Day 9: Favorite Children's Books

I was going to do twelve books.  Then things became because and I forgot to go look at my gigantic tubs of children's books to pick out my most beloved.  Trust me, there are more than twelve.  I did pick four though that I do love.  When I worked in a preschool, theses were some of my favorite activities.  Any activity surrounding books were awesome.  I just love books.


My very favorite children's book from when I was a child:




"The Little House" By Virginia Lee Burton

This book was written in 1942.  The illustrations are amazing and brought the book to life with me.  I have read this book so many time; as a child and as a parent.


It starts out as a house, sitting on a hill, in the middle of farmland. Her builder states that she "may never be sold for gold or silver" but is built sturdy enough to one day see his great-great-grandchildren's great-great-grandchildren living in her. The house always wondered what city life would be like.
Soon, a road is built in front of her.  Then other houses show up, then a gas station, eventually it leads to apartment buildings and subway cars.  The house becomes sad.  Super sad.  After becoming run down and so sad, the great-great-great granddaughter of the builder finds the house.  She moves the house back to a hill on the country side.  The house no longer wanted to know what city life was like.  She got the full effect of urban sprawl.
My favorite part of the illustrations was watching the creek.  What happened to the poor creek?
Disney made an animated short of this book.  You can find it on the YouTube.  The house also makes a cameo in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?".  Look for her in Toontown.


"Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown

Who doesn't love "Goodnight Moon"?  This cute little bunny is telling everything in his room goodnight. 


“In the great green room, there was a telephone
And a red balloon
And a picture of a cat jumping over the moon...”  


My favorite line of the book:
"Goodnight nobody"


"Not a Box" by Antoinette Portis

Another book with a bunny!  This bunny has a box, but this box is not just a box, it's whatever he wants it to be.  How do you use your imagination?  This bunny knew how to do the thing!  This brings up questions about imagination and how we use it.  There are some fun lesson plans involving this one.


"Stone Soup"

"Stone Soup" is based on many folk tales.  Hungry travelers come into a village.  No one is willing to share their food with them.  They did have a big stew pot though.  They filled it up with water and placed it over a fire.  They put a rock in it.  People became curious as to what they were making.  They replied Stone Soup and it was surely delicious, but needed some extras in it to taste phenomenal.  Each villager who walked by now added something to the soup to make it more and more wonderful.  They didn't mind sharing a few things here and there.  When the soup was done, everyone in the village ate some. 
So pretty much the travelers were big manipulators that got their way but.....they did teach the village peeps to share, right?  It's just fun to make soup with preschoolers.