August 10 for 10: Picture Book Event is Here

Welcome and thanks for stopping by to see my list of 10 must have picture books!  Before I begin, I would like to thank my friend Cathy at Reflect and Refine:  Building a Learning Community for wondering what my list of 10 picture books would be to have and use with students.  As soon as I started thinking about books for "my" list, I realized I have way more than 10 I could choose but  narrowing it down to 10 has made me think, reflect, justify, enjoy, and remember.  This list reflects memories in and out of the classroom.  This list reflects time spent with children doing what I've wanted to do since I was in high school.  This list reflects positive thoughts and that is a great way to start any school year!

My list is not in a ranking order, I've just numbered them to make sure I stop at 10!

1.(a)  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Eric Carle changed my life in college!  I was sitting in my reading methods course at SUNY College at Buffalo when Dr. Phelps read this book in class.  I was introduced to a predictable pattern, shared reading, Eric Carle, collage hand made papers, turning the page slightly ahead of the text to encourage student participation and I'm sure much more.  I remember thinking this was much more fun and engaging than the basal readers and reading groups I grew up with.  I've never had a group of students who didn't fall in love with this book.

   (b)  From Head to Toe, by Eric Carle.   If you need a book for a shared reading and book for movement than this is it, hands down!  The illustrations are Eric Carle's delightful style.  The text is engaging and I've found my students like to read it in a question and response format.  I read the question and they respond.  Each time I reread this book this year I found joy in watching my students act out the text just like the animals.  I think a couple of times we read it because I enjoyed watching the students move.

2.  Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins is book I used this year for mathematics, when we were working on directional words.  The students enjoyed it so much we retold it through painting the different places Rosie goes.  We were building a map and created labels through interactive writing.  When we mounted our mural for a retelling, we used Velcro for Rosie and she could move along the mural as she does in the story.

3.  Me Hungry! by Jeremy Tankard is a complete delight to read and use with students.  I reviewed Me Hungry earlier this year and it was a hit in our room right away.  I instantly thought this book would be great for my boys and found out boys and girls would both enjoy it.  I actually looked for my copy tonight in my room and it has disappeared.  I may be ordering my own copy from this post.

4.  Big Mama's by Donald Crews is one of my favorite mentor text for writing.  He writes about things from his own life and turns it into a story for others.  Visiting Big Mama is a pretty normal thing to do and our children need to see writing about everyday things can be just right.

5.  Which brings me to The Three Bears by Byron Barton.  I just ENJOY reading this book to students.  The text is simple and repetitive and for whatever reason my inflection is top notch.  (if I say so myself)  I think the simple collage technique is an easy one for students to see and replicate.  I love to help children figure out there's one color for each character that gets repeated in clothing and objects.

6.  Cornelius P Mud, Are You Ready for School?  by Barney Saltzberg was a review I did about a year ago.  As we reread this book we really noticed humor within the illustrations and had to infer.  Cornelius is a great character for young students, they can connect with him.  He has three books, a little series for young readers. Which opens doors for more books for my readers.

7.  Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox is about older people, it's about spending time with them, it's about memories.  Memories give us ideas for writing.  I think we need to work harder and bridge the gap between our young and old.   

8.  Mouse Views, What the Class Pet Saw by Bruce McMillan is a great photo essay about perspective.  It's also a question/answer format.  It's a great mentor text to create your own from a tour in your classroom or the library.  I shared this book with my librarian years ago and he made his own version of our library to introduce the students to different things in our library.

9.  Ish by Peter Reynolds is a must have for any classroom to embrace the arts and the differences between artist capabilities.  It encourages the reader to look at things in a different way, with a different lens. 

10.  Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin is on my list of ten but as a prediction!  Yes, I love this book that much that I am willing to make a prediction with it.  You have to hear the tune and your own feet won't stop movin and groovin.  I just recently reviewed Pete the Cat this summer and have yet to buy my Pete the Cat tshirt but it's in my plans for the school year.  I bet you will want one too!

Thanks for stopping by.  If you created your own list of ten please leave me a comment so I can add it to our round up.  I will do a round up in a list format here as the day goes on.  Cathy is doing a jog, don't worry you won't need running shoes to participate.  My round up will start to come mid afternoon after I make some batches of peach jam.  I have to use up the bushel I picked on Sunday.

ENJOY!