A Baker's Dozen: The Best Children's Books for Family Literacy

If you love a book as much as Anna does, you will want to hear it read time and time again. When Mommy returns to her chores after reading the book three times, Anna finds a delightful way to continue enjoying the rereading experience. Watercolor washes capture the exuberance of sharing a new book with someone you love. The simple text and small size will make young lap sitters say "again?"

Children will enjoy pointing to every colorful truck as they count down from "Ten mighty dump trucks." The name of each truck is presented in large print and the truck's function is told in a rhyming couplet. The final double-page spread provides a creative surprise when the construction site is revealed as "One gigantic sandbox with room to drive them all."

This smart alphabet book features cute canines acting out doggy behaviors that start with the letters of the alphabet. It is dedicated to the "dog lovers of the world," but the interesting camera angles that capture the unique features of each breed will draw "awws" from even the most devoted cat person. An especially fun feature is the use of upside down text on the R (Roll over and over and over) and U (Upside down) pages.

This book showcases the special relationship between a grandfather duck and his granddaughter duckling. When Baby Duck is kept at home with a cold on a rainy day, Grandfather Duck shares a special book—a photograph album filled with Baby Duck memories. Illustrations in gentle colors with the faux photos on facing pages, complement the enjoyment that lap reading brings to Baby Duck and her grandfather.

Two colors of print (in shades complementary to their mice) help organize the parallel adventures of mice going to meet one another. The numerous visual details in the side-by-side illustrations will lend themselves to discussions on what is the same and what is different in the lives of the inside mouse and outside mouse. The changes in perspective and stimulating backgrounds of the paintings in this large-sized concept book will engage young readers, either as a group or as individual explorers.

Too-young-to-talk Trixie is on a pleasant stroll to the neighborhood Laundromat with her daddy. While Trixie "helps" her father get the laundry in the washer, her beloved stuffed rabbit accidentally joins the clothes for a sudsy ride. On the way home, Trixie suddenly notices she is alone. She panics and tells daddy as best she can. Mom saves the day when the first thing she says upon their arrival home is, "Where's Knuffle Bunny?" Willems' placement of cartoon characters in a photographed city neighborhood is delightful.

This clever concept book features sturdy pages with cut-out shapes that reveal what color objects are not (e.g., "Lemons are not red") and are (e.g., "Lemons are yellow. Apples are red."). Children will delight in the rich colors and brush stroke textures at each turn of the page. As the last two objects are a silvery moon and the black night, this book also doubles as a great choice for bedtime.

A polar bear cub awakens on a cold, clear night for a quiet stroll outside her cave. All the arctic animals are asleep, so she alone witnesses a star shower that lights up "everything the little bear loves." And so she hurries home to her cozy cave and sleeping mother. The illustrations are made from linoleum cuts printed on mulberry bleached rice paper; the effect is a peaceful hush that perfectly captures the story and reminds adult readers of the native art of the arctic region.

Repetition and rhythm emphasize the beat of an exciting ride on a city subway with a little girl and her mother. The illustrations feature people from many cultures dressed in vibrant patterns and cheerful colors. This book is a natural for open-ended questions such as, "Where do you think the people are going?" and "Where have they been?"

Count from one rhinoceros horn up to twenty whale barnacle shells! This unique book celebrates (and enumerates) different parts and characteristics of animals (e.g., 13 caterpillar segments, 8 octopus tentacles, 7 black ladybug spots). Vibrantly colored linoleum block prints provide close-up views of each featured animal and invite fun pointing and counting. There's more information on each featured creature at the back of the book.

When you mix animals and their favorite vehicles together, you get this energetic book that cheerfully pairs powerful machines with drivers from the creature world. Each double-page spread features a rhyming pair—cab crab, boat goat, sheep jeep—in bright primary colors on sturdy pages sure to stand up to repeated rereading. Children's vocabularies will expand as the adult reader explains the humor and meaning in phrases such as rod cod and hog frog.

Can YOU find the green sheep? Lots of sheep are easy to find in this silly, fun-to-read book, including the near sheep, the far sheep, the moon sheep and the star sheep! But where is the green sheep? Children will enjoy pondering that question while comparing and contrasting the whimsical, watercolor-illustrated sheep duos that festoon this lively book.

Wow! City!'s oversized, energetic illustrations convey the thrill of a child's first trip to New York City. Each double-page scene, drawn in riotous, lively carnival colors, highlights a specific aspect of the city, accompanied by an appropriate two word exclamatory phrase: "Wow! Lights!" "Wow! Museum!" "Wow! Bridge!" Wow! City! is an exciting read-aloud and a compelling lap-read, inviting children to further explore its detailed, bustling drawings of urban life. See also Wow! School!