The Giving Tree

by Shel Silverstein

Sure, we've probably all read this book, but I love it.  I used to love it because I believed it taught about the importance of being environmentally responsible.  If we keep taking from the environment, all that we're eventually left with is a stump.  

Now that I'm a mother, it offers me a whole new story, one that makes me cry through -pretty much- the whole book as I read it to my kids.  Just enjoy letting your kids see that books are meant to evoke emotion.  It isn't a good book unless it makes you feel something.

images via coverbrowser.com 

Lunch

by Denise Fleming

The story of a mouse who gets very hungry, leaves his mousehole, and finds a whole table of delicious fruits and vegetables to eat.  He approaches each one, each a different color.  You can see just a corner of the produce to give you a clue as to what it is that he is going to eat on the next page.  The words also prompt you to guess.  Mouse eats  "sweet yellow".... (with the corner of a cob of corn on that page).  Turn the page and it's confirmed that it is corn, which is being sloppily devoured by the mouse.  I love the hilarious body language of the excited mouse.  At the end of the book he is thoroughly filthy, leaving a trail back to his mousehole.  Great for ages infant to preschool. 

Have a little fun: As you're reading, have your child guess what the fruit or vegetable is that the mouse will eat next (you can see a corner of the vegetable on each page to give a clue).  Sing this song (complete with actions) with your child.  This is better with a group of children who actually are wearing different colors, but you can make it work.  Cut circles in different colors and put them on your body when you sing about that color.  Or, you could take clothing of different colors from their closet and throw them on for singing each color.  A fun dress-up game! If you'd like accompanying music, go to the National Institute of Health site.   I like this site because it includes a lot of the music to accompany songs for children.

If you are Wearing....(Sung to the tune "If You're Happy and You Know It")

If you are wearing red, shake your head

If you are wearing red, shake your head

If you are wearing red

Then please shake your head

If you are wearing red, shake your head

If you are wearing blue, touch your shoe 

If you are wearing blue, touch your shoe

If you are wearing blue,

Then please touch your shoe

If you are wearing blue, touch your shoe

If you are wearing green, bow to the queen 

If you are wearing green, bow to the queen

If you are wearing green,

Then please bow to the queen

If you are wearing green, bow to the queen

If you are wearing yellow, shake like Jell-O 

If you are wearing yellow, shake like Jell-O

If you are wearing yellow,

Then please shake like Jell-O

If you are wearing yellow, shake like Jell-O

If you are wearing black, pat your back 

If you are wearing black, pat your back

If you are wearing black,

Then please pat your back

If you are wearing black, pat your back

If you are wearing brown, turn around

If you are wearing brown, turn around

If you are wearing brown,

Then please turn around

If you are wearing brown, turn around

images via www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu and guitarati.com

Mouse Paint

by Ellen Stoll Walsh

"Once there were three white mice on a white piece of paper.  The cat couldn't find them."  One day while the cat sleeps, the mice find three jars of paint: red, yellow and blue.  They each jump inside and are no longer white mice, but red, yellow and blue mice.  The mice discover that when two of the colors are mixed together, it creates a new color!  After a nice bath in the cat's water bowl, the mice set off and use their new knowledge to paint not 3, but 6 colors on everything....well, almost everything.

Great book for PreK kids, but older kids could appreciate it as well.

Have a little fun: Experiment with color.  Put the primary colors in puddles on paper, put on some music, and let your child's fingers "dance" in the music (like the mice did).  Point out how the colors change when combined. 

For slightly older children, overlap colored tissue paper to see the color change.  Make a collage out of the tissue paper.

image via efollet.com

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters

by John Steptoe

If you can't read Disney's Cinderella even one more time, introduce your little princess to a different kind of Cinderella story. A Caldecott Honor, for its beautiful pictures.

Set in Africa, Mufaro has 2 beautiful daughters, Manyara and Nyasha. Although both were beautiful, they couldn't have been more different. Manyara was always bad tempered, selfish and unkind. Nyasha was hard working, loving, and kind, despite her sister's harsh words to her.

One day, the King sends an invitation for the most worthy and beautiful daughters in the land to appear before him, so he can choose a bride. Mufaro, who knows nothing of Manyara's bad treatment of others, is proud to send both his daughters. However, Manyara wants to get to the King's palace ahead of her sister, so she steals out in the night to get a head start.

Along the way, Manyara meets 3 people who are in need of kindness from her. Manyara is bitterly cruel to them and continues to the palace, presuming herself to be the next queen.

The next morning, Nyasha sets out for the palace and comes across some of the same strangers her sister met the night before. She is kind and generous with each of them. As Nyasha approaches the castle, Manyara is frantically running from the steps and tells her sister of a terrible beast within that claimed to know her faults. Nyasha enters anyway, and finds that her kindness pays off in the end.

Have a little fun: I actually enjoy this story more than Disney's Cinderella, because in Disney's Cinderella the prince seems to fall in love after only one dance. The prince has time to get to know Nyasha, and sees that she is just as kind as she is beautiful. Beauty is another issue in this story. Both girls are beautiful, but one chooses to act ugly.

Depending on the age of your child, you can talk about the differences and similarities between the classic Cinderella and this one. You'll be surprised how alike stories in two very different settings can be.

A little more fun: A good book to get your child interested in another country, especially with the Olympics going on right now. Point out where Africa is on a map or globe, and compare it to where you live.

images via Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

by Simms Taback

Joseph had a little overcoat, and when it becomes ragged, he turns it into a jacket. When the jacket gets too worn, he turns it into a vest... The long-ago overcoat is slowly whittled down and remade until it is nothing more than a button. Joseph loses the button. So what can he do now that he has nothing? This is a story that teaches you can always make something from nothing. Another message I particularly enjoy is that the crafty mind can always make something useful beyond its original purpose.

The pictures are a story of their own. The pages have holes in them, so when you turn the page, the new article of clothing is cut out of the old one. Also, the pictures include so many details! Many of those details include references to Jewish history, with pictures of real people on the walls of Joseph's home, and Hebrew writing on his papers. This is a very deserving Caldecott winner.

image via www.global-b2b-network.com

Have a little fun: This story has a particularly personal impact for me. Before reluctantly turning an old shirt into a rag, my great-grandmother would cut all the buttons off and put them in little jars. Those buttons went on to be useful on another article of clothing. I was given that box of button jars before my grandma died, and they have been repurposed to being a sorting game for my kids. Every once in a while I'll even find the need to pull out the box to replace a lost button. The little jars of buttons are more than a useful or sentimental item, they are a reminder to me that maybe I should think twice about throwing away that box of wire hangers just because I have a million of them....or that chair with a leg that could be fixed.... 

If you don't feel crafty enough to tackle repurposing something, give it to someone who is! A forum with increasing popularity is freecycle.org. Join the group in your area and someone local is guaranteed to pick it up and reuse it. If you want a little money for it, try your local Craigslist.org You don't need an account to post for free on Craigslist, just remember to post it in the correct state and area. Definitely submit a picture with it (of the item, not you...ha ha!) for best results!