When a studious polar bear meets an inquisitive goose, they learn to be friends.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• The polar bear has to be very patient with goose's questions.  When was a time you had to be patient?  Was it hard to wait?
• How would the story be different if the polar bear wasn't patient and lost his temper?  How do you think the goose would feel?
• Who is your best friend and why?
• Do you know what makes a friend?
• Can you be friends with someone who is different than you?

Fun things to do together:

• Look at the many colors in Bloom's illustrations.  Ask what colors the different objects are.  See if your child can locate these colors in his/her room or clothing.
• Pack a snack and blanket.  Enjoy a picnic outside with your child.
• Play "Goose, Goose, Bear" instead of "Duck, Duck, Goose"
• Draw a picture of you and your best friend doing something together that you both like.
• Have a "Blue / White" color walk.  Point out all the different blue and white objects that you can find.

Sequel:  Treasure (2007)

Anansi the Spider uses a strange moss-covered rock in the forest to trick all the other animals until Little Bush Deer decides he needs to learn a lesson.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• How did Anansi trick his friends and why did he want to?
• How do you think his friends felt when they realized they had been tricked?
• Who tricked Anansi and how did they do it?
• Do you think Anansi learned his lesson?

Fun things to do together:

• Go the grocery store and pick out some of the foods that are in the book- yams, bananas, melons.  Compare and contrast weight, texture and color.
• Check out some African music from the library.
• Find the continent of Africa on a globe or map.  Look for Ghana, Kenya and South Africa since they are home to many of the animals in the story.

A mother dog tries to teach her pup how to bark, and is surprised at why he wasn't learning

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What was your favorite part of the story?
• What do animals do when they go to the veterinarian?
• What are the animal noises made in this book?
• What is the order of the animals pulled from George?
• Do you think George swallowed a human at the end of the book?

Fun things to do together: 

• Take an empty box and pretend that it is George.  Pull the animals in the book out of the box when telling the story.
• Set up a pretend vet's office with band aids, clipboards, Dr. kits, and stuffed animals.
• Visit a pet store or a vet's office.

Frances has trouble going to sleep because of frightening sounds and objects that may be going to get her

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What time is Frances's bedtime?
• Does Frances want to go to bed?
• What does Frances think is in her room? Is it real?
• What snack does Frances get to eat?
• What is the wind's job?
• Does Frances finally go to sleep?

Fun things to do together:

• Talk about bedtime routines in your house and create a routine for a stuffed animal or doll.
• Use animals or dolls to recreate the song "10 in the Bed".
• Sing the song "Twinkle, Twinkle".
• Throw a blanket on a chair and what do you see? A giant?  A lion?
• Draw simple pajamas for a set of paper dolls.

When the children go back to school, the animals on the farm are bored, so they go into the library in town trying to find something to do.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What was your favorite part of the story?
• Which of the animals is your favorite one?
• What animal sounds can you make?
• What kind of book would you ask for from the librarian?
• Have you ever seen a cow in the library?  A horse?  A duck?

Fun things to do together:

• Sing "Old MacDonald had a Farm"
• Take your favorite stuffed animal to the library and see if the librarian can talk to them.
• Check out some books on cows, chickens, frogs, horse, and pigs.
• Make lunch bag puppets of the animals and re-enact the story.
• Draw or make a barn and some animals to go in it.

A band of mischievous monkeys steals every one of a peddler's caps while he takes a nap under a tree.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What was the man selling? What were the colors of all his hats?
• Can you count the hats he wore on his head?
• How did he feel when he lost the hats?
• What did the monkeys do in the story? What did you think of the monkeys?
• How did he get his hats back?
• Why didn't the man sell any hats?

Fun things to do together:

• Make a hat from newspaper or other material. http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/columbus/newspaper_sailors_hats.htm
• Act out the story with the child acting as both the peddler and the monkey.
• Balance several soft things on your head and see how far you can go.
• Cut out twenty circles of different colors from construction paper and move the circles around to see how many patterns you can create.
• Count the circles and sort them by color.

When Farmer Brown's cows find a typewriter in the barn they start making demands, and go on strike when the farmer refuses to give them what they want

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Why do the cows and the hens ask Farmer Brown for blankets?
• What do the cows do when Farmer Brown refuses to help them?
• What deal do the cows make with Farmer Brown to get the blankets?
• When the ducks get the typewriter, what do the ducks want from Farmer Brown?
• What is a "neutral" party?

Fun things to do together:

• Show your child a keyboard and help them type a simple note to Farmer Brown asking for something they want; Print it out for them to see.
• As you read, ask your child to "read" the Click, clack refrains with you and be very enthusiastic about the sounds the animals make.
• Point to the "Click, clack" refrains as you read them to emphasize the text and give the child a cue as to when to say them with you.
• See if you can find a manual typewriter, then you can experiment with the clicking noises.
• Sing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm"
• Play a game of "Duck, Duck, Goose"

A toy bear in a department store wants a number of things, but when a little girl finally buys him he finds what he has always wanted most of all

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What is your favorite part of the story?
• Do you think it would be fun to run around a store at night when no one is there?
• Do you have a favorite bear?
• Do you like to ride the escalator in big stores?

Fun things to do together:

• Set up your stuffed bears and other animals and have a Teddy Bear Picnic.
• Learn (or pretend) to sew a button on like Lisa does for Corduroy.
• Hide your teddy bear under the covers (but keep the ears out!) and see if someone else can find him.
• Act out the nursery rhyme "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear".

When a bus driver takes a break from his route, a very unlikely volunteer springs up to take his place - a pigeon!

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Where do you think Pigeon would go if he drove the bus?
• How do we know how Pigeon feels when he does not get to drive the bus?
• How does Pigeon lose some of his feathers?
• How do you know pigeon feels? What do you think pigeon is feeling when there are no words - just black squiggles above his head?

Fun things to do together:

• Sing The Wheels on the Bus. Then sing The Pigeon on the Bus and make up your own words. For example, "The Pigeon on the bus flaps his wings..."
• Pretend to be on a bus. Arrange kitchen chairs in rows to resemble bus seats. Take turns being the driver and the pigeon begging to drive the bus.
• Visit a local park or downtown area to feed and observe the pigeons. Try to count and categorize them by color, markings, size, etc.
• Create your own sequel to this book. Don't Let the Pigeon Bake a Cake, Ride a Horse, etc.

Series:  Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late (2006), The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog (2004), The Pigeon Wants a Puppy (2008)

Hetty takes her first trip to the store by herself and is very careful with the eggs she's bought, until she stops to pick apples. 

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Where does the story take place?  City or country? How can you tell?
• What instructions did Mama and Papa give to Hetty?
• What else besides eggs could you buy at Mr. Birdie's Emporium and Dry Goods Store?
• How did Hetty feel when she broke the eggs?
• Why did Papa and Mama climb the apple tree?
• Do you think Mama and Papa will let Hetty go to the store again by herself?  Why or why not?

Fun things to do together:

• Point to and make sound effects for words like "thup", "bump", "squish" and "splat" to reinforce phonological awareness.
• Play running a store like Mr. Birdies.
• Practice carrying eggs in a basket.
• Make an apple pie together.
• Climb a tree together.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What is your favorite part of this story?
• How many monkeys were jumping on the bed at the beginning of the story and at the end of the story?
• Did any of the monkeys stop jumping when another monkey got hurt?  Why?
• Did you ever get hurt?  Did your parents help you?  Did you have to go to the doctor?

Fun things to do together:

• Count from 1 to 5 forwards and backwards
• Draw a monkey and make a band-aid to put on his head - give it a kiss to feel better
• Put a mattress on the floor and jump on it while singing the story (or find a rhythmic instrument, such as maracas, to play while chanting the book in rhythm)
• Get a box and a toy.  Help your child place the toy on top of the box, beside it, inside it, under it, and over it; then have your child do it themselves to practice obeying ?position/spatial word' directions.

Five warm, funny stories of Frog and Toad's friendship that can be read by parents or a beginning reader.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What are some of the nice things that Frog and Toad do for each other?
• What do you like to do with your friends?
• Have you ever received a letter in the mail?  Who was it from?
• Which story was your favorite?
• How do you think Frog and toad became friends?

Fun things to do together:

• Print out a calendar and draw a picture for each month.
• Make up a story about one of your friends then tell it to them.
• Make a collage from lost and odd buttons.
• Design silly swimsuits for the members of your family.
• Write a letter to one of your friends and send it in the mail.

Series: Frog and Toad All Year (1976), Adventures of Frog and Toad (1979), Days with Frog and Toad (1979), Frog and Toad Together (1999)

Tell a story (Narrative Skills):. These stories about Frog and Toad provide children with five simple examples of the everyday adventures of these beloved characters.  Children can build upon the structure of those tales when learning to tell their own stories.

Three bears return home from a walk to find a little girl asleep in baby bear's bed.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Look carefully at the pictures of the Bears' home.  Do you see anything in the pictures that tell you Goldilocks is in the bear's house?    
• Which bear is big?  Which is small?  What are the different sizes of furniture for each of the bears?
• How would you feel if Goldilocks came into your house without permission?  Should you ever go in to someone's house without permission?

Fun things to do together:

• Act out the story with your child with puppets or other toys.
• Take a look at Baby Bear's messy room.  Identify as many objects as possible.

Sam-I-Am mounts a determined campaign to convince another Seuss character to eat a plate of green eggs and ham.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Would you try green eggs and ham?  If so, where would it be?  In a box, with a fox, etc?
• Why do you think Sam refused to stop asking his friend to try green eggs and ham?
• Why do you think Sam's friend tried green eggs and ham? 
• What are the different types of transportation in the story?  Can you count them all?

Fun things to do together:

• Make your own green eggs and ham.  http://www.seussville.com/printables/geah_recipes.html
• Design your own red and white Seuss hat.
• Identify the animals and colors in the story.

A very picky eater, Gregory the goat refuses the usual goat diet staples of shoes and tin cans in favor of fruits, vegetables, eggs, and orange juice.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Why do Gregory's parents call him a terrible eater?
• What did Gregory's parents want him to eat?  What did Gregory want to eat?
• What are some of your favorite foods?  Are they healthy foods?
• What are some foods that you don't like?
• Do you like to try new foods?  What are some new foods you have eaten lately?
• What are some things that people eat when they are terrible eaters?

Fun things to do together:

• Cut pictures of foods from a magazine.  Decide which ones are healthy foods and which ones are junk foods.
• Look at the food pyramid and healthy lifestyle information for kids on this website with your child. http://mypyramid.gov/preschoolers/index.html
• Take a copy of the food pyramid along on a trip to the grocery store.  Have a scavenger hunt to find a food for each food group on the pyramid.
• Have a "Gregory" night where everyone in the family tries a new food.
• Plan a healthy meal for your family.  Include something from every food group.

Harold goes for an adventurous walk in the moonlight with his purple crayon

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Why do you think Harold chose to use a purple crayon and not another color?
• Harold sometimes draws scary things, like dragons or falling - what scares you?  Do you feel less scared if you draw them on paper?
• What does the moon look like?  Is it always the same?  Does it change night to night?

Fun things to do together:

• Get a big purple crayon and a large sheet of paper and draw, draw, draw
• Make up a story about your drawing.
• Make a drawing using a different colored crayon - Does the story change?
• Be brave and find an area where you child has ?permission' to draw on the wall - explore different dimensions!

Harry, an adorable white dog with black spots, loves his family but hates baths.  Facing having to have a bath, he runs away and gets so dirty that he looks like a black dog with white spots. 

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Look at all of the animals in the pictures. Which ones would you like to have for a pet?  Why or why not?
• Does this story take place now or a long time ago?  What do you think of the clothes people wear in the story? (Dad wears a suit, Mom wears a dress and apron, most of the adults wear hats).
• How do vehicles and trains of today look different than those in the pictures? 
• What letter is on the roof of the doghouse in the backyard?  What does it stand for? What other words can you think of that start with this letter?

Fun things to do together:

• Draw two pictures of Harry.  Draw one as a white dog with black spots.  On the second picture, put a small amount of glue on various parts of his body and sprinkle those areas with potting soil in order make Harry look dirty.
• Pretend you are Harry and take turns playing hide and seek with a bath brush or sponge.
• Visit the dog park or pet store.
• Gather stuffed dogs and play dog groomer, veterinarian office or animal shelter.
• Count how many dogs, cats, birds, children, etc. there are in the story.

Series: No Roses for Harry (1958), Harry and the Lady Next Door (1960), Harry by the Sea (1965)

Hattie, a big black hen, discovers a fox in the bushes, which creates varying reactions in the other barnyard animals.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Does Hattie get scared?  Have you ever been scared?
• Do you think that the animals are answering kindly to Hattie?
• Did the other animals learn a lesson from Hattie?
• What is your favorite part of this story?

Fun things to do together:

• Re-read the story and make your voice sound like each animal would sound
• How many different animal sounds can you make?
• Tear up colored tissue paper and make your own pictures just like Patricia Mullins.

When Buzz captures a fly to enter in The Amazing Pet Show, his parents and the judges tell him that a fly cannot be a pet, but Fly Guy proves them wrong.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What animals do you think of as pets?
• What unusual pets do you see in the story?
• What's the difference between a pet and a pest?
• Why do you think Buzz's parents did not want him to have a pet fly?

Fun Things to do together:

• Sing "Shoo Fly" with your child.
• Read this story with "I Know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly" illustrated by Round, Westcott, or Karas.
• Draw a picture of your pet - real or imaginary.  What would it look like?  What would it be?  What would it eat?
• Gather your stuffed animal friends and judge your own pet show.

Series includes:  Fly High, Fly Guy! (2008), Hooray for Fly Guy! (2008), Shoo, Fly Guy! (2006), Super Fly Guy (2006), There was an Old Lady who Swallowed Fly Guy (2007)

Brief text and photographs of carvings made from vegetables introduce the world of emotions by presenting leading questions such as "Are you feeling angry?"

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Have you ever felt some of these feelings?
• Do you think other people have these feelings?
• Do certain colors make you feel a certain way?
• What is your favorite vegetable?  Is it in the book?

Fun things to do together:

• Make your own vegetable or fruit sculpture to eat and take pictures
• Draw different feelings you have had
• Talk about the different types of fruits and vegetables that are used in this book - be brave and try those you have never tasted before
• Tell a story about your feelings

Parents and children ponder the different ways a dinosaur can say goodnight, from slamming his tail and pouting to giving a big hug and kiss in this comical look at dinosaurs behaving like children and imitating all the ways they try to avoid going to sleep at night.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Which dinosaur in the story is your favorite? Why?
• What is your bedtime routine? 
• Have you ever tried to keep from going to bed like one of the dinosaurs in the story?  What did you do to keep from going to bed?

Fun things to do together:

• Find the name of the pictured dinosaur hidden in the artwork on the pages.
• Many of the dinosaurs have teddy bears and some have pet cats or dogs. Find and count the teddy bears, cats, and dogs in the pictures.
• Listen to and learn "We Are the Dinosaurs" by Laurie Berkner on her CD Whadd'ya Think of That?
• Using colored construction paper, help your child make a capital "D", cut it out, and glue it to a white piece of construction paper with the "back" of the D parallel to the bottom of the paper. Using crayons, add a head, a tail, legs, scales and a background. Draw a scene around your dinosaur.  Is he or she sleeping in the grass under a tree? Drinking from a lake? Walking with a baby dinosaur?

Series: How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? (2003), How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? (2005) How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? (2007)

In the rhythm of a familiar folk song, a child cannot resist adding one more dab of paint in surprising places.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What is your favorite part of the story?
• What is your favorite color and why?
• What color would you paint your stomach? Your hand? Your leg?
• Do you think that you would get in trouble if you were caught painting on yourself?
• Do you like to paint pictures? 

Fun things to do together:

• Name all the colors shown in the book.
• Grab a paintbrush and pretend to paint yourself
• Try singing along with the book.
• Use the book to learn anatomy vocabulary (i.e. - arm, leg, neck)
• Draw a picture of your child and let them paint their body parts.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• In the story, the garbage truck tells us his alphabet soup recipe.  What ingredients are the stinkiest?  The most gross?
• What new words did you read about?  What do you think "dual op" means?
• Inside the book cover is a map of the garbage truck's city.  Where else do you think the truck goes?  What buildings do you see?

Fun things to do together:

• The story even explains how the trash system works in a simple way (truck picks up garbage, compacts it, and transports it via the river to a garbage dump).  Take the trash or recycling out together.  Discuss why garbage trucks are important.
• Visit Kate McMullan's website and try out these fun activities:  http://www.katemcmullan.com/ActivityPages/PictureBooks.pdf
• Read more about garbage collectors and trucks at the Lexington Public Library.
• Design your own garbage truck with items from your recycling bin.

Similar stories by Kate and Jim McMullan:   I'm Dirty (backhoe), I'm Mighty (tugboat), and I'm Bad (dinosaur)

See Letters (Letter Knowledge):. McMullan includes a unique alphabet and teaches different letter sounds and words beginning with those letters.

Fun things to do together:

• Make a list of the animals in the book and choose one to learn more about.
• Try making your own pond, either in real life or through art.
• Write your own rhyme about something that is outside.
• Learn how to make your own paper and make your own Denise Fleming-esque art.  (Denise Fleming created the illustrations by pouring colored cotton pulp through her hand-cut stencils.)
• Visit www.denisefleming.com for further details and activities

Despite pleas from his court, a fun-loving king refuses to get out of his bathtub to rule his kingdom in this Caldecott Honor book.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Which of the King's bathtime fun activities was your favorite?
• How long is King Bidgood in the bathtub? What parts of the story tell you how much time passes?
• What else could the king do in the bathtub to have fun?
• How does the young page finally figure out how to get King Bidgood out of the bathtub?
• Do you have a favorite bathtime toy or game? What do you like to play during bathtime?

Fun things to do together:

• Blow bubbles together during the bathtub scenes.
• Read the story during bathtime and follow it with the song "Bathtime"by Raffi from his Everything Grows CD.
• Recite the nursery rhymes Old King Cole and Rub-A-Dub-Dub Three Men in a Tub.

Lilly loves everything about school, especially her teacher, but when he asks her to wait a while before showing her new purse, she does something for which she is sorry later.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Why was Lilly so upset with her teacher?
• What do you do when you get upset?
• What do you want to be when you grow up?
• What color is Lilly's purse? What is your favorite color?

Fun things to do together:

• Mix different colors and see what makes the color purple.
• Have a special story time with books about mice and have some type of "cheesy" snack.
• Look through magazines and find purple objects.

Little Bear's four adventures include taking a trip to the moon and having a birthday party

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What is your favorite part of this story?
• What wishes do you have?
• What do you remember about your last birthday?  What are you looking forward to at your next birthday?
• If you had friends that were animals, what animals would they be?

Fun things to do together:

• Find a box and pretend that you are going to fly to the moon
• Create your own birthday soup
• Make up your own Little Bear story and use some of your stuffed animals as characters

Series: Father Bear Comes Home (1959), Little Bear's Friend (1960), Little Bear's Visit (1961), A Kiss for Little Bear (1968), Adventures of Little Bear (1990)

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard find the perfect home to raise their ducklings in Boston's beautiful Public Garden

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Once the ducklings became good swimmers, Mr. & Mrs. Mallard moved them to their new home in the Public Garden?  Have you ever had to move to a new home?
• Why did Mrs. Mallard think that the public garden would be a good place to live?  What are some good things about where you live?
• How did Michael the policeman help the Mallard family?  How do the police help people in your neighborhood?

Fun things to do with your child:

• Re-read the story and let the child make all of the duck and traffic sounds.  Be sure to point to sound words (honk!, quack! etc.) on the page to reinforce print awareness.
• Make a large-scale, simplified map of the streets, St. Charles River, Public Garden, buildings, etc.  Retell the story and retrace the ducks route to their new home.
• The ducklings are named in alphabetical order - Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack.  Talk about what alphabetical order means. Say and talk about the words with emphasis on how the different beginning letters look and sound and how they make each word different.
• Visit a local park or Lexington Cemetery and feed the ducks.

Mike Mulligan proves that, although dated, his steam shovel is still useful.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Who were the different community helpers who watched Mike and Mary Anne work?
• Why were Mike and Mary Anne sad?
• Why did people watching make the workers work faster?
• What did Mary Anne become when she finished the hole?
• How are the machines in the book different from today's machines?

Fun things to do together:

• Visit the library and find books on different types of earth movers, bulldozers, & other big machines.
• Make a simple steam shovel with brads and poster board.
• Visit a construction site.  Who and what do you see there?
• What would your favorite big machine look like?  Half dumpster/ half bulldozer?  Or maybe a crane with a dump truck?
• While boiling water for tea or dinner, discuss the steam coming from the pot.  If the steam is blocked, it converts to water, but if not evaporates into the air.

How can an old man and his wife select one cat from a choice of millions?

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Do you think there would be such a place filled with so many cats?
• What color cat would you have picked?
• Do you think the little kitten was happy living with the old man and his wife?
• What happened when all the cats ate and drank?
• What do you notice about the colors in the book?
• How do you think the cat felt about being the only one left?

Fun things to do together:

• Sing some songs and nursery rhymes involving cats such as "Three Little Kittes" or "Pussycat, Pussycat".
• Act out the story using stuffed animal toys.
• Draw a picture of a cat that would be the prefect one for the family.
• Cut cat pictures out of magazines and sort by color, size, stripes and spots.
• Visit an animal shelter and bring a donation of food or litter when you visit.

In this newly illustrated edition, Mrs. Mouse is anxious to get her son to sleep and goes off to find what she thinks he wants.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What was your favorite part of the story?
• What special things do you need before you go to bed?
• What animal mommy would you want to be your mommy? Why?
• What do you think about the little songs made up by the animal mommies?
• What do you do every night before bedtime?

Fun things to do together:

• Make up your own "Good Night" song.
• Lay out your stuffed animal friends and re-enact the story.
• Make a kiss coupon book out of construction paper.
• Get chocolate kiss candies and have a kiss candy hunt with a real giant "kiss" at the end.
• Get different varieties of chocolate kisses and count and sort them by package color and package pattern.
• Make up different types of kiss sounds: duck kisses, cow kisses, little kisses, big kisses, fish kisses, etc.

Just like a true Kindergarten year, Rosemary Wells' My Kindergarten is full of fun and learning.  It follows the year of a Kindergarten class and all of the amazing things they do and learn.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• How did you feel on your first day of Kindergarten?  What did you do?
• What is your favorite part of Kindergarten?
• Would you like to have Miss Cribbage as a teacher?  What are some fun things that she does with her class?
• What is something new that you have learned in Kindergarten?

Fun things to do together:

• Look at the different patterns on your clothing.  Make a book of patterns.
• Look at stamps from other countries at this website: http://www.bnaps.org/stamps4kids/world.htm. Design your own stamps for different countries of the world.
• Get a book of poetry and read a short poem.
• Make "What's-It-Made-Of? Boxes for animals, vegetables, and minerals and collect things from around your house to put in them. 
• Measure the feet of everyone in your family.  Whose are the longest?  Whose are the shortest?

What do you do when Pete's in a bad mood? When it is raining and he cannot go out and play? Turn him into a pizza, of course!

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What do you like to do on rainy days when you can't go outside?
• Do you like to pretend to be something else?  What do you like to pretend to be?
• What are your favorite pizza toppings?  What could you use for those toppings if you were making a pretend pizza like Pete's father?
• What do people do to cheer you up when you are in a bad mood?
• What steps do you go through to make a pizza?

Fun things to do together:

• Make your child into a pizza like Pete.  Try other foods, too, like hot dogs and tacos.  Let them do it to you or a stuffed animal.
• Brainstorm for ideas for rainy day activities.  Put them all in a Rainy Day Box and draw out an activity on the next rainy day.
• Make a pretend pizza from construction paper.  Have your child tear out the shapes for the toppings and glue them on.  Fine motor exercises like these are excellent ways to prepare your child for handwriting and scissor skills.
• Let your child help you make a real pizza.  Have them measure the ingredients.
• Introduce fractions by having your child help you divide a pizza into equal pieces.

Records the misadventures of a group of sheep that go riding in a jeep.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Where do you think the sheep are going in their jeep?
• What are words in the book that rhyme?
• What do the sheep do with their jeep when it crashes?  Do you think anyone will buy it? Why or why not?
• Do you think the sheep will be better drivers next time? Why?
• What do you think would have happened if the pigs hadn't helped the sheep?

Fun things to do together:

• Have your child pretend to be a sheep in a jeep by sitting in a laundry basket and pretending to steer.  Add a kinesthetic element to the story by tugging them out of a pretend mud puddle and crashing them into a pile of pillows.
• Use letter magnets to make rhyming words.
• Have your child make an advertisement trying to sell the sheep's wrecked jeep.  Help them think of words to describe the jeep?
• Make sheep by gluing cottonballs onto construction paper.

Series: Sheep on a Ship (1989), Sheep in a Shop (1991), Sheep Out to Eat (1992), Sheep Take a Hike (1994), Sheep Trick or Treat (1997), Sheep Blast Off (2008).

Some children create a family out of snow. Includes labeled pictures of all the items they use, as well as information about how snow is formed.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Which snowperson was your favorite and why?
• Have you ever made a snowman?  If so, what kind of things did you use to dress it up?
• What is your favorite season?
• Why did the snow people melt?

Fun things to do together:

• Make snowmen using white construction paper and various things from around the house.
• Use the back page of the book as a quiz to test your child's memory of which snowman had what on him.
• Make birdfeeders for your backyard using peanut butter and pinecones with birdseed.
• Sing "Frosty the Snowman."
• Turn the book into an "I Spy" game for each page.

Jazzy poetry, dancing skeletons, walking iguanas, musical sounds, and popping firecrackers all gather to introduce nine colors through onomatopoeia and alliteration in English and in Spanish. 

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Which colors do you like the best?
• Can corn be green, or does it have to be yellow?  Can skeletons be purple or do they have to be white? 
• What colors are spicy?   What colors are cool? What colors are hot?

Fun things to do together:

• Find some items around the house and make up with different sounds that they might make -  (shimmy-shammy-slunk might be the sound of water as it goes down the drain).
• Ms. Barragán, the illustrator, is from Ecuador.  Where is Ecuador?  Can you find it on a map?
• Use bold-colored crayons, paint, and/or bold-colored construction paper with black paper to make your own Barragán-esque art.
• Make up a song using the funny words in this book.
• Dance and march to the rhythm of this book.

When Strega Nona leaves him alone with her magic pasta pot, Big Anthony's deceitful decision to show the townspeople how it works gets him into trouble in this Caldecott Honor book.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What does the name Strega Nona mean?
• What does Strega Nona tell Big Anthony he must never do?
• What does the magic pot do when you recite the magic words?
• How does Big Anthony get into trouble?
• Have you ever done something that you were told not to do?

Fun things to do together:

• Put on a pot of pasta together, and over the pot, recite Strega Nona's magic words, "Bubble, bubble, pasta pot?"
• Make your own magic pasta pot; take an empty butter tub or some other empty plastic container and cut lots and lots of yellow yarn for pasta.  Put it on paper plates when it's "done" and serve it to the family.
• In this story, blowing three kisses is a magic command to stop the pot. For an entire day, blow three kisses to each other to say "Please" and "Thank You."

This is the story of a clever little fish named Swimmy.  When his brothers and sisters are eaten by a big fish, he teaches his friends to work together to stay safe and free to explore the ocean in all its beauty. 

Questions to talk about with your child:

• How did Swimmy feel when he escaped from the tuna and swam all alone in the sea?
• What helped Swimmy feel happy again?  What things make you feel happy?
• What did Swimmy do to help the fish not be afraid?
• What part of the big fish did Swimmy pretend to be?
• How many red fish work together to make one big fish?
• If you could live in the ocean, what would you want to be?  Why?

Fun things to do together:

• Cut several red fish shapes and a black one out of construction paper.  Use various lengths of fishing line or string to suspend the fish from a coat hanger to create a mobile.
• Cut a variety of sea creatures/plants/treasure chest out of different colored construction paper.  Attach a paper clip.  Use string and a stick to create a fishing pole and tie a magnet to the end of the string.  Go fishing.
• Visit a pet store and find out about all the different kinds of fish they have.
• Cut a large fish pattern out of two pieces of cellophane or construction paper and punch holes all around the edge.  Stuff with small pieces of shiny paper and sew together with yarn.

Tacky the penguin does not fit in with his sleek and graceful companions, but his odd behavior comes in handy when hunters come with maps and traps.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What would you do if you lived in a "nice icy land" like Tacky?  How would you build a snowman? What would happen if you had a snowball fight? etc.
• If you could be any of the characters in the story, who would you want to be?  Why?
• Why did all of the penguins except Tacky run away and hide when the hunters came?
• What do you do when you are scared?
• What is the bravest thing you have done?
• How do you help your friends?

Fun things to do together:

• Practice marching in straight lines like Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly and Perfect.  Then march in a totally made up way like Tacky.
• Make up a silly song like Tacky did and sing it to the melody of a well known song.
• Use markers to draw a winter or Antarctic scene.  When the drawing is finished and dry, use a damp sponge and go over the paper lightly.  Use a shaker to gently shake salt over the picture.  When the salt touches the paper, it will crystallize and look like snowflakes.
• Find Antarctica on a globe or map.  Use the library to find which animals live in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Series: Three Cheers for Tacky (1994), Tacky in Trouble (1998), Tacky and the Emperor (2000), Tacky and the Winter Games (2005)

Although she is not very big, the Little Blue Engine agrees to try to pull a stranded train full of toys over the mountain.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Can you think of something you have done that you thought would be difficult?
• Why won't the other engines help the train full of toys?
• Why did the Little Blue Engine help the train full of toys?  What would you have done if they had asked you for help?
• How are you similar to the Little Blue Engine?  How are you different?

Fun things to do together:

• Make a train using the chairs from your kitchen table.  What will your train carry?  Where is it going?
• Make shakers from dried beans and paper cups.  See if you can imitate the rhythm of a train.
• Make rectangular train cars.  Write a letter of your child's name on each car.  Help your child put the cars in the right order to spell his or her name.
• Make a Marshmallow Train Snack.  Use large marshmallows for the cars and pretzel sticks to connect them.  Use peanut butter to stick on Cheerios for wheels.

This is a wonderful treasury of nursery rhymes illustrated with collage photographs of contemporary urban cities and multicultural children

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What is your favorite rhyme?  Can you say it by heart? (A child that knows 8 nursery rhymes by the age of 4 will be a good reader by the age of 8).
• What letter does your name start with?   Can you find that letter on the pages with the A Was an Apple Pie rhyme? If you could have a garden like Mary, what would you grow?
• Would you like to live in a shoe?  Why or why not?

Fun things to do together:

• Say three words.  Ask your child to put a thumb up if the words rhyme and  thumbs down if they don't.  For example, cat, hat, bat and run, fun, play.
• Read some of your child's favorite rhymes again.  Ask your child to clap when hearing a rhyming word.
• Say a silly sentence with a missing word.  Ask your child to use rhyming clues to figure out the missing word.  For example, "I saw a bear combing his _____(hair)".
• Plant an indoor flower or vegetable garden in paper cups.
• After discussing living in a shoe, ask your child what his or her dream house would look like.  Ask them to draw a picture of the house.

The Relatives Came is a joyful account of a family's summer visit with their relatives from Virginia. 

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What is a relative?  Who are your relatives?
• The relatives drive all day and into the night to visit their family.  Have you ever taken a long car trip?  Where did you go?  What did you see and do?
• What did the relatives do while visiting one another?  Look carefully at the pictures.
• What kind of instruments did the relatives play? Where did this story take place?  The city or the country?  How can you tell?
• Were the relatives happy during their visit?  How can you tell?

Fun things to do together:

• Look through the family photo album and name your relatives.
• Make a simple family tree.  Write the names of your relatives on paper apples and glue them to the correct branch of the tree.
• Listen to bluegrass music together.
• Use a map to show your child where their relatives live.
• The relatives in the story came from Virginia.  Find Virginia on a map.  How far is that from where you live?
• Draw a picture of your family.:

The adventures of a little boy in the city on a very snowy day

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What activities does Peter do in the snow?
• Why was the snowball in Peter's pocket gone when looked for it later in the story?
• Describe how snow feels and what it looks like.
• What activities do you enjoy doing in the snow?

Fun things to do together:

• Put on a hat and mittens and make hot chocolate before reading the story.
• Sing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" and "Frosty the Snowman" together.
• Pretend to walk in the snow (or actually walk in the snow)  as Peter does with your toes pointing both in and out.
• Make snowballs from crumpled plastic grocery bags and have a snowball fight.

Naughty Peter Rabbit disobeys his mother by going into Mr. McGregor's garden and almost gets caught.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• How many rabbits were in the story? How many little rabbits?
• What were their names?
• Who did the garden belong to?
• What color was Peter's coat?
• What did Peter lose in the garden? What happened to them?
• What did Peter eat to make his tummy feel better?

Fun things to do together:

• Visit a pet store and look at the rabbits. Discuss which one looks the most like Peter and his family.
• Visit the grocery and try to find all the vegetables that Peter ate.
• Hop like a bunny and twitch your nose. Act out the story.
• Make a simple rabbit puppet using a paper bag and construction paper.

An ugly duckling spends an unhappy year ostracized by the other animals before he grows into a beautiful swan.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Did the other animals in this book do anything that made them ugly?
• How did the duckling feel when the other animals teased him?  Have you ever felt that way?  What happened that made you feel that way?
• Was there anyone in the story who was kind to the duckling?
• How do you think the Ugly Duckling's egg got in the mother duck's nest?
• What seasons were shown in the story?  How could you recognize them?

Fun things to do together:

• Curl up in a ball on the floor and pretend to be a duckling hatching from an egg.
• Make up your own fairy tale like Hans Christian Anderson.  Make one of your stuffed animals the main character.
• Make animals sounds for all of the different animals the Ugly Duckling meets.
• Draw a picture of your favorite scene in the book.
• Look at pictures of different kinds of eggs.  Talk about what kinds of birds you think might come out of the eggs.

This story follows the progress of a hungry little caterpillar as he eats his way through a varied and very large quantity of food until, full at last, he forms a cocoon around himself, goes to sleep, and emerges from his sleepy cocoon a beautiful butterfly.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What are the days of the week?
• What does the caterpillar eat on each day?
• How many items does the caterpillar eat on each day?
• What happens to the caterpillar after he goes to sleep in his cocoon?
• What are your favorite fruits and foods?

Fun things to do together:

• Use a calendar and record the foods eaten on each day in the story or make your own calendar and do the same
• Using a magazine, cut out pictures of the same foods in the story use them to glue a healthy meal to a paper plate
• Watch a child's educational film, like a Magic School Bus video or DVD, about the life cycle of a caterpillar

Tell a Story (Narrative Skills): The cumulative structure of this story - what the caterpillar eats on each passing day and the simple progressive details of his life cycle - are ideal for practice in describing simple events and recounting details of a story.

Everyone knows the song about the old lady who swallowed a fly, a spider, a bird, and even worse, but who's ever seen what's going on inside the old lady's stomach? With this inventive die-cut artwork, Simms Tabak gives us a rollicking, eye-popping version of the well-loved poem.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Why do you think the old lady swallowed a fly?  Could it have been an accident?
• What was the reaction of the cow?  What about the bird, dog, and cat?
• Have you ever swallowed something strange that you would not normally eat?
• Who is the man at the end of the story? What is his reaction to the old lady's death?

Fun things to do together:

• Make a food chain. What might the cat really eat?  The fly? The spider and the bird?
• Write the names and/or draw a picture of the various animals eaten by the old lady on a small piece of paper. Put them in sequential order.
• On a paper plate, draw your face and cut a small slit for your mouth. Using clip art or pictures from magazines, cut out pictures of "yummy" foods you'd like to eat. Slip them into your "mouth" to eat them.

Three clever billy goats outwit a big ugly troll that lives under the bridge they must cross on their way up the mountain.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• Why do you think the troll will not allow the goats to cross over the bridge?
• What word rhymes with the word goat?  (coat, wrote, note, vote)
• What else is living in the river?
• What is different about each of the goats? (size, colors, horns)
• Why is it that the Big Bill Goat Gruff wasn't afraid?

Fun Things to do together:

• Count the goats together.  Which goat arrived first?  Second?  Third?
• Borrow a book about goats from the library and learn more about their habits.
• Talk about small, medium, and large sizes.  Gather items from around the house and identify their sizes.
• Go on a letter walk and list things begin with the letter "g".
• Use wooden spoons, blocks, or sticks to make the "trip trap" sound in the book.
• Make a bridge from household items - paper cups, blocks, playing cards - how can you make it stronger?

A naughty little boy, sent to bed without his supper, sails to the land of the wild things where he becomes their king.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What happened to Max when he disobeyed his mother?
• How are the wild things the same?  How are they different?
•  Why do you think some of the pictures are very small?  Why do you think some pictures are so big?  What is special about the pages with big pictures?
• Why does Max sail back home?
• Why is his supper still hot?

Fun things to do together:

• Design your own mask for the wild rumpus.
• Max's imagination created a whole new world.  Use your imagination and draw an imaginary world all of your own.  How would you travel in this world?  What would you wear?
• Design your own monster paper plate mask.
• Look at the wild things carefully.  They are all so different. Some of them have horns or claws. Others have hair or feathers, toe nails or bird beaks.  Draw yourself as a "Wild Thing."
• Max tames the Wild Things by staring into their yellow eyes without blinking. Get a clock or a watch and time how long you can go without blinking.

A hungry wolf's attempts to fatten a chicken for his stewpot have unexpected results.

Questions to talk about with your child:

• What foods did the wolf take to the chicken's house and why did he take them to her?
• What meal did the wolf want to make with the chicken?  What is a stew?
• The wolf gets a big surprise. What is it?
• At the end of the story, what does the wolf want to do for the Baby Chicks?

Fun things to do together:

• Chose one of the foods mentioned in the story, chose a simple recipe, and cook it together.
• Examine the page that shows the wolf cooking in his kitchen and show your child those tools and ingredients in your own kitchen and talk about how you use them.
• Use a silly, expressive voice for the wolf when reading the story.