Snow Dude

This book is so engaging for kids.  The snow dude is adorable, which is what caught my attention to begin with.  Kids will love snow dude as well as the rest of the pictures.  The rhyming text makes it fun as the characters chase snow dude through the town.  A quick read, but tons of pictures to engage your child even further.  I originally got it for my 2 year old, but even my older girls picked it up, read it, and said they liked it.

Great Books for Twos: Five Trucks by Brian Floca

This book has been in heavy rotation at our house since we picked it up at the library last week. A great choice for indulging your favorite two-year-old's interest in transportation: Floca's simple story tells of five trucks that work to ready an airplane for take-off. The text is very simple - only a sentence per page, while the pictures are more realistic. The story is still very engaging. Parents and caregivers will appreciate that the drivers are both male and female and seem to be of several different ethnic backgrounds. Adults will also appreciate some of the details in the images, like the driver whose truck is littered with coffee cups and the luggage box marked "fragile" that looks like it's been run over by a truck!

This is a great book to tie into real life experiences of visiting an airport or travelling on a plane. Talk with your child about other trucks that "work" to make our lives easier, then pick up some books featuring them - fire trucks, garbage trucks, and construction trucks are easy to find in picture books. For another great truck book see this post.

Making the Transition: Chapter Books

For those parents bridging their children into the world of chapter books, the task can be a bit daunting. A few ideas:

• Before your child is ready to read the books for themselves, begin by modeling the reading to your children -- read chapter books to them, a bit each day, so they get used to following a changing plot line through the course of several days.


• Start with books like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Betsy, Tacy, Tib, or Encyclopedia Brown, where each chapter is like a mini-story, with central characters present in each section.


• Read books to your children you liked as a child. When you share books you adore, your children are ripe for the same magic you remember.


• Select books that still have a few illustrations. (We all love pictures.)


• Don't forget the voices during read-alouds!


• Take turns: one night they'll read, the next night you read.


• If you are reading a book aloud over the course of many weeks, choose books where your children have already seen the movie. This will help them from getting lost in the story or forgetting what has already happened.
  

One of my favories for Christmastime is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Tell me you remember it. It's an absolute classic!

(P.S. And don't forget to talk about the book as you go -- why the characters made the decisions they did, and what your child predicts may happen next.)

Great Books for Two-Year-Olds: Freight Train by Donald Crews

Seems like every two-year-old, boy or girl, loves trains. Freight Train by Donald Crews is sure to be a hit. This simple, engaging book features the bright colors of a rainbow-hued train and the straightforward illustrations (that still offer very interesting perspectives on the activities of a train) are perfect for toddlers and young preschoolers. Adults should be able to appreciate the artistry in the pictures too, as this was a Caldecott honor book in 1978. There's very little text in this book - sometimes just a few words on a page, so this is a title that young children can start "reading" on their own - they will have it memorized before long.

Take the train theme further and sing train songs, make a rainbow train out of construction paper like the one in the book, or take a pretend train ride in a cardboard box train. If your child is interested in transportation, check out some of Donald Crews' other books, like School Bus or Truck.

Great Books for Two-Year-Olds: Trucks: Whizz! Zoom! Rumble!

My daughter turned two this weekend, and this momentous birthday inspired me to start a new series here on On the Lap. One of the most frequent requests I got as a children's librarian in public libraries was for books appropriate for toddlers. Children this age respond so well to simple stories, rhyming text, and interesting, but uncluttered pictures. However, books meeting that criteria aren't always easy to find on library or book store shelf. Too often, parents turn to books that are too long, too simple (baby board books), or too familiar (like the same "character" books over and over). In this series, I'll feature some books that particularly appeal to the not-a-baby but not-yet-a-preschooler set.

Trucks: Whizz! Zoom! Rumble! by Patricia Hubbell and illustrated by Megan Halsey is a great book to share with a two-year-old. First of all, the subject matter is perfect to appeal to these little guys (and girls - let's not let gender prevent us from sharing any book with a child!). The text is simple, rhyming, and includes some repetition. All different kinds of trucks are driving on the long, long road. The illustrations are more detailed than most two-year-olds will catch on to (each truck's driver matches the truck's purpose, and there's a lot of special, vintage-y details), but clear enough that a young child will be interested. Bonus for parents-the trucks "rest" at the end of their work, making this a good naptime/bedtime book!