(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best poetry books for children

I'm not a regular contributor, but I felt like making a top-10 list of my favorite books so far. (My son will be turning 3 soon.)

The rules mention links to facebook or blogs; I'm hoping non-referral links to Amazon are okay. I'll link board books where possible, because pages get ripped and torn until at least two-and-a-half years of age.

• Little Blue Truck: Most parents probably already know this one. Great book for when children are starting to speak - you can point to each of the animals and ask what it "says."
  
• Jamberry: Beautiful illustrations, and it can be read as a song. I'm pretty sure two verses were switched - I think it should be "Three berry four berry, my berry your berry, hayberry strawberry, finger and pawberry." Bugs me a little bit.
  
• Chugga Chugga Choo Choo: Another singable book with rhymes and good illustrations, and a good means of prompting child participation - they can fill in the "whoo whooo!" part.
  
• Planting a Rainbow: Great eye-grabbing book for learning colors. Can also be read with a rhythm, though it isn't as singable as the others.
  
• Little Owl's Night: Great book for pre-empting any fears of the dark. "Owls wake up at night time, and sleep when the sun is up." Surely if this little owl is chilling at night with his fox and turtle buddies, that means nighttime is nothing to be afraid of.
  
• The Little Dump Truck: Has a good rhythm and good illustrations. Helps give your kid, who loves dump trucks but doesn't know why, an idea of what dump trucks actually do.
  
• Twenty Big Trucks in the Middle of the Street: Fantastic counting book, and has a good rhythm as well. Highly recommend for getting your kid to count past ten.
  
• Potty: A godsend for potty training. Start reading it a couple months before you introduce the potty, and read it often. We potty-trained our son at about 34 months with a combination of this book and Season 2, Episode 1 of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. He used a little plastic thing for about two weeks before we moved him up to the integrated seat, which is great because it can just be wiped down after use.
  
• Julia's House for Lost Creatures: Beautifully illustrated, and a great introduction to cleaning up after yourself. "What do good boys do if they make a little mess?" "Um, clean up!" The text doesn't flow well in some parts - I get the impression that this was intended for comic-book reading children - but it isn't overly wordy and has more than enough art to compensate.
  
• Why is the Grass Green? First Questions and Answers about Nature: If anyone knows about a more recent version of this, I'd be very interested. We found this one in a library's outdoor "take one, leave one" box. Some of it is still too advanced for our little one to wrap his head around, but the way this book distills concepts into concise explanations with simple wording is amazing. Highly recommended for any child that asks a lot of "why" questions.

Books my son has loved:

• "That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown". Queen Gloriana the Third tries every trick in the book to get her hands on Emily Brown's rabbit Stanley, but Emily Brown isn't giving her best friend away, not even for all the toys in the world. This is my son's favorite book ever. Great story, both main characters are female. The text is just right - a few challenging words/phrases which are repeated often, the rest easily understood by 3-4 yr olds. Illustrations are funny and awesome.
  
  
• "Falling for Rapunzel" - A fractured fairy tale (my favorite kind) in rhyme. The prince thinks Rapunzel needs his help and rides to her tower to rescue her, but she keeps mishearing his request to "let down her hair". Text is a bit challenging for 3-4 yr olds, and you might need to stop to explain the meanings of a few words, but my son loves the rhyme and LOLs a lot at the story. Nice illustrations too!
  
  
• "Where the Wild Things Are" - a classic, I'm sure you are familiar with it. When we read this book, I make sure the wild things are often "she". :)
  
  
• Several Dr. Seuss books, such as Green Eggs and Ham, and The Cat in the Hat. Some Dr. Seuss books are boring for my son, especially the ones with a LOT (just pages and pages) of nonsense words - entertaining for a bit but it's a chore to get through the book. We like the ones with a story. With Dr. Seuss, you need to be extra vigilant about gender of the characters, there are almost no female characters in his books. In our home when we read, I make the Cat in the Hat female :) all "she" where it says "he", and so on.
  
  
• any "Dora the Explorer" book. Great for characters of color. I highly recommend Dora in general, it's perfect for 3 yr olds. My son's outgrowing her now that he's 4, though, it's a bit too simple for him.
  
  
• recently we've added a bunch of nonfiction books about volcanoes, planets, dinosaurs, etc. When we read them there's always a discussion of stuff like "what's going to happen if we go to Pluto?" and so forth. Great time to inject diversity education: our astronauts are often disabled!

Great collection!
My son is 18 months old. I've been stashing some books for him but he has his own thing going. He's a busy baby. I'm still waiting on him to get the patience to sit through a Dr. Seuss book. Here is a list of books he will endure in their entirety. Yes, I've memorized most of these books.


One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. This is the first book my son seemed to love. It was able to hold his attention at an early age. He still loves it, even though it's missing a couple pages. It's a board book too.

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed I read this one to him while he was in the womb. Once he was old enough it was one of his favorites. I lost it on an airplane a couple of months ago though.

Andy Warhol's Colors Wow, my 2 1/2 yr old niece also loves this book. It has nice illustrations and rhyming words.

Bright Baby First Words This is a set of 4 books. My son loves Colors and First Words the most at the moment… for some reason he likes to kiss the pink flower.

Night-Night, Baby! This is his favorite bedtime book at the moment. Strange because he didn't care for it as a small baby but it seems like that's who it's made for. It has simple black and white illustrations along with pictures of a baby, some fuzzy stuff and cut out stars.

Goodnight Moon Classic

Baby Animals I've also been reading this one to him since womb time however he's only now starting to pick it from the stack.

Dog and Friends Board Books This is a set he got for his 1st birthday. He LOVED these books to bits, especially Busy Day and On the Farm. They fell apart after much love/chewing. They seemed sort of stupid but he sure loved them. They were also convent to carry with in a purse because they're tiny.

Under The Sea This is the only touch and feel he ever liked very much.

Bunny Kisses What baby doesn't like kisses?

Wow. Just went back and read the original post. That's some story. Glad you got to the bottom of it. (Gotta say, you are one fabulous aunt!)

It's great that your sister is addressing your niece's sense of self by having her be around more kids who look like her. But I'm guessing it'll take more than a long talk to undo what your brother-in-law's family set in motion. (I hate to say it, but ... Arizona.)

It sounds like, along with their racist attitudes and a sense that this is an okay way to think and behave, your niece internalized a kind of ethnocentrism that suggests a goodness-badness continuum, where lighter people are on one end, and darker folks on the other. Restoring her sense of self-worth about her own skin color and beauty might require a full-on challenge of this idea. In other words, being around other Asian kids is important but may not be enough; she might also need counter-examples against black and latino stereotypes.

Fortunately, there are plenty of awesome picture storybooks for her age group featuring black, brown, and asian kids and families that will simply humanize all types of folks, and humanizing is the best way to challenge your bro-in-law's family's dehumanizing ideas. (I mean seriously--brown people act like monkeys and steal money?)

Off the top of my head, here are some books we read to our daughter:

• Sol A Sol: Original and Selected Bilingual Poems by Lori Marie Carlson
  
  
• From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems by Francisco X. Alarcon and Maya Christina Gonzalez
  
  
• Peek: A Thai Hide & Seek by Minfong Ho and Holly Meade
  
  
• Hush: A Thai Lullaby by Minfong Ho and Holly Meade
  
  
• Cherries & Cherry Pits by Vera Williams
  
  
• The Honest-to-Goodness Truth by Patricia C. McKissack & Giselle Potter
  
  
• and of course, a few classics: The Snowy Day and Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats and Corduroy by Don Freeman
  
  Lastly, your bro-in-law's soft-pedal response really is no help. Sounds like he has no idea how much he sucks. He's got a brown kid; he needs to stand in her shoes, even if it means standing up his family, and facing down his own messed-up beliefs. Dude needs to man up. He's got an opportunity here; I hope he takes it.
  
  TL;DR: You're an awesome aunt.
  

Self Published Children's Book - I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee ...and a few friends!

So I made a thing (and it only took me slightly over a year) and self-published it. Kind of a new twist on an old classic kid's song "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee". As you might remember from the original song, the situation escalates rather quickly after the "Ouch! It stung me!" part. I found myself not wanting to sing anything past the first verse to my daughter, even though she loved the song. Until one day I made up a brand new rhyme with a baby ladybug, which she loved. That's how the idea for this book came about. You and your child will learn about the various bugs (and even one mollusk) the baby is bringing home to Mommy!

This rhythmic book targeted at children aged 6 months to 3 years. A new twist on a classic rhyme that will appeal to children as different, yet familiar.

You can get it here:

• as a Kindle eBook
  
• or as a real book on CreateSpace - better royalties for me =c)
  
• or on Amazon - more convenient for you =c)
  
  Honest reviews would be much appreciated! Just a note though, Amazon frowns on reviews if you didn't buy the book.
  
  You can go read the whole book here.
  
  It'd be supremely helpful to share/like/re-tweet and all that other fun social stuff:
  
  
• Facebook Page
  
• Twitter
  
• Main Site
  
  Happy to answer any and all answers about how I did it, in case someone else is contemplating it.

Black Friday - Cyber Monday Book Sale!



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If you are looking for a unique and thoughtful present for your little one this Christmas, consider the gift of literacy. Celebrate creativity and inspire imaginative thinking for years to come with this incredible deal on Hugs and Lightning Bugs.

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Always check out your local library for these recommendations first. These are mostly the books I liked enough to buy after reading.

Parenting books that I've liked best:

Adele Faber's "How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk". This book has exercises to try and breaks things down by different ages so you can refer to it whether you're having trouble with toddlers or teenagers. I also have her companion book Siblings Without Rivalry.

Kim John Payne's Simplicity Parenting. This book emphasizes the importance of developing routines, helps emphasize that you DON'T need to get tons of toys or extra activities for your kids, and helps you organize your life even if your life is a little crazified by frequent job traveling or divorced parenting or stuff like that.

I... can't remember my other favorite book. Might've been a book for baby ages.

Now, for read-alouds. There are lots of nursery rhyme books, my personal favorite is Sylvia Long's Mother Goose, but my kids are really fond of Iona Opie and Rosemary Wells' Mother Goose. Either way, I recommend the ones that have only one nursery rhyme per page. The classic collections by Blanche Fisher Wright tend to have six or eight crammed on to each page and their illustrations don't hold my kids' attention as well. With one rhyme per page, as they get older they can remember what each page's rhyme is and can "read" it to themselves.

Alice Shertle's Little Blue Truck book is probably the #1 most favorite board book in the 1-2 year old range. Seriously. If you get only one read-aloud book, this is it. Other than that, hit up the board books at your library. I've found a ton that I like and a bunch that get recommended (like Sandra Boynton's books) that don't personally appeal to me. I love Leslie Patricelli's books, but I bet she drives other parents crazy to read.

Also, do you like reading books? If so, I highly recommend a couple -

Penelope Leach, Your Baby and Child
or
the AAP's Heading Home with your Newborn

Both are really nice references. I had my 4th baby this year and I take care of newborns and I still found useful and entertaining information in both books. But having both are probably redundant unless you are a book nerd.

For fun things to do with your baby - you might like to read Magda Gerber's, Dear Parent. She emphasizes learning your baby's cues and watching them and talking to them. It is really fun to learn about what they can do.

This book provides information about newborn behavior:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0547242956/?coliid=ISHVW2LKD5FFF&colid=1S3ZE3P5DQ3VD&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

This one goes into more details:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/073820188X/?coliid=I27LJ96R8SEOTC&colid=1S3ZE3P5DQ3VD&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it


I think you would enjoy both. They are short easy reads but provide a lot of information about all the amazing things babies are capable of doing and communicating from the time they are born.



And this is just fun. It's hand rhymes
https://www.amazon.com/Pat-Cake-Time-Annie-Kubler/dp/1904550827/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1542785976&sr=8-11&keywords=pat+a+cake

This too
https://www.amazon.com/Baby-Play-Every-Day-DK/dp/1465429697

I've never entered things like this, but it caught my eye and we could use the help! My 6 year old son is in first grade. I'm worried his learning has declined because he's behind with words and lacks true interest in reading! I think these books would help and be fun for him! I'm a single mama on a fixed disability income. Your gift will make a kid very happy! Thank you for doing this!

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Purple-Book-Beginner-Books/dp/0307975878/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1543125165&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=Boys+reading+beginning+reader&dpPl=1&dpID=51AtAI9c0iL&ref=plSrch

EDIT: of course you can't teach your kid to speak Spanish unless you know it yourself. I do think it's worth familiarizing your kid with Spanish anyway. A little exposure to pronunciation at a young age helps a lot with minimizing accent if he learns it when he's older. And by exposing him to Spanish now you're showing him it's something that you value, which makes him more likely to be interested as he gets older.

If you can teach yourself at least enough Spanish to be able to pronounce it fluently, here are some books I really like:

Pio Peep! - it's Spanish nursery rhymes and songs with a non-literal English translation alongside (so don't use the English to deduce what the Spanish means)

Me Gusta Cuando... - sweet bilingual board book with lots of pro-social messages (I like it when you let me help, I like it when we eat new things...)

Buenas Noches Gorilla - there's actually not a lot of text in this one, but it's fun for learning animal names and most 3 y.o. find the story hilarious

Toca, toca books - like baby touch & feel or lift-the-flap books but in Spanish. If your kid is still into books like this, I've liked all of the ones I've bought.

Translations of Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, Sandra Boynton etc. are a bit hit or miss in my experience. Some are great, whereas some are charmless or have grammatical errors.

And for an older kid with some fluency, or for reading aloud if you learn some Spanish, I like the Geronimo Stilton books en espanol. They're early chapter books but have a lot of word art that helps with understanding what vocab means.

>Wake up

>Immediately begin thinking about how to get my players to fry eggs

Scrambled Eggs Super! A classic Seuss book from my youth.

The narrator is a cheerful but egg obsessed foodie with apparently unlimited time and funds, who claims to be the best scrambled egg chef in the world. He launches a worldwide quest for exotic eggs to use as ingredients for the ultimate scrambled egg super. In the process he faces all manor of monstrous beasts, hazardous environments, and difficult challenges.

For the purposes of game hook, said foodie could either be hiring questors to fetch the ingredients instead of getting them personally, or challenging them personally to cook-off, or sponsoring a more general competition in whatever village the PC happen to be passing through.

As an aside, man, I wish I could find a big compendium of Seuss type creatures stated out to drop in here and there, maybe a whole setting. Sounds like it'd be a blast. Not that I could possibly do justice to the world play. Ah well - GM goals, amirite?

There is no story, I was just too naive not to use my real name :p
I love anime (Tokyo Ghoul - so many feels, Sword art online, your lie in April). My favourite movies are White Chicks, Iron Man 1+2, Batman (Dark Knight series), Gladiator and a French film called A Very Long Engagement. I used to read a lot, LOTR, Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, 50 shades and Famous 5 and Secret 7 when I was a lot smaller - I've read a lot of books.

I collect snuggles from my boyfriend!

http://imgur.com/a/e0I3F = Kitties

Burger: Chicken, lettuce, mayo, onion, jalapenos, cheese.

Nope

Chicken and sweetcorn on a pizza makes me very happy.

Banana split = <3

Favourite Superhero?, not really.

Supervillain = see above

I have visited Edinburgh a lot, it's an amazing place. i took my SO to see the markets there when he came to the UK over xmas.

Fairy; Willow Fairy

Fairy Name is Ariella

I would love to be a water bender

Anything sweet, chocolate, cake, cheesecake. You name it, I will eat it. Except chocolate icecream and yoghurt, gross.

I think its big headed to say oneself is creative, isn't it? However I love to create, I love painting, drawing, inks, photography.

Here, you might like this book:http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Complete-Book-Flower-Fairies/dp/0723248397

My mom saved all of my old books, and we've bought my daughter tons on top of that. I wish we could display them, but there are so many! (Thank you mom!)

Right now, Eliot and the Big Berry Hunt is my daughters favorite, it was one of mine.

When I was a kid, my favorite was Each Peach Pear Plum

I really REALLY wish that there were a website where you could print out replacements for books that have tabs to lift, because my Eliot book is doing alright, but they are my daughters favorite type right now and I have a few that are missing one or two tabs.

In the vein of: Dr. Seuss's ABC An Amazing Alphabet Book


Big A, little a, what begins with A?

Anal beads in Andy

A....a....A


Big B, little b, what begins with B?

Ben-wa balls in Barbara

B....b...B


Big C....little c....what begins with C?

Charlie's cock cumming

C....c....C


Big D....little d....what begins with D?

Donkey dick or dinky dick,
matters little to me.

Big E..... little e....what begins with E?

Edward's cock extension,

E....e....E.


Big F, little f, what begins with F?

Flogging Fran's fanny,

F....f....F


Big G, little g, what begins with G?

Gerta's gushing g-spot

G...g....G

Big H, little h, what begins with H?

Heather's hot honey-pot,

H...h...H

Big I, little i, what begins with I?
Ingrid's inflatable dildo,
I...i...I

Big J, little j, what begins with J?

Jiggling jelly dildos,

J...j...J

Big K, little k, what begins with K?

Kristen's kick-ass kegels,

K...k..K

Big l, little L, what begins with L?

Liberal lubricant,

L....l....L


Big M, little m, what begins with M?\

Meagan's Magic Wand,

M...m...M

Big N, little n, what begins with N?

Naughty Nancy's Nipples

N...n...N

Big O, little o... what starts the O's?

Ollies O-ringed cock,

Ohhh... ohhhhh... ooooooohhhhhh!

Big P, little p, what begins with P?

Pussy, penis, and pegging

Please, please, please!

Big Q, little q... what begins with Q?

Quickies for the cuck-queens,

Q...q...Q.

Big R, little r, what begins with R?

Restraining Randi's Rabbit Vibe

R...r...R.

Big S...little s...what begins with S?

Super-super Sybian and spanking

Sssssssss .... essssss ... yes!!!

Big T, little t, what begins with T?

Tommy's titillating tale,

T...t...T.

Big U... little u, I'm a little blurred

Uncle, uncle, uncle!

That's my safe-word.

Big V, little v... what begins with V?

Victor's Vibrating Cock Ring

V...v..V

Big W, little w, what begins with W?

Wally's whipping Wendy

W...w...W

Big x, little x .... sex, sex, sex

and X-rated movies

X...x...X

Big Y, little y.... lets eat at the Y

Yummy yummy pussy

Y....y...Y

Big Z, little z, we're finally at the end

after all that sex

let's just sleep on the spend.

I wrote a book called “Mallory Brown at Super Fun Town” that he might enjoy. Look for it on amazon and reviews on GoodReads as well ! I’d love you both to check it out!

https://www.amazon.com/Mallory-Brown-Super-Fun-Town/dp/1684010187/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I just published my debut poetry collection and I'm hearing great feedback!
My collection, Rooted, is about mental illness, love and heartbreak, self love, and self improvement.


It's $13 (CAD) and available in many places through Amazon


Thank you for the support!

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1732464324/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539863672&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=cassandra+chaput&dpPl=1&dpID=41e0yxddswL&ref=plSrch

Green eggs and ham.

Hop on Pop was one of my favorites when I was little. I thought it was hilarious that the kids were jumping on the dad, and made my dad read it all the time. The Spooky Old Tree was also a favorite, and it was the first book I ever "read". It was probably half memorization and half reading, but I read it at three :)

For me, I want Abel's Island because I read it as a kid, and want to have it for when I have kids down the road. I already have a small collection of books for my future kids, this would be added to that.

My favorite book when I was a kid was A light in the attic which can be found on my daughters wishlist . Woot figured out how to copy and paste on my phone.

my elementry teacher gave this to me in 4th grade. i still enjoy reading it

I really liked Falling Up by Shel Silverstein

Shel Silverstein is the man - Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, The Giving Tree

You're not being fair. I'm sure she can read just fine.. Even more complicated literature.

Scrambled Eggs Super by Dr Seuss and The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood.

Makes me think of the kids' book Hop on Pop.

Hop on Pop

Each Peach Pear Plum. My mom reading this to me all the time as a kid is one of my favourite parts of childhood.

Still in print and well-worth it - http://www.amazon.com/Each-Peach-Pear-Picture-Puffins/dp/014050639X. It's about all the Nursery rhyme characters running into each other.

Here is a book in the subject https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Up-Shel-Silverstein/dp/0060248025