A Butterfly is Patient

We’ve been looking for more nonfiction books and were very happy to find A Butterfly is Patient, written by Dianna Hutts Aston and illustrated by Sylvia Long.  This beautifully illustrated book begins each page with “A butterfly is…” and completes the sentence with vivid adjectives (protective, thirsty, patient, etc.).  Taking a picture walk (or several picture walks because there is so much to discover) will help the reader learn more about butterflies.

The illustrations are phenomenal in helping the reader visualize the meanings.  Maps and timelines also help the reader understand this nonfiction text.  An added bonus for us was seeing the inside front and back covers.  The front inside cover has detailed illustrations of caterpillars with their names while the back inside cover displays the butterflies with their names. 

This is a terrific book to begin a butterfly study and/or introduce young readers to nonfiction texts.  We highly recommend this book as a gift to your children!

Question Collection:

*Which pages taught you most about butterflies?

*Which illustration do you like the best?

*How many of these butterflies have you seen?

*How would you describe a butterfly?

Ten for Ten Picture Books!

We're joining in on the fun with the Picture Book 10 for 10! We love picture books and especially like to do picture walks before we read.  When we do a picture walk, we look through each page and discuss what we think is happening, look for any visual clues on pages, and enjoy the illustrations. 

Here are ten of our favorite picture books!  You'll find more information and questions from our question collections to accompany your reading of each book by clicking on the links next to the numbers.  Enjoy!

1. Wave


Wave is a recent find of ours!  Wave is a wordless picture book that captures the emotions of a little girl as she encounters a wave at the beach.  It's lots of fun as you view the action on each page.

2. Otis

We love reading about friendship!  Otis is a heartwarming story about the friendship between a tractor and a cow.  The farm illustrations are fun to explore.

3.  First the Egg

First the Egg is a very creative book that spurs your imagination!  This is a great book to serve as a mentor text for young writing students.  We enjoy looking at how the illustration on one page leads to the picture on the next.  

4.  Wild About Books

Wild about Books is such a fun story with illustrations that encourage you to stop and view them before you turn the page.  We love the humor in this picture book!

5.  One is a Feast for Mouse

5.  One is a Feast for Mouse is a great Thanksgiving picture book.  The illustrations have lots of details while proving the point of knowing when you have enough.  

6.  Room for a Little One

Room for a Little One is one of our favorite Christmas books.  The beautiful illustrated pages tell the story of how there's always room for a little one---leading up to the birth of Baby Jesus.  We think this picture book is a great gift idea for families!

7.  Momma, Will You?

Momma, Will You? is another picture book that takes place on a farm.  The illustrations add to the gentleness of the momma's voice as she answers her children's questions with "yes, or no, or maybe."

8. But Not the Hippopotamus

But Not the Hippopotamus is a fun read by Sandra Boynton.  We love looking at the facial expressions of the animals in her illustrations.  If you and your child enjoy humor, this is a great picture book!

9.  We're Going on a Bear Hunt  

We're Going on a Bear Hunt is a favorite book of ours.  It's such a classic tale, and we love looking at the pictures and re-telling the story.  It's a well loved story in our home.

10.  Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Moon was the first picture book read by our family.  We read it to our child as a newborn and have read it many times since.  We think no picture book library is complete without a copy of it!  

Thanks for stopping by and looking at our list of picture books.  It was very difficult to just choose ten!  Make sure to visit the Jog Web to see more great ideas!  Please share your favorites in our comments.

Echoes for the Eye

Celebrate National Poetry Month!  Echoes for the Eye (Poems to Celebrate Patterns in Nature), by Barbara Juster Esbensen and illustrated by Helen K. Davie, is a fun book to celebrate poetry and nature.  We like to look for patterns in nature so this book was especially interesting to us.  Esbensen categorizes the patterns of nature into the following categories:  Spirals, Branches, Polygons, Meanders, and Circles.  Examples of poems in the Branches category are poems about veins and lightning.  This book is a thought provoking collection!  The illustrations encourage a picture walk, possibly before and after reading.  We hope you enjoying reading and viewing these poems!

Question Collection:

*What’s your favorite poem?  Picture?

*What patterns surprised you?

*Can you think of other patterns?

I Am the Book

April is National Poetry Month.  We hope you and your children enjoy poems as much as we do!  We're going to take a few days to look at some of our favorite books of poems.

 I Am the Book, poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Yayo, is a great book of poems to start looking at poems.  This collection by Hopkins sparks thinking about the written word through different poems by different poems with the common theme of celebrating reading.  The illustrations by Yayo are fun to explore while also being thought provoking.  We recommend a picture walk to discover all of the clever ways that books are depicted by the artist.   This book would make a great gift to a child or a child’s teacher.  I think this book should be in every library!

Question Collection:

*Which poem is your favorite?

*Which illustration makes you smile?

*Where are all of the places a book can take you?

*Can you think of a way to draw another illustration that corresponds to this book?

Snow Day

We’ve happily been enjoying all of the snow this year!  It’s been fun to read our books about snow since we can really make connections with text now!  Snow Day, written by Lynn Plourde and illustrated by Hideko Takahashi, is a great book to enjoy a great variety of words describing snow and snow activities.  Taking a picture walk can add to the connections. The vivid words make the story come alive.  If you child likes to act out books, this book is perfect for that!  We hope you enjoy the fun this book provides!

Question Collection:

*Which snow day activity do you like best?

*Which vivid words do you like best?

*Can you think of other words to add to this story?

National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Animals

We are trying to add more nonfiction books in our reading time and in our home library.  National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Animals has been a great choice!  There are over 120 pages full of information about animals from the grasslands, ocean, desert, forest, and polar regions. 

Each section (divided by the regions) includes large photographs accompanied with a definition of the area.  Several pages follow focusing on specific animals.  The superb photographs really pull in the reader’s attention.  A picture walk might be the best way to view this book initially.  There’s just so much that can be gained from studying the pictures!

Along with the oversized text, fact “cards” give information about the kind of animal, home, size, food, sounds, and babies.  Circles of text give more interesting facts about each animal.  We really like the questions that accompany the reading.   One example is:  How old were you when you learned to walk?  These questions really help readers make a connection to the animal’s life.

Two pages at the end of the book give parent tips to extend the reading experience.  Many are simple activities to help enrich a child’s learning.  An animal map is also found at the end of the book.  Continents are color-coded with a key to indicate which animals are found there.  Finally, a glossy provides a way to enrich your child’s vocabulary.

This animal book is one of the best we have found!  It’s a book that can be picked up to view, read, study, and research.  Children and adults will find a great example of nonfiction reading!  Enjoy!

Question Collection:

*What surprised you most about animals in this book?

*Which animals would you like to see?

*Which photos do you like best?

*What words in the glossary helped you understand the book better?

The Snowy Day

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats, is a classic story that we love to read.  Winner of the 1963 Caldecott Award, it continues to engage the reader as Peter encounters a snowy day. The illustrations depict all of the ways in which Peter enjoys his snowy adventures.  Taking a picture walk through this book encourages young listeners/readers to anticipate the story.  It’s a fun book to read in anticipation of snowy weather!

Question Collection:

*Which snow activity do you like to do best?

*Which illustration is your favorite?

*What do you think Peter and his friend do after the next snow?

The Christmas Story

If you’re looking for a board book to help your children understand the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus, The Christmas Story, by Patricia A. Pingry and illustrated by Wendy Edelson, is a great choice.  Taking a picture walk through the book first can help children understand the story before it’s read.  It’s also fun to use the pictures as prompts so children can re-tell the story after it’s been read several times.  This book would make a great gift to families with toddlers and preschoolers. 

Question Collection:

*Which picture is your favorite?

*Can you point to the people as I name them?

*Can you tell me the story of Baby Jesus?

Santa Paws

If you and/or your children like looking at funny pictures of dogs and cats, then you’ll enjoy Santa Paws, by Rachael Hale.  This board book, written in rhyme, has delightful photos of dogs and cats dressed for Christmas to accompany the story.  This is a great book to introduce very young children to a picture walk.  The photos are cute and fun.  Even primary children will enjoy reading the book.  Have fun!

Question Collection:

*What is your favorite picture in the book?

*Do these animals remind you of any pets?

*Can you count how many dogs are in the book?  How many cats?

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

Making a trip to an apple orchard at this time of year is a fun family event.  We also enjoy reading How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, by Marjorie Priceman, as a part of autumn.  If you and your child haven’t read this book yet, you’re in for a real treat.  The humor of the situation of a market being closed leads to a trip around the world to find ingredients to make an apple pie.  Various modes of transportation are used as each country is visited, adding to the creative fun.

Taking a picture walk through this book can increase a child’s anticipation of listening to and/or reading the text.  The maps on the inside cover add to the enjoyment of being able to track the progress of discovering the ingredients in other countries.

We used the recipe in the book and enjoyed eating the apple pie we made.  If you’re looking for some ideas for an apple tasting party, the author has included those on the back cover.  This great book provides a great reading experience!  Enjoy!

Question Collection:

*What was your favorite country that was visited?

*Which mode of transportation was your favorite?

*Which part of the book was the funniest to you?

Incidental Reading

Learning to read is exciting for children!  We keep bookshelves of age appropriate books, make seasonal reading displays, and frequently check out books from the public library.  We read books together, listen to books, and take picture walks.  All of these are fun ways to explore books together.  We also try to incorporate incidental learning of reading. 

Here are some easy ways we’ve found to help build reading vocabulary:

*We turn on closed captioning while we’re watching television or videos.  Television time is minimal in our home, but we feel that seeing the words on screen helps with reading.

*We label playroom items by categories.  Canvas baskets house toy collections so we put a label on the front so that, even from an early age, words were associated with items.

*Family photo albums are labeled with family member’s names and places of interest.  Photos are frequently viewed which results in names being quickly memorized for reading.

We’re always looking for ways to make learning fun.   We’ll continue to share our ideas as we add to our learning collection!

My Great-Aunt Arizona

My Great-Aunt Arizona, by Gloria Houston, is one of my favorite books, probably because it expresses my love of teaching.  Although Great-Aunt Arizona taught in times past, Houston’s story remains timeless because it catches the essence of what teachers want for their students.  Miss Arizona teaches her students about the far away places they will go while she dreams of those far away places.

This book is a great one to read as children start back to school.  The beauty of Gloria Houston’s voice shines through in this tribute to her great aunt. I think a parent’s conversation about this book can open children’s minds to begin to recognize what teachers are doing in their classrooms.  We hope you enjoy Great Aunt Arizona’s story!

Question Collection:

*How is Great Aunt Arizona’s childhood different than yours?

*Why do you think Great Aunt Arizona became a teacher?

*How does her classroom look compared to yours?

*What things do you think your teacher is doing to help you this year?

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, by Joseph Slate, is a delightful book to read to children approaching Kindergarten.  The colorful, detailed illustrations by Ashley Wolfe  can be enjoyed in a picture walk before you and your children read this book.  This is a book that appeals to visual and auditory learners. 

Miss Bindergarten, the teacher, prepares for her class as the students also prepare to arrive.  What makes this book so fun is that there are twenty-six animal students whose names correspond to each letter of the alphabet. Adding to the fun is that each sentence about the students has rhyming words.  The cadence of this book makes it one that can be enjoyed over and over again.  We hope you enjoy this kindergarten adventure!

Question Collection:

*Who is your favorite character?

*What rhyming words do you hear?

*What’s your favorite thing in Miss Bindergarten’s room?

Read more children's ABC books here!

Welcome to the Zoo

Are you and your family planning a trip the zoo soon? We love to read books as we prepare and return from family outings.  Welcome to the Zoo, by Alison Jay, is a beautiful, wordless book that we enjoy talking about as we learn more about zoos.  The pictures captivate you as you take a picture walk through the delightful pages. This book is good preparation for developing children’s observation skills before they go to a zoo.

It’s fun for children (and adults) to spot all of the events happening at the zoo on each page.  Children can find and name the various animals in the book as well as think about animals they might see on their zoo trip. The author also includes two fun learning pages at the conclusion of the book.  These pages encourage children to take a look back at the book to find some specific items.  There are some funny things happening at this zoo, so don’t miss out on the laughs!

Question Collection:

*What was the funniest thing you saw in this book?

*Which animal is your favorite?

*What questions would you like to ask the animals?

Ladybugs, Red, Fiery, and Bright

We are always looking for interesting nonfiction books to add to our library.  We also like rhyming books and beautifully illustrated books. Ladybugs, Red, Fiery, and Bright, by Mia Posada, is all of these things.

This is a perfect book to do a picture walk so you and your children can enjoy the beautiful illustrations first.  The first few pages describe ladybugs in general followed by descriptions and illustrations of the life cycle of ladybugs.  We liked learning new vocabulary (larvae, molting, etc.) and the follow-up section at the back of the book that shows different kinds of ladybugs.  This is a great book to add to your nonfiction collection!

Question Collection:

*What did you learn about ladybugs?

*Can you find some rhyming words used in the book?

*Have you seen different kinds of ladybugs?

Zinnia's Flower Garden

Zinnia’s Flower Garden, by Monica Wellington, is a beautiful book that follows the adventures of Zinnia as she learns about flower gardening.  Each narrative page is bordered by information that tells more about the aspect of gardening pictured on the opposite page.  Also included in each layout is a page from Zinnia’s gardening journal.

This book is a great example of a book to use a picture walk the first time you and your children read this book.  Examples of information included with the text include:  types of clouds, stages of germination, life cycle of a butterfly, parts of a flower, types of flowers, addition of money, and pictures of the seasons.  There is so much to learn and enjoy from Zinnia’s Flower Garden.  This book is an inspiring, encouraging book to read and learn more about flower gardens.  Enjoy!

Question Collection:

*Which type of flower would you like to grow?

*What did you learn about plants?

*What does Zinnia show you in her journal?

*What kinds of work does Zinnia do to grow pretty flowers? 

Snowmen at Night

Are you looking for a fun, engaging book to spark your child’s creativity?  We love reading Snowmen at Night (written by Caralyn Buehler and illustrated by Mark Buehner) to imagine what snowmen really do when we’re not looking.  From skating to baseball games (played with snowballs, of course!) to sledding, these snowmen are busy!

Reading the verses in rhyme while laughing at the pictures always makes us come up with new ideas.  This is also a great book to do a picture walk either before or after reading to find the hidden pictures in some of the snow scenes.  Have fun reading this book and looking for them!

Question Collection:

*Which snowman scene is your favorite?

*Can you think of other things snowmen might do at night?

*If you were a snowman, what would you do at night?

Picture Walks with Preschoolers

Preschoolers love doing picture walks through their books. A picture walk is browsing through an illustrated book to look and talk about the pictures.  To begin, choose familiar board books and revisit them through a picture walk.  Focus on the pictures rather than the printed story.  Ask your child to tell the story by using the pictures.  

Introduce new books by taking the time to look at each page’s illustrations before reading the book.  When you do pick the book up again to read, ask your child if the pictures helped tell the story.  Picture walks help children visualize and predict story plots.  We love doing picture walks to just have fun with books!

Question Collection:

*Are there any clues in the pictures that help you predict what’s going to happen next?

*Do any of the characters look like people you know?

*Which picture books are your favorites?

Picture Walks with Babies and Toddlers

Picture walks are fun ways to use books with babies and toddlers.  A picture walk is browsing through an illustrated book to look and talk about the pictures.  This lays the foundation for children to use visualization as they later learn to read by themselves.  It’s also just fun to look at pictures and enjoy the story without the words at times.

With babies and toddlers you can extend the learning by noting the color of objects, counting items, noting the position of objects, and/or naming animals.  As children begin to retell familiar stories they can use the pictures to help guide them.  It’s also fun to use pictures and tell a different story than what the author has written.  We rename the characters with familiar family names making each story more personal.  Enjoy the pictures in your children’s books!