Visit the International Children's Digital Library

If you're looking for interesting stories to share with your children, check out the International Children's Digital Library. The digital library provides electronic versions of children's books from all over the world -- and the best part is that they are absolutely free! Happy reading, learning, and exploring!

Toddler Two: Fun with Felt

Book Title: Toddler Two

Author: Anastasia Suen

Illustrator: Winnie Cheon

Type of book: Concept book

Book age range: Birth to three

Activity age range: Eighteen months and up

*Please note that this activity includes glue and small parts and is only intended as a supervised activity for toddlers and their caregivers to perform together

Why we like it: Anastasia Suen’s Toddler Two is the perfect book to share with a child who is learning numbers and one who is age two or getting ready to turn two.  Throughout the pages of the book, two toddlers explore many different pairs, such as eyes, ears, arms and legs. Winnie Cheon’s fabric and felt illustrations are not only adorable but also precisely depict outdoor playtime in the life of toddlers. Because of these playful and engaging illustrations, this is a book that is just as much fun for toddlers to examine on their own as to hear it read aloud.

Fun with Felt: Create a Toddler Two Ball

You will need:

For preparation (Do this ahead of time so your toddler won't have to wait.)

• Two sheets of felt, each a different color

• Scissors

For the activity

• Four pre-cut felt shapes (see Step 1)

• Felt glue

Step 1: Preparation – Cut a circle shape from one piece of felt, and cut two crescent shapes representing stripes as well as a number two from the other piece. Be sure to use two different colors. Sheets of felt can be purchased in a craft store for around $.10 - $.20 each.

Step 2: Activity – After reading Toddler Two, arrange the pre-cut felt shapes in front of your toddler. Allow him or her to explore the shapes and colors and talk about their appearance and texture.

Step 3: Help your toddler glue the stripes and the number two onto the ball. Talk about the ways the ball represents the number two – it has two stripes, is made up of two colors, and is marked with a number two.

Your toddler now has his or her very own felt ball cutout, similar to the ball in Toddler Two. Reread the story with your new prop in hand and help your child enact the outdoor play scenes with the ball.


References

Suen, A. Cheon, W., illus. Toddler Two. (2000). New York: Lee & Low Books.

Where Is the Green Sheep? Find One of Your Own

Book Title: Where Is the Green Sheep?

Author: Mem Fox

Illustrator: Judy Horacek

Type of book: Concept book and picture storybook

Book age range: Birth to preschool

Activity age range: Ten months and up

*Please note that this activity includes glue and small parts and is only intended as a supervised activity for toddlers and their caregivers to perform together

Why we like it: When reading Where Is the Green Sheep by Mem Fox, children are exposed to the concepts of colors and opposites as well as an all-around fun and engaging story as they search through sheep of different colors and talents on a quest to find the elusive green sheep.  Judy Horacek’s vivid illustrations depict sun sheep, rain sheep, scared sheep, brave sheep, and many more; her images are colorful, humorous, and fully entertaining. Not only are the images interesting, but Fox keeps children guessing by repeatedly inquiring about the whereabouts of the green sheep as readers hunt through the pages of the story. This is a book that we have read multiple times in one sitting and also one that my two-year-old likes to examine by himself over and over again.

Create Your Own Green Sheep

You will need:

• A piece of green construction paper

• A black crayon

• Cotton balls*

• Glue

• Child-friendly green paint*

• Paper plate (to use as a palette)

*If the thought of using paint with your toddler makes you really sad, you can complete the activity using pom-poms in various shades of green in place of the cotton balls and paint.

Step 1: Trace your child’s hand on the green construction paper using the black crayon. Round out the wrist area, as this will be the sheep’s back.

Step 2: Cut out the hand shape for your child. As you cut, allow your child to explore the cotton balls and talk about their texture. Explain that the cotton balls will represent the wooly part of the sheep.

Step 3: Position the hand cutout as the sheep with the thumb as the head and the fingers as the legs.

Step 4: Help your child draw an eye, ear and mouth on the sheep’s head using the black crayon.

Step 5: Help your child spread glue onto the body of the sheep.

Step 6: Squeeze a quarter-sized amount of paint onto the paper plate. Show your toddler how to dip one side of the cotton ball into the paint, blotting excess paint onto the plate.

Step 7: Glue the cotton balls paint-side up onto the body of the sheep. Repeat until the sheep’s body is covered in green “wool.”

You have now found a green sheep of your own! If your child enjoys the activity, he or she may want to create sheep in several different colors and patterns.


References

Fox, M. Horacek, J., illus. (2004). Where Is the Green Sheep?. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Orange Pear Apple Bear: Exploring Words and Ideas

Book Title: Orange Pear Apple Bear
Author: Emily Gravett
Type of book: Concept book
Book age range: Birth to preschool
Activity age range: Twelve months* and up
*Please note that this activity includes glue and small parts and is only intended as a supervised activity for toddlers and their caregivers to perform together

Why we like it: In Emily Gravett’s Orange Pear Apple Bear, four simple words are introduced in a variety of ways that change their meanings. For example, on one page readers see an orange and a pear side by side, and on another page readers see a pear that is orange in color. The adorable illustrations of oranges, pears, apples and bears in various contexts stand out against a plain white background and explain the concepts behind the words’ meaning perfectly. Besides, what could be cuter than an apple bear?

Exploring Words and Ideas
You will need:

• An orange

• A pear

• An apple

• A brown paper lunch bag

• Glue stick

• Pre-cut construction paper pieces to create a paper bag bear puppet
• Eyes – two black circles
• Arms – two thin brown rectangles, rounded on one end each
• Ears – two brown circles and two smaller black circles
• Nose – one black triangle
• Mouth – one pink semicircle

Step 1: Be sure to cut out your construction paper shapes ahead of time so your toddler won’t lose interest during setup. Place the construction paper pieces and the fruit inside the brown bag and keep it handy. After reading Orange Pear Apple Bear, present your toddler with the bag.

Step 2: Allow your toddler to explore the contents of the bag and talk about each piece of fruit. Discuss the color, smell, and the texture of each piece. If your child is eating solid foods, he or she may wish to taste the fruit as well.

Step 3: Spread out the pieces of paper that will make up the bear and ask your child to help you create the bear’s face from the pre-cut shapes.

Step 4: Glue the mouth beneath the flap of the bag and the eyes and nose onto the bottom of the bag to form the face.

Step 5: Glue the two small black circles to the brown circles to create ears and glue the bottom third of each ear onto the back of the bag behind the face so that two thirds of each ear is visible.

Step 6: Glue the arms inside the side folds on each side of the bag.  

Hooray! You now have an orange, a pear, an apple, and a bear of your own. Reread the story with the fruit and bear props and have fun acting out the ideas presented in the book. (And when you’re finished, have a healthy, fruity snack!)

References
Gravett, E. (2006). Orange Pear Apple Bear. New York: Little Simon.

Color Zoo: Fun with Shapes

Book Title: Color Zoo

Author: Lois Ehlert

Type of book: Concept book

Book age range: Birth to preschool

Activity age range: Ten months* and up

*Please note that this activity includes craft glue and small parts and is only intended as a supervised activity for toddlers and their caregivers to perform together

Why we like it: Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert is full of interesting images and concepts to grab and hold the attention of babies and toddlers. The book does not follow a storyline, but introduces shapes, colors, and animals creatively. Nine brightly colored basic shapes are displayed in different ways to make up nine animals. Shape cutouts make the animals interesting and the shapes memorable. 

Fun with Shapes

You will need:

• Various pre-cut foam or paper shapes (for a super quick and easy activity, you can purchase pre-cut foam shapes at a craft store
• Glue
• Popsicle stick

Step 1: Be sure to cut out your foam and/or construction paper shapes ahead of time since many different shapes and sizes are needed. You may use any combination of shapes, including squares, triangles, circles, rectangles, ovals, hearts, diamonds, hexagons, and octagons. 

Step 2: After reading Color Zoo, spread the shapes out on a table and talk about them with your child. He or she may enjoy sorting them by size and/or color. 

Step 3: Arrange the shapes in different patterns to form animal faces. Discuss the different animals you can make and have your child choose his or her favorite. Using images from the book as a guide, glue the shapes together in the desired pattern and glue the finished face onto the popsicle stick to create a stick puppet. 

Step 4: Enjoy your puppet! Your stick puppet can now accompany you and your child when you read the book together as a reminder of the way shapes come together to form different objects.

I hope you enjoy exploring shapes and creating animal faces with Color Zoo!

References

Ehlert, L. Color Zoo. New York: HarperCollins, 1989.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt: Poster Board Play Course

Book Title: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Author: Michael Rosen
Illustrator: Helen Oxenbury
Type of book: Picture storybook
Book age range: Birth to preschool
Activity age range: Sixteen months and up

Why we like it: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, is one of our all-time favorite books. This picture storybook during which a family of five embarks on a vividly described imaginary bear hunt also has elements of a pattern book. With each encountered obstacle, the reader discovers, “We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh, no! We’ve got to go through it!” (1989). Because of these patterns, Bear Hunt is a fantastic book to read aloud, and Oxenbury’s illustrations beautifully depict the adventures of the father, mother, son, daughter, baby and family dog as they slog through land and water and brave the winter weather on their quest to find a bear.

On a personal note, this was the first “long” book Patton would listen to all the way through beginning at around 16 months, and I read shortened versions of the story to him before that. In fact, I feel like this book is one of the reasons his first word was “uh-oh!” at nine months old. Overall, it's just a lot of fun to read, see, and hear.

The poster board play course we use with this book is a lot of fun, and the best part about this activity is that it can be used over and over again, with and without the book. There are a few different ways to approach this activity, which basically consists of using poster board and a couple of other materials to recreate simple versions of the obstacles encountered by the family during the bear hunt: grass, mud, water, trees, snow, a cave, and their own front door.

Depending on the age of your child, you might want to work together to create the different pieces one at a time over several readings of the book. However, if your child is not that interested in paper crafting or if he or she is too young to use beginner’s paper-cutting scissors, you might just want to create these simple pieces the night before you read the book and have your child help you set them out. Then you can focus the activity on acting out the book as you read it.

Constructing the Play Course
You will need:

• Several pieces of poster board in various colors to represent grass, trees, mud, snow, water, a cave, and a door (I used two shades of green, two shades of blue, black, white, two pieces of brown, and yellow)

• Scissors

• Glue (regular school glue or a good quality glue stick will do)

• Optional: Paper doilies

Step 1: Create grass by cutting 4-6 inch slits along the two longest sides of the poster. The slits should be parallel with the short sides of the board. Once you are finished cutting, bend the cut pieces up so that they stand at a 90ish degree angle to create standing grass on each side. This way, your toddler can go “through” the grass using the middle of the board.

Step 2: Create a river by cutting a scalloped or wavy edge along the two longest sides of the blue poster board.

Step 3: Cut a puddle shape out of the brown poster board to create a nice big mud puddle. Try to keep the puddle as large as possible so your toddler can jump “into” it.
Step 4: To create a forest, cut several large brown strips from the remaining piece of brown poster board. Mine vary from 3 – 6 inches in width, and I cut them the length of the short side of the board to keep it simple. Next, create treetops by cutting scalloped edges along the remaining green piece of poster board. Stagger 4 – 5 brown strips below the treetops and glue them to the underside of the green board to create trees.

Step 5: The snowstorm poster board can be as simple or as complex as you would like to make it. You could use a plain piece of white poster board and nothing more; you could cut circles from a white poster board and paste them to a blue poster board; or, if you are like me and have an unreasonable amount of medium-sized paper doilies, you can glue doilies to a blue or white poster board to represent snowflakes. My little guy loves to use a glue stick, so this one is fun for us to do together.

Step 6: Create a cave by cutting two corners off the black poster board to create a somewhat dome-like shape.

Step 7: Use whatever color poster board you wish to represent the front door. The door in the book is green, but you might want to use the same color as your own front door or your child’s favorite color instead. I used yellow. If you wish, you can cut four rectangles from leftover white poster board and a brown circle from leftover brown poster board to embellish the door with windows and a knob.

Step 8: Lay out the pieces you’ve created in the order in which they appear in the book, with the front door first (so your child can run back through the other obstacles to get home, just as the family in the book). You might wish to skip this step and introduce each piece to your child as you read the book, setting out the different pieces as you reach the corresponding part of the story.

Step 9: Have fun! Help your child act out the book using the poster board play course. You might want to read the book once and then act it out, or your child might want to go through each part of the course alongside the family in the book.

I hope you enjoy this set of simple props, and I hope it helps bring this fabulous book to life for your child.

References
Rosen, M. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. New York: Little Simon, 1989.

Patton's Bookcase Top 30

Below is a list of our top 30(-ish) most loved books. These are the books that we've read over and over again, and those that my son immediately identified with from the first reading. They are organized by type for the ease of browsing, and some titles are repeated because they fit into more than one category. Concept and naming books identify and explore ideas instead of presenting a story with a clear plot; pattern books repeat phrases, words, images, thoughts or ideas; picture storybooks tell stories through words and images; toy and interactive books include activities such as cutouts and flaps or invite readers to participate in the story; and wordless books tell stories exclusively through illustrations.

Concept and Naming Books
Baby Max and Ruby - Shopping
Rosemary Wells

Dr. Seuss’s ABC
Dr. Seuss

Dreaming with Rousseau (Mini Masters)
Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober

Duck and Goose - 123
Tad Hills

Duck and Goose - How Are You Feeling?
Tad Hills

Duck and Goose - What’s Up, Duck? A Book of Opposites
Tad Hills

Freight Train
Donald Crews

My First Body Board Book
DK Publishing

Toddler Two
Anastasia Suen

Where Is the Green Sheep?
Mem Fox

Pattern Books
Monkey and Me
Emily Gravett

Peek-a Who
Nina Laden

Picture Storybooks

Barnyard Dance
Sandra Boynton

Big Dog and Little Dog Going for a Walk
Dav Pilkey

Choo Choo
Petr Horaceck

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo
Kevin Lewis

Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin
Tad Hills

Go, Dog. Go!
P.D. Eastman

The Going to Bed Book
Sandra Boynton

Goodnight Gorilla
Peggy Rathmann

Goodnight Moon
Margaret Wise Brown

Hondo and Fabian
Peter McCarty

Jamberry
Bruce Degan

Jazz Baby
Lisa Wheeler

Kitten’s First Full Moon
Kevin Henkes

Little Blue Truck
Alice Schertle

Sheep in a Jeep
Nancy Shaw

A Splendid Friend, Indeed
Suzanne Bloom

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Michael Rosen

Toy and Interactive Books
Dear Zoo
Rod Campbell

Peek-a Who
Nina Laden

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Eric Carle

Wet Pet, Dry Pet, Your Pet, My Pet
Dr. Seuss

Wordless Books
Good Dog, Carl
Alexandra Day

Selecting Board Books

When it comes to selecting board books for babies and toddlers, some may not realize that certain types of books are more engaging than others. Although I am an avid reader and am under no illusion that all books are created equal, upon reading Kathleen Horning’s (1997) article, “Board Books Go Boom,” I was surprised to learn that some board books really miss opportunities to truly capture a toddler’s attention, and some adapted from picture books and other original works even leave out integral portions of the original story.

Horning advises readers to avoid board book adaptations such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Guess How Much I Love You where either chunks of the story or part of the illustrations have been left out in order to cram long yet beloved stories into board book format (p. 156). She acknowledges that while some picture books such as Goodnight Moon are adapted to board book format without losing anything other than size and shape, many lose much more, and are only republished because publishers seize the opportunity to sell products twice because they know parents can’t resist purchasing durable board book editions of popular stories (p. 157).

So what makes a great board book? Horning advises looking for books with bright, simple artwork that introduce or identify recognizable objects and familiar events (p. 158). Lois Ehlert’s Color Zoo, for example, displays colorful shapes rearranged in different ways to form a variety of animals. Objects such as animals, trucks, balloons, and other familiar and interesting items typically excite babies, and brief rhymes can make a story more interesting (Horning 1997, p. 158). Carol Lynch-Brown, Carl M. Tomlinson, and Kathy G. Short (2011), authors of Essentials of Children’s Literature, note that the best board books present patterns and associations in a way that encourages the reader to interact with the child by discussing the book’s contents together (p. 96). Some books that encourage such interaction might not have any words at all, or very few.

In the end, different books will be special and engaging for different children, but I appreciate having the guidelines of Horning, Lynch-Brown, Tomlinson, and Short to consider when selecting reading materials for my son. I am now able to bypass some of the many available books in favor of those I believe will be most interesting to him, which essentially leads to more successful storytime sessions.

References

Horning, K. T. (1997). Board books go boom. Horn Book Magazine, 73(2), 155-160.

Lynch-Brown, C., Tomlinson, C., and Short, K.G. (2011). Essentials of Children’s Literature. 7^th ed. Pearson: Boston, MA.