Reddit mentions: The best nursery rhymes books for children

Books, books, books! My babies love(d) Look, Look! (three year old loves "reading" it to his brother), Black & White, Art Cards, the Babyfaces series (esp Hugs and Kisses and Smile!. The World Snacks series is also great; they're bright, (mostly) well-written, and not irritating. Plus, My toddler still loves them, and we started reading them to him when he was three months. I like Yum Yum Dim Sum and Let's Nosh! best. Indestructables are great for babies who eat books. And the Leslie Patricelli books have been a huge hit around here since toddlerdude was a wee baby.

Don't forget non-board books good for reading, such as a Mother Goose (there are also "chunky" ones that are kid-safe), Beatrix Potter, The Wind in the Willows, or even Shel Silverstein.

Toys for this age that I like are sensory balls, music makers, rattles (we had to buy two of those because wee babydude likes it so much), stackers, links, these bead things (a large, four-sided activity cube is gold for this age through toddler hood--like this), stacking cups, and baby's first blocks. We have veriations on all of these (or the exact one listed), and they are popular with both our three year old and the eight month old.

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!



From Black Friday through Cyber Monday, shoppers seeking a special gift for the curious young hearts and minds in their lives will be offered a free audio version of Hugs and Lightning Bugs with purchase. Shoppers can get this BOGO deal (one paperback and one audio version) by simply providing their email address through Jason Greiner's Author Facebook Page.

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

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.

My son has this Owl Blankie and it's really soft and perfect for carrying around!

When my guy was one, he loved nursery rhymes and the book Nursery Rhyme Comics was (and is still) his absolute favorite. It has awesome interpretations of the classic nursery rhymes by great illustrators/comics artists like Mike Mignola, Jules Feiffer, Kate Beaton, Scott Campbell, and more.

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.

All Ages (age ratings sourced from Comixology)

• The Backstagers | James Tynion IV
  
• Fable Comics | Charise Mericle Harper
  
• Fairy Tale Comics | Telgemeier, Thompson, Mazzucchelli, et al.
  
• Guinea Pig: Pet Shop Private Eye | Colleen AF Venable
  
• Hilda and the Troll, Hilda and the Midnight Giant, Hilda and the Black Hound, Hilda and the Bird Parade, Hilda on the Stone Forest | Luke Pearson
  
• Julia's House for Lost Creatures, Little Robot, Nobody Likes a Goblin | Ben Hatke
  
• Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, The Secret World of Arrietty | Yonebayashi & Miyazaki
  
• Lumberjanes | Stevenson, Watters, Ellis
  
• Marvel Age: Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Spider-Man Team-up | McKeever, Dezago, et al.
  
• Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Superheroes, Super Heroes (2010), The Avengers | Sumerak, Tobin, David, Bejamin, et al.
  
• Marvel Universe: Guardians of the Galaxy, Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble, Avengers Assemble Season Two | Caramagna
  
• Mighty Jack, Mighty Jack and the Goblin King | Ben Hatke
  
• Nightlights | Lorena Alvarez
  
• Nursery Rhyme Comics | Thompson, Mignola, Telgemeier, et al.
  
• Tamsin and the Deep | Brown & Cameron
  
• Thor: The Mighty Avenger | Roger Langridge
  
• TOON books: The Shark King | R. Kikuo Johnson
  
• Zita the Spacegirl, Legends of Zita the Spacegirl, The Return of Zita the Spacegirl | Ben Hatke
  
  Ages 9+
  
  
• Adventure Time | Ryan North
  
• The Adventures of Tintin | Herge
  
• Amulet | Kazu Kibuishi
  
• Asterix | Goscinny & Uderzo
  
• Atomic Robo | Brian Clevinger
  
• Bone | Jeff Smith
  
• Five Worlds | Siegel & Siegel
  
• Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away | Hayao Miyazaki
  
• Moomin | Tove Jansson
  
• The Nameless City, The Stone Heart | Faith Erin Hicks
  
• Power Pack | Simonson, Brigman, et al.
  
• Roller Girl | Victoria Jamieson
  
• Smile, Drama, Sisters, Ghosts | Raina Telgemeier
  
• Usagi Yojimbo | Stan Sakai
  
• A Wrinkle in Time | Madeleine L'Engle
  
  Ages 12+
  
  
• DC: The New Frontier | Darwyn Cooke
  
• Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling | Tony Cliff
  
• Giant Days | Allison & Cogar
  
• Gotham Academy | Becky Cloonan
  
• The Legend of Wonder Woman | Renae De Liz
  
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur | Reeder & Montclare
  
• Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, Mouse Guard: Winter 1152, Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard | David Petersen
  
• Nimona | Noelle Stevenson
  
• Star Wars | Aaron
  
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | Eastman & Waltz
  
• Ultimate Spider-Man | Bendis
  
• Most superhero comics at DC and Marvel
  
  Resources:
  
  
• goodokbad
  
• comicbookresources
  
• comicsintheclassroom
  
• ilovelibraries
  
• pastemagazine
  
• /u/urko37’s [Recommendation] “What comics are good for my kids?”
  
  

Thanks so much. I hope you and your little one will enjoy them. Your site looks great.

I wish I could make my other eBooks for free too, but Amazon won't let me do it for more than 5 days, and I already used those days up. Anyway, if you like these, you may wish to also check out A Monkey Among Us. I know that one is a hit with toddlers.

Books for Young Children

• Good Night, Sam
  
• Skippyjon Jones
  
• Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse
  
• Those Darn Squirrels
  
• Oh the Thinks You Can Think!
  
• Bad Kitty Does Not Like Dogs
  
• The Itsy Bitsy Snowman
  
• The Littlest Elf
  
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  
• The Good Dinosaur
  
  I Can Read - Books
  
  
• A Kiss for Little Bear
  
• Little Bears Friend
  
• Amelia Bedelia
  
• Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia
  
• Eloise Visits the Zoo
  
• Eloise Throws a Party
  
• May I Please Have a Cookie?
  
• Pete the Cat: At the Beach
  
• Mac and Cheese
  
• Splat the Cat
  
  Books for Older Kids
  
  
• Disney Fairies, The Never Girls Collection
  
• Ivy + Bean’s Secret Treasure Box
  
• The Ramona Collection
  
• Pippi Longstocking
  
• Mr Popper’s Penguins
  
• The Chocolate Touch
  
• Magic Tree House Boxed Set
  
• Girls Think of Everything
  
• Knock-Knock Jokes for Kids
  
• Owl Diaries
  
• 5,000 Awesome Facts
  

My personal favorite is But No Elephants and Go Dog Go. The only downside to those is they are not the cardboard books that are baby friendly. We have to get the cardboard ones or my son eats the paper pages. He's 6 months and his favorites books are The Little Blue Truck and Wheels on the bus. He loves that you sing the song as you read and he likes to eat/play with the wooden school bus.

A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children

Poetry for Young People: William Shakespeare

Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelou

Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young

The "Poetry for Young People" series has a lot of choices, and the editor/ arranger of the first book I listed has at least one other poetry book that I know of. Hope these help get your search started!

Your poem is called "Grandpa Dropped His Glasses", by Leroy F. Jackson. It's been in a few different collections over the years, but my best guess is you might be looking for The Random House Book of Poetry for Children.

http://www.amazon.com/Random-House-Book-Poetry-Children/dp/0394850106

"The Random House Book of Poetry for Children was recognized upon its publication in 1983 as an invaluable collection--a modern classic--and it has not since been surpassed. Five hundred poems, selected by poet and anthologist Jack Prelutsky, are divided into broad subject areas such as nature, seasons, living things, children, and home. The poems of Emily Dickinson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks populate the book's pages, while Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and Shel Silverstein ensure that the collection delights even the most reluctant readers of rhyme. Playground chants, anonymous rhymes, scary poems, silly verse, and even some sad strains are carefully indexed by title, author, first line, and subject. With illustrations of cheerful, round-faced children and animals on every page, Arnold Lobel (a Caldecott medalist and creator of the Frog and Toad series) unifies the diverse poems to form a satisfying whole; Lobel can draw anything and make it funny--or poignant, if he chooses. This collection, one of the most varied and complete around, will carry any budding poetry lover through childhood and beyond. (Ages 5 to 11.)"

I'm going to bed.

Being born and raised in the non-Texas south, I grew up thinking pork was king. It wasn't until I met my wife and had real brisket, cooked properly, for the first time that I understood what all the fuss was about. My hat's off to you and your entire state.


Also, regarding your baby, I would also throw my vote behind the Jesus Storybook Bible mentioned above. We've got a toddler, and he loves it. Also, thanks to my in-laws and this particular book my son probably knows more about Texas than his home state.

Great! How is it going for you? Do you do your own art as well? Link those bad boys.

I have 2 books on Amazon (Come Moon, Monster Kingdom) and it's great just to have something I can read my kids. I had made the decision to put any money from the proceeds for my kids education, but right now that's about a pack of paper for college one day.

*Just want to add if you want to somehow cross-promote each others work, I'm down.

Alright, I'm having a bit of trouble navigating the table of contents, but does this look like it? It has the Shel Silverstein story, but I'm not sure what else.

The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems

I'll keep searching, and update when I can.

Edit: Just saw it had quizzes. Could it be Glencoe Literature California Treasures 2? I can't quite pin a table of contents...never mind, found one and it seems to not have everything. There are several books, maybe it's one of those?

I just realized I got a message that reddit blocked my comment because it flagged the link I used. That's probably why. I didn't realize it's only visible to me now. Here's my original comment with new links.

The first one is possibly a book called The Real Mother Goose. I had it as a kid in the 90's and it has all the stories/poems rhymes you mentioned in it. It's also pretty thick. Mine had a black and white checkered cover, but over the years I've seen it in different colors.

If it's not that particular book, I'd say it's likely still a Mother Goose Treasury. Possibly Original Mother Goose.

Also, the poem you mention about the kids coming out while their parents sleep is called Girls and Boys Come out to Play.

I think I was off on a wild goose chase anyway, thinking of the Book of Nonsense [https://www.amazon.com/Book-Nonsense-Childrens-Classics/dp/0679417982] which is way too old to mention headphones. Hrmm. Wish I could be more help!

You might like this children's book: https://www.amazon.com/Really-Happened-Humpty-Nursery-Rhyme-Mysteries/dp/1580893910/

What Really Happened to Humpty?: From the Files of a Hard-boiled Detective

This one is pink and has vines: https://www.amazon.com/365-Stories-Rhymes-Girls-Deluxe/dp/1474803008

I had this book as a kid.

The Random House Book of Poetry for Children

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.