Shoe Bop! by Mairlyn Singer Illustrated by Hiroe Nakata

When a little girl needs a new pair of shoes she takes a poetic trip to the shoe store and explores every type of shoe available in adorable rhyming format. The poems were short and humorous and interesting to read.

Dutton Children's Books, 2008.

Sparkle and Spin: A Book about Words by Ann and Paul Rand

This book is all about words and how different words can be used for many different things. It is accompanied by lots of collage pictures and has a fun-to-read poetry format to it also.

Chronicle Books, 2006
First Edition Published 1957

AlphaOops! H is for Halloween by Althea Kontis Illustrated by Bob Kolar

The alphabet is at it again in this humorous telling of the alphabetical Halloween, starting with H.

Candlewick, 2010.

How to be a Baby by Me the Big Sister by Sally Llyod Jones Illustrated by Sue Heap

This walkthrough on all things how to be a baby is a cute book comparing the skills allowed by older siblings to babies. It is written the way a school child would talk and is filled with humorous lists and reasons why it isn't always so great to be a baby. In the end, however, the big sister realizes all of the pros to being a baby and she realizes that her little baby sibling will not always have baby limitations.

Also by this author is 'How to be a Bride' which is on par with this book.

Schwartz & Wade, 2007.

Shoe Baby by Joyce Dunbar Illustrated by Polly Dunbar

A little baby goes on a magical shoe adventure until he is reunited with his Giant parents. It is a wonderfully illustrated tale and the pictures are interested and bright and bold. We read this book over and over and over.

Candlewick, 2005.

Nobunny's Perfect by Anna Dewdney

This book shows examples of the behaviors of good little bunny's and bad bunny's and their behaviors. It is adorable and easy to read a loud and at my house we read it over and over and over until my preschooler was very clear on good bunny behaviors and bad bunny behaviors and she reiterated over and over that nobody's perfect. The lessons from this book stretched out into my life where after breaking something my daughter turned to me and said, 'Mom, it was an accident and nobunny's perfect.'

Viking, 2008.

Be a Baby by Sarah Withrow Illustrated by Manuel Monroy

In short and simple rhymes everything this baby is to it's parents is explored. It's a book form of a poem to say to a baby. The illustrations are adorable.

Groundwood Books, 2007.

Toot Toot Beep Beep by Emma Garcia

What sound does a Jeep make? What sound does a limousine make? How about a friendly green van? This book is a great early reader involving the sounds of cars and where they go. It's full of colorful blocky art that is enthralling to children. The print is large and bold and it is easy to read aloud.   I liked the little Red Jeep Beep! Beep! and off he zooms to offroad.


Boxer Books, 2008.

Bye-bye, Crib by Alison McGhee Illustrated by Ross MacDonald

Baby and Baby Kitty are getting ready to make the transition from bed to crib in this old-timey illustrated picture book. The little baby boy in the book has some initial fears about his bed being a big monster bed, but in the end him and baby kitty are able to sleep tight!

Simon & Schuster, 2008.

Summertime Waltz by Nina Payne Illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska

The Cover Image of this book does not do the illustrations inside (or the text) justice. This book is beautifully written and quite poetic. There are lots of abstract illustrations along with creatively placed text of the poem on each page. It is visually stimulating for all and appropriate for a wide range of children although older ones would be more apt to understand the poetry of the book.

Frances Foster Books, 2006.

The World is Full of Babies! by Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom

All sorts of animal babies are explored and compared to human babies, from fetal development to the various ways babies act and interact with their parents. The text is big and bold and perfect for younger readers while the illustrations are concise and depict animals realistically. This book does a great job in connecting with the reader on some of the various activities that are universal to all babies and brief explanation of various animal behaviors accompany the illustrations. This is a wonderful book to read to explore animal development or if children are interested in babies in general (not just human ones).

Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 1996.

I'm 3! Look What I Can Do by Maria Caluccio

Presented in big and bold text, each page of this book states something that any 3 year old can do (or is learning how to do). It's a great book for a child to recognize their own skills and to identify with other children of the same age. The illustrations are very nice to look at and there are lots of patterns within the pictures that make it interesting for the eyes for the reading parent.

Henry Holt and Co., 2010.

My Traveling Eye by Jenny Kostecki-Shaw

My traveling eye was a cute story about a little girl with a serious case of lazy eye. The way the story is told, the main character refers to her eye as it's own entity and that allow her to view the world in a different and unique sort of way. When she has to wear an eye patch, she styles it up and becomes the envy or her class with her creative eye patch designs. In the end her eye gets some motivation and strength and there is a good outlook. It's one of those books that is cute to read, but it still has the purpose of creating a good book targeted about and especially for children with eye problems. My little sister wore an eye patch in her younger years and we teased her about looking like a pirate (which we tried to transform into a "cool" thing...unsuccessfully...). A book like this could have given her an opportunity to know that other children have prescribed eye problems and here were some ideas how to make wearing an eye patch 'cool'.

The illustrations throughout the book were of that bright bold color mishmosh collage type. Lots to look at but very well done.

Henry Holt and Company, 2008.

Meeow and the pots and pans by Sebasien Braun

In this book readers are introduced to a cute little black cat named Meeow and his/her friends (also appropriately named) Woof, Moo, Baa, and Quack. The characters explore the kitchen and the various utensils, pots and pans found within. The colors are bright and bold and jump right off of the page and each type of pot or pan's color is named. In the end, the characters have a marching parade.

Boxer Books, 2010.

Super Babies on the Move by Salina Yoon

This book is like two books mashed into one, except they are opposite sides of the book and one is upside down (that is until you turn the book over!) The book includes Max's Bath Time and Mia's Nap Time and is a really cute little book about babies who wander off and go exploring. There are sequential pictures within some of the pages to help illustrate the events. The pictures are bright and bold and colorful and it's a fun little book to read.

G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009.

Read It, Don't Eat It! by Ian Schoenherr

The premise of this book is very simple, it is a short easy-to-read rhyming book about how to treat library books. I love it! The pictures features animals doing silly things with their books while on the opposite pages are alternating primary colors and big-bold font. It's a quick read, it is fun to read, and everyone can always do with a little reminder on the proper treatment of library books.

Greenwillow Books, 2009.

Roadwork by Sally Sutton Illustrated by Brian Lovelock

This book has lots of bright, primary colors, construction-trade vehicles, big bold words (and sounds) and a rhyming scheme as well. It's one of those great exploratory topic books for early readers and is fun to read out loud.

Candlewick Press, 2008.

Lines that Wiggle by Candace Whitman Illustrated by Steve Wilson

This book is funny, wonderful to look at, fun to touch the lines (they are texturized) and all-in-all a really great read exploring the changing nature of lines. The illustrations are colorful and contrasty and they border on the highly unlikely or somewhat ridiculous (but in a subtle artful way).

My favorite is the very last two pages that says "Rainbow lines are way up high" and for some unknown reason there is the body of a giant monster sitting on a rainbow (with a tiny silhouetted family waving at him from below).

Chronicle Books, 2009.

Ten Tiny Babies by Karen Katz

Ten Tiny Babies is one of those books that covers so much educational ground in the storyline of babies that keep appearing one by one until it is time to go to bed. On top of all of that, it is also absolutely fun to read, fun to act out, and really cute to look at. Even better, now my little is reading it and talking about it even though we only read it once. She's singing about it. Another thing that I noticed was that all of the babies are of different color variations, so this is one of those diversity-friendly books as well. It's so cute though and worth it to read it. All of Karen Katz's books are quite entertaining and cute and child-friendly.


Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2008. 

Shapes that Roll by Karen Nagel

This book has everything. Shapes, numbers, drama, adventure, contrast, color, and the shapes on the pages even have this nifty smooth feeling to them.

I won't waste any more time in saying exactly WHY this book is absolutely amazing, because it really covers all bases when it comes to concept books. Did I mentioned it also rhymes too? Yeah.

My favorite page says, "Shapes of fruits that grow on trees" and that's all, but it collides so well with the rest of the book (and really it is just my favorite because of the shapes of the fruits).

On a personal note, both of my children were totally drawn to this book, and why wouldn't they be? It's got interesting appeal and lots of contrast and it sticks out (and it works!)

Read it!

Illustrations by Steve Wilson.
Blue Apple Books, 2009.