Another book for kids who love trains.  Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo by Kevin Lewis, (Illustrated by Daniel Kirk, Hyperion, 1999).

And we’re off for a day of adventure with a toy train  and all his toy passengers as they travel through the playroom.  Bright, cheery graphics, fun rhyme and a great refrain make this an especially fun read-aloud book.  And the train takes the reader all the way to bedtime with a little boy sleeping with his toy train by his side: 

Move over Beatrix Potter because Little Rabbit is one cute bunny.   I just finished Little Rabbit Goes to School (Peachtree, 2004) and really for me, it’s all about the illustrations.  The story’s cute, yes, but this is a book I’d get for the illustrations. 

The Little Rabbit books tell about typical joys and fears of childhood:  the excitement of a birthday, getting lost at “Rabbit World,” not wanting to share, the desire to be “big.”  Little Rabbit Goes to School begins, “When Little Rabbit woke up, he knew that it was a special day.  Today was his first day of school.” 

But it’s the illustrations that enchant.  Little Rabbit with his thirteen or so siblings in their snug rabbit house at the foot of a giant tree.  And Little Rabbit is pretty much irresistible in his little jumpsuit complete with hat shaped like bunny ears.  He wears them 24/7, and it’s a good thing he does.  Otherwise we’d get him mixed up with all the other bunnies hopping around on these pages.  Just as mischievous and charming as his literary ancestor, Little Rabbit is a 21st century Peter Rabbit, and every bit as winsome.

(And winsome is the perfect word here.  [win-suh m] adj.: sweetly or innocently charming; winning; engaging.)

In an ideal world, we’d all have hours to sit on the couch reading books to our children.  In an ideal world, we’d also have children who are always cheerful and obedient and never have problems with sleeping through the night, toilet-training, wrecking the car, or getting a full-ride scholarship to college either.  But since we don’t live in an ideal world (it sounds a bit Orwellian anyway), here’s a website I just discovered.  It might be a good option for those times you can’t–or don’t want (perhaps because you are engrossed in a novel of your own?!?)–to sit and read with your kiddos.

www.speakaboos.com is a website that has read-aloud books for kids.  You can listen to the books for free or buy and download them, just like Itunes, for 99 cents a piece.  Stories are read by “celebrity” authors like Kelly Ripa (sorry, no Zac Ephron yet).  The words are printed at the bottom of each page,  so kids can follow along as the story is read.  Great for those who are learning how to read. 

The website has several Arthur books, including one read by author Marc Brown, folk and fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and holiday stories.  They add new material regularly.  The site also has a fun feature where you can record your voice reading the story.  Voila!  Mom and Dad are now celebrities too.  Just think of yourselves as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

Check it out and let us know what you think . . .

So now that Barak Obama has been elected president, I bet your kids are asking you, “So, what does the  President do all day?” (besides talk on TV, of course)  Ok, maybe not.  But if your kids were to ask you, what would you say?

Lane Smith answers this profound question in Madame President (Hyperion, 2008).  A president is a very important person, especially if the president happens to be a kid.  “There are executive orders to give” (Madame President shouts for more waffles) and “treaties to negotiate” (she makes her dog and cat stop fighting).  A president gets to use her veto power (veto to tuna casserole for lunch–veto, veto, veto), and she holds press conferences (oral reports for school).

And for all you American Idol fans, Madame President even has her own theme song.  You know the tune as “Hail to the Chief,” but in case you’ve forgotten the lyrics, Lane Smith reminds you:

So move over Barak Obama.  Madame President has come to town!  She may not have a stimulus package, but she’s got an awesome Secretary of Agriculture (Mr. Potato Head) not to mention a Secretary of Fantasy (a flying unicorn) and that’s a whole lot more fun.

Like historical fiction?  Then try Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon & Schuster, 2008).  It looks at slavery from a different vantage point, that of the American Revolutionary War.

With their mother dead and their father sold long ago, thirteen year old Isabel and her younger sister Ruth are slaves at the mercy of their mistress in Rhode Island.  Although she promised to free the children after her death, their mistress’ greedy relative sells them to a cold, cruel family.  They arrive with their new masters, the Locktons of New York, just prior to the city’s siege and occupation by the British.  Since Isabel’s new master is a powerful and wealthy Loyalist, Isabel is asked to spy for the Patriots.  She does this thinking that she will then be freed as a reward for her information. 

But Isabel soon discovers that the principles of freedom, liberty, and justice that the Patriots speak of so fervently don’t apply to her.  Isabel has to decide–should she support the Revolution? 

The perspective in this book is fascinating.  I often think of slavery as a “Southern thing,” forgetting how widespread it was in the North.  In the appendix, Anderson points out that in 1771 New York was the second largest city in the American colonies (Philadelphia was the largest), and roughly 22% of the city’s population were black slaves. Slavery didn’t end in New York until 1827. 

Anderson also does a great job, both in the novel and the appendix, showing the contrast between what the colonists said and what they did.  At one point in the story Isabel (who has been taught to read) encounters Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.  She learns “Americans had good cause to overthrow their British masters, a person born to wealth was not born to rule over others, and ’twas good and proper to fight injustice” (p. 262).  She, of course, views these words in the context of her own enslavement.  She is right to fight; she is right to try to escape.

Anderson also brings up many of the complexities of the slavery issue.  Thomas Jefferson wrote that he abhorred slavery, yet he owned them.  The British freed slaves of Patriots, but returned runaway slaves to their Loyalist masters.  The young United States developed a patchwork of contradictory laws regarding slavery that came to a bitter head in the Civil War.  Some might say that only now, in 2008 with the election of Barak Obama as president, have we really begun to embrace racial equality. 

Chains has been nominated as a National Book Award Finalist (among other awards).  Anderson’s other books have won numerous awards as well.  In my local library, Chains is shelved under the “Teen Fiction” section, but I think the book is appropriate for younger children too.

First, let me hasten to say that this book isn’t just for babies.  However, Freight Train  (HarperCollins, 1978) is a great picture book for babies.  It’s also a book that can grow with your baby.  

Donald Crews won a Caldecott Medal for Freight Train.  It’s got a sleek, graphic arts feel as page by page it moves us along the tracks from railroad car to railroad car:  ”Red caboose at the back, Orange tank car next” right up to the “Black steam engine.”  The book teaches about trains, colors, motion, opposites like country and city, day and night-and all in just twenty-two pages.

Not all my children loved trains (although one particular little boy did!), but they all loved this book.  Our well-worn picture copy is a paperback, but I’ve also seen Freight Train as a board book in two different sizes.  I just bought it for a new baby, a baby boy who just might love trains.

There is something magical about a child learning to read.  It’s like that first smile, those first words, those first steps.  A child can’t read at all and then one day . . . some of the words make sense.  And then a few more.  And then a few more.  And next thing you know, the kid can read!    

Author Mo Willems is probably best known for his “Pigeon” books.  Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus was a 2004 Caldecott Honor Book.  But the author/illustrator also has a great beginning reader series—his “Elephant and Piggie” books.  There are seven books so far in the series starring . . . as you may have guessed, Elephant and Piggie (although rambunctious little squirrels pop up here and there as well). 

I just finished I Love My New Toy and I Will Surprise My Friend.  These books have just a few words per page, lots of word repetition and

dramatic fonts!! 

to show when a character is really angry or wildly happy or just about ready to explode with emotion!!  (as children often are, I might add).   Great for learning to read.

Mo’s beginning readers tells about everyday experiences like broken toys, hide-and-seek, sharing, and other injustices.  But what I love best about these books are the characters’ facial expressions and body language: an angry tornado smudged above Piggie’s head, a zombie-stunned look of surprise, two friends who cling to each other as they cry ”WHAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”  Mo’s ability to create nuanced emotion with such simple drawings is really impressive. 

Any other beginning reader suggestions?   Post a comment.