Lizzie adores to read and have me read her books. If she is in the right mood for it, she will get her book down and flip through the pages, making up her own story or trying to retell it just like she heard it.
But there are lots of books sitting on my shelf because they are either too above her level – too many words on a page and not enough interesting pictures – or too below her level. When I take her to the library I don’t know what to do, overwhelmed with our choices. I want to encourage her to love reading and the only way to do that is to pick out age appropriate books and learn how to use them correctly to teach her other things at the same time.
Little One Books is a very helpful online store that organizes and recommends books, music and videos for specific age groups. Barney Cohen and Joan McCoy are the founders of Little One Books, and also grandparents. In addition to creating recommendations for specific age groups they add a small review about the specific book and why they approved it for that age child. They also keep up blog filled with personal stories and helpful hints. Their latest blog post (September 3rd) is about Joan’s experience with her grand daughter’s pre school. I found I related to it in a big way.
To help me with this review I was given the opportunity to browse the website and pick any book for Lizzie or David. I spent so much time browsing the pages of books and most of the books for 3 year olds Lizzie does indeed love! (Like if You Give a Pig a Pancake and Click Clack Moo Cows that Type). And the little snippets below the description of the book, “Why We Chose This Book,” provided me with so much information that I felt prepared to enjoy the book with Lizzie and engage in the fun of learning at the same time.
When I saw this book I knew Lizzie would love it, and their review of it was dead on:
“This is certainly a book to be picked up frequently over the course of many years, so your child is bound to memorize their favorite stories. It is fun to take turns ‘reading’ one another the stories, looking over the pictures together, and pose questions like, “Who is your favorite princess,” “What would you bring to Mickey’s picnic,” or “Do you think you could have pulled the sword from the stone?” Your little one will be able to follow the different plots of each story, name the characters, and work on their beginner reading skills.”
Lizzie asks for her favorite stories every bedtime. She learned how to use a table of contents.
Plus, if you have family or friends that live far away and you want to send them something educational that they will be sure to love you can browse their site, find the perfect book and they have gift wrapping options too. Because, let’s face it, I hate buying books for friend’s kids only to find out later I bought something below their level they ended up giving away.
I was given the book to review. All opinions are my own, others might have different experiences.
she is just ,,, wow… 2 years away from when you were reading novels. WOW annie just think of that. WOW
Awww! I would love that book you reviewed! But I’m a girl.
Hunter likes train books. Like in depth train books. Or about model trains. He does love his Jack and the Bean Stalk book and sometimes when we are outside he will yell and scream that the giant is coming lol. He was beating a bush one day with a stick saying he was chopping down the beanstalk.
My daughter loves “Just Like Mama” and her Brobee book (Yo Gabba Gabba). With autistic children, we often have to “tweak” the story for them, but those 2 can be read pretty much, as is, for her.
Lauren loves books, and Jillian absolutely LOVES having people read to her! I’ll have to look for that book!
Cool thanks for sharing!
What a wonderful site! It’s so great that it is organized in such a way it makes it easy to find books based on age and category. Off to check it out for my two. Thanks!