Helping Your Child Become a Reader: Resources for Children

Here's a sampling of books, computer programs, and Web sites that you and your child can enjoy together. Check with your local librarian for more suggestions.

Babies

Brown, Margaret Wise. Goodnight Moon. Harper Collins, 1997. A little rabbit says goodnight to all the things in his room and, finally, to the Moon.

Johnson, Angela. Mama Bird, Baby Birds. Orchard, 1994. Joshua and his sister, two young African-American children, watch a mother bird feeding its babies.

Wells, Rosemary. Max's Bedtime. Dial, 1998. Even though Max's sister offers him her stuffed animals, he cannot sleep without his red rubber elephant.

Play Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Carle, Eric. The Very Busy Spider. Philomel, 1984. Farm animals try to keep a spider from spinning her web, but she doesn't give up and she makes a beautiful and useful creation. Pictures may be felt as well as seen, making this a great book for visually impaired children.

Hill, Eric. Where's Spot? Putnam, 1980. In an interactive lift-the-flap book, children help Spot's mother, Sally, search the house to find him. This book has been translated into a number of languages, including a sign language version. Kunhardt, Dorothy. Pat the Bunny. Golden Books, 1990. In this touch-and-feel book, Paul and Judy smell the flowers, feel Daddy's scratchy face, look in the mirror, play peek-a-boo, and, of course, pat the bunny.

Lacome, Julie. Seashore. Candlewick, 1995. Small fingers can poke through the holes in the pages of this board book about the beach, and seem to change into fins, wings, or crawling legs.

Alphabet Books for Preschoolers-First-Graders

Kitamura, Satoshi. From Acorn to Zoo and Everything in Between in Alphabetical Order. Sunburst, 1995. Each page shows an assortment of things that begin with the same letter-all clearly labeled. For each page there is a question (and a clue) that can be answered only by looking carefully at the picture.

MacDonald, Suse. Alphabatics. Bradbury Press, 1986. The letters of the alphabet are transformed and placed in 26 illustrations so that the hole in b becomes a balloon and y turns into the head of a yak (an ox with long hair).

Rankin, Laura. The Handmade Alphabet. Puffin, 1996. This book presents the handshape for each letter of the manual alphabet (American Sign Language) accompanied by an object whose name begins with that letter.

Shannon, George. Tomorrow's Alphabet. Mulberry Books, 1999. A is for seed-what's going on here? The seed is tomorrow's Apple! An imaginative alphabet puzzle that encourages children to think and make predictions.

Shelby, Anne. Potluck. Orchard, 1991. A multicultural collection of friends having names starting with A-Z bring a variety of dishes to a potluck.

Wordless Picture Books for Preschoolers-First-Graders

Carle, Eric. Do You Want to Be My Friend? HarperCollins, 1995. A little mouse asks all kinds of animals, "Do you want to be my friend?"

dePaola, Tomie. Pancakes for Breakfast. Voyager Books, 1990. A little old lady's attempts to have pancakes for breakfast are hindered by a lack of ingredients and the help of her pets.