Five Books to Read to Pre-Schoolers, Part 1

My library gets a group of kids twice a week from the daycare next door.  One of the groups are 4-5 years old.  Not all children's books are created equal and not all work for this group.  I try to pick books that don't have a lot of words per page, but ones that actually have words (instead of picture books with just pictures).  I also try to pick ones with clear pictures and to avoid books that list things (step 1 books, list of rules books, etc.)  These are some of the books that have worked for my kids and why.

1) Hug Machine by Scott Campbell
  They liked seeing The Hug Machine hug everything--turtles, mailboxes, trees, etc.  One of the last pages The Hug Machine hugs the audience and the kids went nuts and hugged the book and me and each other and it was adorable.

2) Achoo! by Virginie Morgand
  The simple drawings in this book make it easy to follow. The kids liked watching the animals body parts fly off.  It would also be a good book to teach shapes since each animal is made of simple shapes that could easily be copied with construction paper.

3) The Nonsense Show by Eric Carle
  A classic silly story.  The kids loved seeing a snake with two heads, a swimming bird, and the legs running away from the body.  This book gave me some of the biggest laughs I've ever gotten!

4) How Many Jelly Beans? A Giant Book of Giant Numbers by Andrea Menotti
  I read this a few weeks ago and the kids still talk about it--so it must have been a hit!  One of the rare books that teaches math concepts in a fun way.  It's great for the adults in the room, too, because it's fascinating to see how big a million really is.

Image from NY Times

5) Octopus's Garden by Ringo Starr
  While this book didn't physically engage the kids like the other ones did, it is one of the rare books I've read to them where they all stared intently at it.  There weren't any wiggling feet or distracted eyes--they were entirely riveted on this book.  It is also great for the adults they are with because they recognize the song and encouraged the kids to listen to it with their parents.  Bonus: the book comes with a CD of Ringo reading the book, a karaoke version of the song, and the original song.

*all photos from Amazon.com, unless otherwise stated