I'm on the hunt for good toddler books, and I'm hoping my myriads of readers out there can help me. :) Jonathan loves to be read to, but he still has a fairly short attention span. He's not ready for Bill Peet stories (too long), or Amelia Bedelia (too complicated) or the Churchmice books (over his head). (Just to give you an idea of what I've tried.) "Early reader" books tend to be about the right length, but the ones I'm finding at the library are just terrible. I'm starting to understand why no one likes to read anymore - the books are so bad I'd refuse to learn, too!
I'd like to find books that are short but with good, engaging stories. They've got to exist...so if you know of any, could you please comment and share?
Thanks!
5 comments:
What I used to do when Emma was about this age was troll the picture book area rather than the early reader area and just look for books that didn't have a lot of text on each page. I try to avoid the early reader area at all costs - so much of it is just utter and complete twaddle, I agree.
There is lots of good stuff out there in the picture book area. I can give you some specific names if you like, but really you're probably best off just picking up some books here and there and just looking for an engaging style and not too much text. I am constantly amazed at how much great stuff there is out there if you avoid the commerical & cartoon junk. I usually pick a section, plop down, and find 10-12 decent books without too much problem. Sure, all of our books end up with authors from the same part of the alphabet, but so long as we keep moving to different areas it all works out! *grin*
I would also sometimes be willing to stop a book half-way and go back to it later if it seemed like it was just a little too long for her attention span. Sometimes I would give a 5 second summary of what had happened so far when we picked it up again, and sometimes I wouldn't. It usually worked pretty well either way.
We loved Dr. Seuss - almost anything, altho' a few are a little political! We especially liked The Sleep Book, Green Eggs and Ham, and Horton Hears a Who. Some others that we highly recommend:
Stop That Ball by Mike McClintock (just fun - I think Sharon still has most of it memorized)
The Curious Little Owl by Frances Ruth Keller (about a little owl that asks "why?" instead of "who?" - perfect for the "why" stage)
The Story of Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
There's No Such Thing As A Dragon by Jack Kent (about truth)
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel also by Virginia Lee Burton
Some of these are classics that I'm sure you've already heard of, some from MY childhood, but others are just ones we found and loved. Sharon can tell you all about any of them!
Blessings,
Sylvia Biggs
One of my favorites (still to this day) is "Mouse Tales" by Arnold Lobel. Each tale is only a couple of pages and so could be a quick read on its own or combined with the others. Similar to this in my mind is "Harold and the Purple Crayon."
I think this is also a fun age to start with alphabet books or counting books. One of the fun alphabet books is "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom".
Other books that come to mind: "Caps for Sale" and "Millions of Cats".
I have to echo Amber: I've found great stuff just looking in the picture book section. I usually go through a letter or two (all the "W" books, say) each time we're there, and I never fail to find good stuff.
try curious george stories. The originals tend to run long, but the newer ones are the perfect length. Also try danny the dinosaur books, also my son loves eric carle. We also like the Max and Ruby Bunny books. If you give a mouse a cookie, take to school, a pig a pancake, or a mouse a muffin, all cute stories. What about winnie the pooh?
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