May. 3, 2006 - Picture Books- our favorites! -part two

At first I had a hard time coming up with my family's list of favorite picture books.  I couldn’t understand why tons of stories were not coming to my mind because I know we have spent hours and hours reading books over and over. 

Then it came to me…. My boys' favorites haven’t been stories; their favorites have been the non-fiction books.  Fact after fact about tractors, fire fighters, construction, and vehicles are examples of the boys' favorites.  I would ask my oldest whenever we went to the library, “could we pick out a book from this (fiction) section?”  And he would explain to me that he liked these (non-fiction) shelves best.  At first I enjoyed it also, but I must confess that now as I read the same book with the same particular facts about fire apparatuses… well, I get a little bored.  Am I a girl or what?  We usually strike a deal.  “You pick one and mama will pick one.”

By the way, the boys are the same with videos.  Documentaries on how to build a road, make a cello, or put on firefighting gear are our favorites! 

So our favorite non-fiction has definitely been the ones by DK and Usborn that have real pictures or CAD pictures (not drawn). 

As far as fiction books, the ones that we have enjoyed (that aren’t already on Stacy’s list and readers comments) are by these two authors:

Graeme Base

His books have really neat illustrations, which we have spent hours perusing to find all the “hidden” things.  Just yesterday the boys and I took out The Water Hole and spent some time re-finding the animals that aren’t in the obvious picture and learning what they themselves have to teach.  Like, each picture depicts a different region of the world and the animals hidden within belong in that location.  

Jez Alborough,

You may recognize him from the popular book Hug for very young children.  But we’ve really enjoyed all that our library has that he wrote.  An example is Fix-It Duck.

For read aloud books, we have purchased many Great Illustrated Classics by Baronet Books and have been really enjoying going through them.  They are specially adapted versions and have a page of words opposite an illustration.  This has been a great introduction to the concept of read alouds.  We also like The Happy Hollister series by Jerry West.

Although I don’t have the same endurance for just the facts as my boys do (I much prefer some relationships, character development and drama), I do relish cuddling up to read them a book no matter what it is.  It’s definitely one of my favorites times of the day.  And now, I am the woman to ask about the difference between an excavator and a backhoe!

~Amy

May. 3, 2006 - SUCH a boy thing!