Monday, November 8, 2010

Holiday Gift Guide: Hidden Gems of Children's Lit

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Mama M is hosting a 7 week long Holiday Gift Guide. Once a week, she's blog hopping for us with everyone's ideas on different topics. I am totally joining in because I like to discover the perfect gift! :)

This week's theme: Hidden Gems in Children's Literature

I am going to give you a few of mine and Rory's favorite books to read. Trace and I have yet to develop favorite books, but maybe next year. :)

Disclaimer: All pictures from Google Images because I am way too exhausted to go dig out these books and take my own pictures of them. I thank you.

Dance, Tanya by Patricia Lee Gauch
Oh how I love the Tanya books! This is my favorite. It's about a little girl who dances in her own world, all the time. She longs to take class but she is too little. The illustrations are beautiful and the story makes me cry. (This could be because I think about Rory dancing though...:)) It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful tale about dreaming and letting your imagination run (dance!) wild.


The Peekaboo Books
These books are perfection. Rory loves them because she can open the flaps by herself so easily. She is entertained for hours (okay mintues) by these books and loves to open each flap and yell BABY! They are fantastic for fine motor skills and independent play skills. There's a huge variety of them. We have a Christmas one, a farm one, a dress up one, an animal one, a sunny day one...and I do believe more will be arriving at our house on December 25th. :)


The Shoe Books by Noel Streatfield
Ballet Shoes, Dancing Shoes, Theater Shoes and Skating Shoes...my loves! Rory hasn't read these yet, but she will. I fell in love with these books in 5th grade and I read each of them once a year. They are sort of hard to find, it takes some digging. (Check Amazon!) But they are so worth it. Streatfield writes in such a way that every girl who reads them will be captivated. They are chapter books, so they encourage longer reading attention spans, and they are wonderful from cover to cover. Ballet Shoes is my personal favorite, but they are all wonderful. Hold the phone!! I just checked Amazon and it seems ALL the Shoe Books have been reprinted and are readily available. Wooooohoooo! Rory will be getting a set for Christmas, even though she won't be able to read them for...10 years. haha


Honorable Mentions...
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Yes! by...? I can't find it online. Sorrrrry. :(
No David! by David Shannon
The Stinky Cheeseman and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz
Strega Nona by Tomie DePaola
The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch
How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon
A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon

Clearly, I am a HUGE Robert Munsch and David Shannon fan. :)

What are you kids' favorite books?! Share! Rory is OBSESSED with reading and I want to build her library as big as possible. Nothing better than books!

4 comments:

Mama M. said...

Whoa, Kate!! Awsome! I love that you listed so many books...I'm gonna hafta check out more of Robert Munsch and also, David Shannon!!

Neely said...

As someone who danced for 16 years the shoe books were always a fav! Great idea!

Unknown said...

hi! I found your blog through "My Little Life" :) My mom owns a dance studio- here in Michigan, we (my sisters and I) have grown up dancing- one of my sisters is on scholarship at west palm beach (in their ballet program) and the other sister is touring with Ballet Magnificat! :) I, am a mom of 2 so my dancing days are over! :)

But my daughter is now dancing... we are definitely full of ballet around here! :)

feel free to check out my blog!
http://www.ryanashleymaeve.blogspot.com

Laura said...

We love Doreen Cronin! All her books are clever and I enjoy them as much as the kids do... over and over and over.

My new recent favorite author is Pamela Duncan Edwards. Again, funny and clever.