jory John . Illustrator: Lane Smith
Just this morning, I was thinking that this blog has an animal problem because I was reading and writing about too many books with animals as central characters. Along came this book. Giraffe Problems opens with a Giraffe Edward who has insecurities about this long neck. How he helps someone with his neck and realizes everyone needs to be comfortable in their own shoes is the rest of the book. I love the writing- it is simple and I love the illustrations as they are simple and expressive. Even I, who has two left hands, copied the giraffe on my daughter’s etch a sktch (fancier one than the classic) and thought it was not bad.
I am not sure what it is called but this book has one of those pages where you flip the page and you have go from landscape mode to portrait mode . I first saw it in the book Mell the Fell but is a nice addition whenever the story demands it because it changes the eyeline and makes the reading more enjoyable.
Author: Eva Furrow and Donna Jo Napoli; illustrated by Laurel Molk
Perfect read for a fast hyper stimulating world we live in. Harriet, the tortoise, goes on a vey satisfying and enjoyable adventure spanning seasons. Knowing her shortcoming in speed, she shows the value in planning ahead and leaving early, which I am very bad at. So it naturally resonated with me and definitely with the five year old.
Author: Drew Daywalt Pictures: OLiver Jeffers
The premise is that the crayons in a little boy’s crayon box write letters to him asking him to address their points of distress (I think one does not have any distress and is a letter of thanks) . In a day and age where even explaining email to a 5 year old is difficult, the concept of writing letters is a little alien to them. But the book is an absolute ripper because of the illustrations. As each one of their crayons grow through their emotions, the pages come alive with the corresponding colors. The final page where the boy makes amends is a refreshing, imaginative blast of color where you can tell your child that it is perfectly OK not to conform to the norms .
Author: Adam Rubin. Illustrator: Daniel Salmieri
I love the ridiculous idea. I kept searching to see if the dragons are being used as a metaphor for kids. But no, the dragons really love tacos. They end up eating a few forbidden ones and they do some crazy things for humans but stuff that is on par for dragons. The illustrations by Daniel Salmieri are a delight. Pant Loads of Tacos and Boatloads of Tacos always make my 5 year old laugh out loud. The sequel did not work for her. The idea of a time machine was too much for her to wrap around. But the first book is a stroke of genius.
Author and Illustrator: “The OG” Maurice Sendak
This is a tribute to the wild imagination inside every child, who wants to command a army of wild things and rule them. There is a Max in all of us. The visuals draw you in bringing out child’s impishness, courage, valor , hunger, anger, enjoyment and vulnerability. The wild things are scary and adorable. My appreciation for Sendak only grew when I saw him in an interview with Stephen Colbert (I am colbert fan boy) and Sendak absolutely owned Stephen in the interview
This is another book that was written in the early 1940s . I fear I might have to drop the word – “Classic”. (Read Mark Tawin’s quote on Classics and you will know the reason for my apprehension). A Mallard and his wife take you on a tour of Boston as they attempt to start a family. The family with fantastic duck names experience wonderful human kindness and thrive in the public parks of Boston. An uplifting book with a great room for conversation with the kids.
This book came out in 1930. Almsot one hundred years later, it still maintains its appeal. If I showed my 5 year old a stack of books, she would clearly pick this out and ask to read it. I have even asked her why she loves it so much and she says it has trains and toys. One hundred years later, certain things maintain their eternal charm and capture our imagination. I have only read the edition with newer art by Loren Long but the art in this truly captivating as well
Santa gifted this book for the five year old for this year’s Christmas. The Book tracks the story of a grumpy lonely bear and a mouse desperate to befiend him. While the graphics landed well and she found the story enjoyable, she couldnt really get why the bear did not like visitors or friends.
This is a really funny book. The therapy suggestions offered by Mr. Mutt to troubled dogs brought out waves of laughter from the five year old. I dont think she quite grasped the format. of the book but she loved the silliness and the graphics of the book.
[Update: We had borrowed this book from the library. She returned it with a heavy heart. She has asked me repeatedly about owning the book]
Author: Grace Lin
The graphics in this book left me spellbound. Simple and beautifully illustrated on a dark background, the book cleverly talks about the waxing phase of the moon. Not a lot of books show up in the dark background and the novelty does add to the appeal of the book
My daughter loved this book. The desire to have something lofty and through continuous discussions (illustrated realistically, playfully) the parents manage to bring down expectations to a level where both sides feel they won the day. But in the day, there is always only one winner.
My daughter who is beginning to read and count large numbers went back to the book multiple times.
My five year old daughter was a little perplexed why the boy was not listening to his teacher and I do not think the theme got to her. She did enjoy the illustrations as she was telling me about how the boy must have been feeling but this book did not work for us.
When I read books to my toddler, I am most satisfied when it brings out a smile in them. She couldn’t stop giggling halfway through No David when the kid steps out to the street and his mom is yelling “No, David”. This is a beautifully illustrated book and fully deserves the Caldecott Honor. The happy ending is a predictable touch but it fully got the “Aw, Aw” from the kids.
” The X was X-rayed” exclaims my kindgartner everytime we read the book. This book by Chris Allsburg where each character is introduced with a sense of theatre is a suspenseful read even for grown ups as we try to guess what scene each alphabet is depicting based on the picture. I like the way the author reveals the alphabet in the first page and in the next page reveals what is being done to alpahbet on stage giving us ample time to be creative with our imagination
The fun fact about this book is it is written in Insect Language with English alphabets. So it is really hilarious to decipher what the insects are talking and you can let your imagination run wild. The astounding visuals on each page help your broaden that creativity. We have discussed butterfly life cycles, seasons, plant growth, life forms dependent on plants while reading this book. One more book which we did not return after the normal lending period and kept renewing it. “Icky, Icky, Icky”
I read nightly to my five year old and I am reading her Caldecott medal winning books or Caldecott Honor books.
We recently read the Knight Owl by Christopher Denise. The illustrations are perfect – an owl who wants to be a Knight who is perservering, clever and strong. The reveal in the section where he smartly escapes and befriends the dragon is so humorous. We borrow 10-12 books from the library every week and she held on to this one for a while . We read it multiple times over multiple weeks. We definitely recommend it.
Book Link: https://bookshop.org/p/books/knight-owl-christopher-denise/16321815?ean=9780316310628
