2019 Reading Challenge for Kids

I love checking off list.  Each year I look for a reading challenge for myself and see how much of it I can do.  I like that it often pushes me out of what I normally would be reading and usually I find a treasure of a book I wouldn't have read otherwise.  This year I read 15 out of 24 on Book Riot's 2018 Read Harder Challenge, I'm also working my way though the 100 books on The Great American Read, and The Gilmore Girls Book List (339 books).  I may never finish these challenges and that's okay, I do it for fun and to read something different.
It's about time for me to find my 2019 Reading Challenge but as I was thinking about that I thought of all the great Children's books I've read this year and how it might be fun for some kids or even adults to have a reading challenge for children.  I came up with a list of 11 categories that would be fun for parents and children of all ages to do.  This is a great beginner's list that can be applied to preschoolers to go through with their parents or a tween could do if they enjoy lists and reading.  I hope you can find some new favorite books with your kids with this challenge and most of all have fun reading!!

2019 Reading Challenge for Kids:

• A book that make you laugh
• A one word title book
• A favorite children's book of a loved one
• A book with a monkey in it
• A book with a title that starts with the same letter as your first name
• A holiday book
• A book about school
• A book with a blue cover
• A book published in 2019
• A book recommended by a teacher or librarian
• A book about an occupation that is an interest to you

Are you looking for your own adult challenge?  Check out these challenges for 2019:

2019 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Pingelsister.com 2019 Reading Challenge

2019: 52 Books in 52 Weeks

I'd love to hear what books your kids read for each category, you can share with me in the comments below, or join the conversation around children's books and literacy on Facebook.

Rainbow Books

Who doesn't get super excited when they see a rainbow? Kids jump out of their seat, and everyone just takes a minute to admire this art in the sky.  Why not turn your living room, or classroom into a rainbow for an afternoon?  These books, crafts, songs, and activities can help you and your early learners discover all about the colors of the rainbow, plus how to spot one, and enjoy a couple fictional stories that include rainbows.

I'm going to start with what's probably my favorite (so far) non fiction book that has a rainbow in it:

A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman

Copyright 1966

This book is from 1966 but it's timeless.  I think every child can relate to the main character. The boy runs outside to try to capture the rainbow just to find it was gone, then as he's wishing for one of his very own, what should come up behind him but a rainbow ready to play! Then when it's time the rainbow leaves and he goes home to find in his room a rainbow on his wall!

This book keeps the sentences simple so it's great for reading to a group, to small children and on their own for independent reading.  The illustrations are fun, colorful, and entertaining. The yellow rain boot, hat and raincoat are classic.

Don Freeman was a creative mind and opens a doorway between reality to imagination back to reality seamlessly.  This doorway in the book, we can pull from it so many opportunities with our own children:

Where and When do you find a rainbow?

If you had a rainbow for your own what would you do together? (This can be used for all ages: Draw a picture. Tell a story. Write a paragraph of what you'd do together.)

Where would a rainbow hide?

How can you make a rainbow of your own?

These are all questions for fiction and non-fiction learning!  I love this book.  This one book out of all you can do a whole rainbow lesson on.  So if you had to pick only one A Rainbow of My Own would be the one, but to enhance your story-time, or lesson add a couple of the other books I have listed here.

Elmer and the Rainbow by David McKee

Elmer has many books (Elmer 12 Book Set Here ) and if your child already knows this patchwork elephant than this is a book to add to your rainbow lesson.  It is another fiction book.

In this adventure Elmer and his friends notice an odd thing in the sky, a colorless rainbow, so Elmer goes off to find the end of the rainbow.  Along the way he asks his jungle friends to help him in his search.  Once the rainbow end is found Elmer goes and gives the rainbow his own colors.

What I love more than anything in this book is this quote:

"Some things you can give and give and not lose any.  Things like happiness or love...."

Brilliant quote about how kindness is free.  Be Kind! 

We all know that there isn't a patchwork elephant, and that's not how rainbows get their colors, but it is a fun imaginative story that can lead to the question of "Well how do rainbows get their color?" (So glad you asked because I have a book to share with you about just that!!)

Elmer has colors on him that aren't in the rainbow.  Point that out!  What colors are on Elmer that aren't in the rainbow?  What colors are in the rainbow?  This would be a great time to share the song In The Rainbow by Pamela Piersyn.  I love this catchy song that isn't annoying, and is educational!  Good bye ROY-G-BIV. Hello "In the Rainbow" Promise you if you play this song the kids will know all 7 colors of the rainbow!  While I sang and listen to this song with the children I assembled a felt board rainbow.  If you want the children to have a fun rainbow toy so they can use all sight, touch, along with hearing check out this stack-able rainbow toy!  It has all 7 colors so they can build their rainbow with the song as well!!



 Two other books that I used for my All the Colors of the Rainbow lesson were Penguins Love Colors by Sarah Aspinall and Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson

Both of these books are great for helping children learn their colors.  Penguins Love Colors has rainbows throughout the book and each little penguin has their own color, but the downside to this is that there are only 6 penguins instead of 7.  This is quite common in many early learner rainbow books, they don't mention indigo so when the children are older and they are thrown for a surprise that there are really 7 colors.  Don't let this keep your from using this great story because you can ask them what color is missing?

Bear Loves Colors does not have a rainbow anywhere in the whole book!  So why did I put it in my story time?  Simple, it's a FUN book to read aloud with the children.  The rhymes allows you to let the kids yell out what color Bear is going to see next.  It's reinforcing their colors, and allows them to search each page for things of that color.  Bear sees Blue!  Blue berries...and then you can ask "What do you see that's blue?  You can make a scavenger hunt game out of the book for kids to do next time they are outside to see if they can find each thing bear sees, or something in nature of each color.

In my story times after reading these books that reinforce the color names I did a simple song again using all the colors of the rainbow.  I made little finger puppets for each color out of felt and sang:
"Red color. Red Color, Where are you?" and hold up the red puppet "Here I am. Here I am."  I'll admit it came from this video that my daughter watches.
And after you've gone through all seven colors do "rainbow" or "all the colors" for the last verse.


Now that the children know the colors in the rainbow let's go back and answer that question of "how do rainbows get their color?"  The one non fiction book I used was The Rainbow and You by E.C. Krupp

The Rainbow and You is written for an older audience Amazon suggest 6-12 year old. When I used it I had mostly 5-7 age range in my group and so I didn't read it cover to cover but marked a couple pages and read only a few passages to the group.  I love that E.C. Krupp teaches children how to find a rainbow.  He also shares different legends of Rainbows from Native Americans to Greek Gods.  There's also the science and discovery of rainbows in the book.  It's packed full of information.
Robin Rector Krupp illustrated the book and I love how she portrayed Roy. G. Biv as a person! That image will stay will me now every time I think of ROYGBIV.

Since doing my story time I have found other non fiction books about the rainbow that I need to check out and see if any of those will be better suited for the younger children I typically read to. (I've shared them below)  If you are interested or have read these title please let me know what you thought of them in the comments.



 Craft time!  There are countless rainbow crafts out there!  These are the crafts I've done with my kids both very similar :

1

2

1. Construction Paper assemble a rainbow from cloud to pot if you want to do this for St.Patty's day cut out some gold chips to add to it.

2. We did this one at my daughter's preschool:
*cut a paper plate in half***to  implement the reduce and reuse from environment mindfulness post instead of wasting paper plates reuse some old cereal boxes and cut out a cloud shape
* Tissue Paper Streamer
*cotton balls to make the cloud puffy (or puffy paint)
Assemble the rainbow with the materials

3. For older children you can do some painted rocks:
* smooth rocks, paint, paint markers, and seal.  You can use rocks from your garden, or the dollar store as well as the ones I've shared here.  Before you use the rocks wash and let them dry.  If you use dollar store rocks boil them to remove the wax on them.  The paint and paint pens that I've shared below are amazing! But feel free to experiment and find what works best for you.

I hope you have a wonderful colorful day today and maybe you will even find a rainbow of your own!

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo and learn about Mexico with these books

 I gathered several books together to help explain what Cinco de Mayo is and to teach about our southern neighbor.  I love learning about other counties, their languages, food, and culture.  We don't need a holiday or celebration to learn about other cultures, but it does make it fun.

What is Cinco de Mayo? A day of Mexican music, and tacos!  Yes, there is music, and tacos, but there is a reason for this fiesta.  Two books I've found to be informative and easy to read to children explaining Cinco de Mayo are Marco's Cinco de Mayo by Lisa Bullard and Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with the Mexican Hat Dance.

Marco's Cinco de Mayo


Written by Lisa Bullard
Illustrated by Holli Conger

This cute children's book follows Marco as he tells us about his family as Mexican Americans.  He is a dancer in the celebration and is worried about his steps so his cousin tells him the history of Cinco de Mayo. The book shows how he celebrates the day.

The story is easy to read, and I like that there are purple fact bubbles on almost every page that goes into more detail.  You can read the story without the bubbles and still get the picture if you are reading to a large group, and just point out some additional facts, but if you are reading one on one take the time to read those bubbles in more depth.

The illustrations help tell the story and will keep the children's attention, they are well done and colorful.

At the end of the book there are resources and activities for you to do with your family or students.  There are directions to make your own maracas, a glossary, a list of other books, and websites to visit to learn Spanish.


Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with the Mexican Hat Dance


written by F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada
Translated by Joe Hayes and Sharon Franco
Illustrated by Marcela Gomez and David Silva

My girls and I doing the hat dance

This is a two part book.  Part one is a story, song, and dance for the Mexican Hat Dance.  The story follows a class as they learn the dance, tell about how they prepared for their celebration and put on a show.  Personally after trying to pronounce "jarabe tapatio" and failing to do so I decided that I didn't need this part for my lesson and skipped to the second part of the book.  The illustrations are full of color and tell the story better than I could read it.

Gather your class together or your kids at home and do the Mexican Hat dance!  It's easy to learn, and fun to do.  Don't be surprised if you have the song stuck in your head after.

The second part of this small book is my favorite.  "What is Cinco de Mayo?"  This part goes more in depth than Marco's Cinco de Mayo, explaining more of the history, why there are celebrations in the United States for this holiday that's in a different country, and what families do and eat on May 5th.

I love that illustrations are incorporated around actual photographs in this section of the book.  On the first page you can ask what the children see as part of Mexican culture, and continue on as you read, see if the children have seen any of these same sights. In the back of the book credits they have a thumbnail of each photo and tell you who the photographer was, where it was taken, and what it's of.

Between these two books I've learned a lot about Cinco de Mayo along with the children.  So before I go on to my other books let me share with you not everything that is in the books but to answer what this holiday is about.

Spain use to rule Mexico, until 1821 when after more than a decade of fighting Mexico had won it's freedom.  Then in 1861 the French invaded Mexico, the French army was much bigger than the Mexican.  On May 5. 1862 at the Battle of Puebla, Mexico had a victory.  This win did not win the war for Mexican army, but it gave them all hope.  Not in these children's book is the details that this was taking place during the same time as the United States Civil War (1861-1865) and that Napoleon III was ruling France.  Napoleon pulled his forces from Mexico in 1866, and the last of the French troops who stayed behind were executed in 1867.

Cinco de Mayo is not celebrating Mexico's independence, but rather their resilience.  It's celebrating that one victory that gave them hope.

Did you know that there are parts of the US where the Cinco de Mayo celebrations are larger than they are in Mexico?

Now that we know about Cinco de Mayo let's learn and teach about Mexico.
Off We Go To Mexico! An Adventure in the Sun


Written by Laurie Krebs
Illustrated by Christopher Corr

This book is wonderful!  If there was one book for young children that I had to recommend above all the others to learn about Mexico it would be this one.    Laurie Krebs has done a great job taking children on a journey through Mexico.  Done in short three sentence stance, with fun rhymes, it's an easy read that delivers culture, and sights.  From mountains, to the beach Laurie Krebs shows us Mexico.  On the page opposite the verse are four words that she translates from English to Spanish so you can either read the book cover to cover without using the Spanish words, or take your time and point out the train in the illustration and translate to "el tren."

The illustrations are full double page spread, showing the part of the culture and geography that is talked about on that page.  They are engaging and colorful.

I love that at the end of the book there is a map showing Mexico and you can point out the Ocean, and the countries that border Mexico.  Also there are a couple pages that share facts about Mexico, their large holidays (Cinco de Mayo is not listed in there, and did you know that their Independence Day is really a two day celebration?!)  There's a great spread that shares the history of Mexico going back to 10,000 B.C. up to present.  They are short paragraphs about each time period. Then on the very last page there are a couple more basic Spanish phrases.

This is a book about Mexico that you can pull out and use any time of year.


For older children, if they are working on a project about Mexico or just want more information I have to share with you The Land and the People MEXICO by Cath Senker.


This book is packed full of all sorts of information about Mexico.  It covers everything from history, the economy, the people, the rain forest, the climate, the culture and more.  There are photographs on every page for what it looks like in real life, and each section has a paragraph or so about different things having to do with the main topic for that page.  For example Go Wild! is about the wildlife in and around Mexico.  They talk about vultures, mountain lions, Jaguars, armadillos, Marlin, along with other fish, birds, and animals and their habitats. 
For my family story time I'm only picking out a few facts out of the book to share with the kids because it's not a read aloud book, not a story time one, but one older kids would enjoy and use for reports and to gain more insight.  The pictures are great and I will be showing them off because I think younger children will enjoy flipping through the pages to see the sights.


I hope this gave you a good start and insight into Mexico and gives you something to share with your family for Cinco de Mayo if you chose to celebrate or learn more about it.

Before I go I want to leave you with some more resources, some links where I got additional information.

7 Facts you might not know about Cinco de Mayo
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cinco-de-mayo
Battle of Puebla



I hope those books help you explore Mexico, and learn about Cinco de Mayo.  If you want some props for your own fiesta check out these below

Tenga un buen dia!

Have a great day!

My Cousin MoMo

The 2018 Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child is My Cousin Momo by Zachariah OHora


So what is Pennsylvania One Book?  Direct quote taken off the back cover of my book is a program that "encourages adults to read daily to the young children in their lives and to engage children in conversations and experiences around the story and illustrations."

I love this.  Each year they pick a new book and many of the preschools, and libraries have the book, do story times, meet the author, and have special activities.  The whole point is to bring about more reading to children, get them excited and relating to books.  I know Pennsylvania isn't the only state to do this so check your state to see if they have a "One Book"  if you want more information about this program,  and about the author check out their site www.paonebook.org

Zachariah OHora has gotten the PA One Book before, in 2012 with his book Stop Snoring, Bernard!.  He clearly is a great story teller for small kids. My Cousin MoMo originally came out in 2015 and from talking to librarians it was already a well liked book and everyone was excited to talk about MoMo.

The story is about MoMo who comes for a visit, he's a bit shy at first and has his own way of doing things.  His cousins make him feel weird for being different and feeling like they don't want him there.  Then when they realized how they hurt MoMo's feelings they try things his way and they all have a great time.

Photo take by my 5yr old

The book is super easy to read, each page only has one or two short sentences.  It's easy to keep the attention of younger kids.  Wednesday I got to go into my daughter's Head Start and read this book to two groups of preschoolers.  Now I love curling up and reading to my daughter but it was so much fun reading to a large group of 3-5 year olds.  I had them "help" me read by filling in the blanks, predicting what would happen, and telling me the emotions they saw.  I started off asking them if they liked the book to put their hands on their head.  Then I'd say "My Cousin ...." they all yelled "MoMo." It was adorable.  One little boy even told me the author!  It was so much fun reading to the class.


The illustrations are also my Mr OHora and are colorful, large, and engaging.  They tell just as much of the story as the text does.

Part of the PA One Book program is to engage in conversation and activities about and around the book.  My Cousin MoMo offers so much to talk about as you're reading the book, emotions, where do they live, what did they find while playing hide and seek, have you ever felt like MoMo did, and so on.  But the learning and lessons don't end once the book is finish.  We watched videos about flying squirrels.  Part of my daughter's homework was to make a squirrel out of a paper bag and use whatever we wanted to make it unique.  My older daughter thought that was fun so we made a family night out of this with each of them making their own squirrel and I had my older daughter make up a story to go with hers that we talked about over diner.  It was a neat being in the school and seeing how different each squirrel was.  You can go out and play hide and seek MoMo style (which being a fan of hiking and photography I love MoMo's way!)  You can talk about cousins, how is a cousin related to you? Family tree.  How many cousins do you have, and where are they from?  The best part of these activites? They don't require anything you don't have already.  You can make up your how superhero too!  MoMo was Muffin Man.  What does Muffin Man do? Have kids tell a story about Muffin Man.

While at the school I also joined in a game with the kids. The game taught them to take turns, collect different color acorns and try to be the first to fill their log.  It was cute and would make a cute additional game to go with this book if you're interested you can find it here:

The Bottom Line: 

The Story: Was simple, engaging, and had depth.

The Illustrations:  Colorful, and aided the text.

The Lesson: Be Kind to one another, try new things, and it's okay to be different

In the comments tell me something you and your kids tried after reading My 

Cousin MoMo.

On a side note, my daughter dressed up as a superhero and I had to share.  She is Aqua Girl, with the power to make rain for grass to grow, and shoot rainbows from her eyes.   

Library Books about Library Books!

It's no surprise we love our library so with National Library Week I had to share some great books that are about libraries, and library books.

As avid readers and parents of young children who we want to raise to be well read, we know how important our libraries are.  They offer us a wealth of knowledge, resources, and tons of books!  Even if the library you go do doesn't have the book you want chances are the librarian there can get the book to you by seeing if they can borrow the book you want from another library!

My library is one of my favorite places to go.  The people who work there have become my friends, they are friendly and extremely helpful.  There are always all sorts of programs going on, from story times, to book clubs, and art classes and various groups meeting.  I could go on for the whole post talking about all the things the library offers and all the ways the library rocks, but the biggest thing is how much money it saves me.  Let's face it, it would cost a fortune to buy every book that my children and I have read!  Without the library our literacy would be much lower.  We on average check out between 10-20 children's books per week and about 2 books for myself each month. I love to own books, I will buy favorite books on Amazon, I love to hit the book store, and I devour book sales I bring home more books to keep than I should, but in my defense, I will read them ALL one day!  If I do some math tho and say we read 50 children's books each month and figure the cost of each is between $5-$15 typically (for easy math I'm going to say $10 each book) That's $500 just on the cost of books I read to the kids.  No family can afford that.  Library cards are FREE! And you can take home $100 worth of books each week, read them, and return them, get and get new ones to enjoy.

I am going to share with you only some of the books that share the reasons we love libraries and talk about books in libraries, there are many more books that I could list for you.


1. Library Lilyby Gillian Shields
                    Illustrated by Francesca Chessa
                     copyright 2011

This little girl and her best friend are two kids after my own heart!  Lily at first is only interested in books, and reads all the time.  A fellow bookworm! Her mother forces her to put down her book and play at the park where she meets another girl who doesn't like to read *gasp!* Soon the two girls make friends, Lily shares her love of reading and her new friend shares her love of actually doing things.

My kids and I could relate to the two friends so well.  I am always reading, I have a book with me wherever I go.  While reading about adventures is a wonderful way to experience things and places you might never actually do, as people we need to interact with other people and go on our own adventures.  We try to find books ourselves that relate to things that we want to do or are going to do, then after reading about it we go out and do it.  It's a great way to get kids interested in reading and relate it to their own world.  Example: We want to have a garden, we will be getting books about gardening and reading and learning about how to garden, then put what we learn to work.

How does this book support the library?  Aside from the title of course.  Lily spends much of her time at the library.  The first page of the book tells about the library, and why Lily loves going there.  A child who loves to read as much as Lily needs that library card so they can read all the books.  Then when her new friend is finally interested in books they get her a library card as well.

The book was fun and fast paced.

Francesca Chessa filled the book with cute colorful illustrations that keeps the attention of children.

2. The Library by Sarah Stewart
              Illustrated by David Small
               copyright 1995


How could I not share a cute story that is the dream of most bibliophiles? I know I dream of having my own huge library in my house, in my mind it has always looked like the one from Beauty and the Beast, I have had to come to reality and lower my standards some, but this book The Library has given me a new idea!

Sarah Stewart has written a wonderfully cute story about a little girl who is the definition of bibliophile although she doesn't use that term.  Like Lily above, Elizabeth Brown has no other interest it seems other than reading.  This is the only down side of the book is that it doesn't make for a well rounded person whereas Lily does go out and do things.  Elizabeth doesn't play, or date, and even shopping trips and household chores are done haphazardly!  I made the comment to my daughter, audiobooks would have been a huge help to Elizabeth Brown!

The story is told in rhyme, and is easy, fun, and funny to read.  David Small did a great job bringing the comic side to the story with his colorful illustrations and cute doodles next to the text.  The wonderful art will keep the child's attention and adds a great depth to the story.  The book is one that any child will enjoy from older toddlers and up.

Sarah Stewart dedicated to the memory of the real Mary Elizabeth Brown who was a librarian.  I did a couple searches trying to find more info on her.  This book is a work of fiction, but I was hoping to find that it was based on a true story.  I did not find that anything to confirm this which made me a little sad.  It would have been nice to have planed a road trip to the house of someone who did give their house and book collection to the town.  The good news here is that there are other books that are based on true stories about libraries. Which brings me to my next book....

3. Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library! by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter
                                             Illustrated by: Steve James
                                                   copyright: 2009

This is a non fiction book, that is written like fiction.  It's based on the adult non fiction book Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by the same authors.  Dewey is on my to be read list! Since I have not read the adult book and can't tell you how that is, let me tell you about this adorable children's book.

What is it with cats and books?  In the illustrations from The Library, along with many other books along the same lines there are cats.  It seems that there is an uncanny link between books and cats.  Maybe it's that cats love to curl up with us and are content to be lazy and let us read with their company.

Dewey is was left in the book drop of the library in Spencer, Iowa.  The librarian cleans him up and he is named Dewey Readmore Books and he is given a new home at the library.  The children find him and enjoy his company, along with other patrons.  The story is told about his journey around the library and how he learns how he can make a difference there.

Vicki Myron and Bret Witter have done a great job making this an easy to read, cute story for children.  Steve James I believe used watercolors to do the illustrations because it has a dreamy feel to the images.  I love the colors and how they capture a child's attention.  Dewey is an adorable cat and you just melt into his adorable kitten face and laugh at his playful antics that are illustrated.

The first time I read it I felt let down by the ending.  There's this little girl that Dewey tries to cheer up and his usual antics don't work and then finally he makes her laugh and she gives him a big hug and he say "This is it...I'm a REAL library cat"  I wanted more at the end.  Like many good stories you're never ready to come to the end.  I was expecting the ending to be more along the line of him being a reading support animal that she is struggling to read and then reads to him and becomes more confident.  After I let this go and read the story again I realized that Dewey was there to make the patrons happy, and that's just what he did.

If you have a reluctant reader, or a child who is struggling I highly recommend looking into reading support animals like Tail Waggin' Tutors

4. But Excuse Me That is My Book (Charlie and Lola) by Lauren Child
                                               copyright: 2006

Most children can relate to having a favorite book.  As a parent you own this beloved book and have read it over and over and over, to the point that you don't even need to have the book with you and you can recite it word for word.  I feel you!  This beloved book does change as children grow, for us it's an every couple month thing.  If this is your child you they will relate to But Excuse Me That is My Book! 

This little girl, Lola, has her favorite book, it's the book she check out from the library all the time.  But one day she goes to the library and someone else is checking out her book!  Oh no!  As the story goes on Lola's sister tries to show her other books at the library and she does end up finding another book that she loves.

This is what libraries and librarians are for.  If you have a favorite book, they will help you find other similar books, either by the same author or on the same topic.  Our children's librarians are amazing!  They are always willing to share the knowledge they have.  For example if you like But Excuse Me That is My Book you should check out A Library Book for Bear by Bonny Becker because Bear has the same problem as Lola, he has a favorite book, and a favorite subject, so why should he go to the library, and then he finds the perfect new book!

Both of these books are fun to read and have such different but similar charters that have great read aloud personalities.
Lola "I want that book now, now , NOW!"
Bear, "A trip to the library is completely unnecessary, I have all the books I need."



5. Curious George Visits the Library by Margret Rey
                                             Illustrated by: Martha Weston
                                                 copyright: 2003

I've told you before how I love books that are also children's TV shows.  Curious George is one of the TV shows that I still at the age of 30 get caught up in.  The little monkey is super cute and his curious adventures are always entertaining.  It comes as no surprise then that we have read our way through the Curious George books that the library has and Curious George Visits the Library is my favorite out of all of them!

Curious George is so relatable to children, what child during story time has found it hard to wait for a certain book to be read?  Or gotten stir crazy sitting still?  Story times and special programs are always enjoyable at the library, and they do keep kids attention span in mind with songs and activities between books, yet still some little ones might find their attention drawn elsewhere.

The part where George starts pulling book after book off the shelves reminds me of most trips we take to our own library "Oh look there's a book about a horse! and one about the beach! Oh and of course we need a Piggie and Elephant book!"  We often leave with our bag filled.


The illustrations are classic.  Even being published in the 2000's Martha Weston has stayed true to what we expect to see in all Curious George books.  Colorful, fun, attention grabbing drawings that help tell the story and add laughter in George's antics.

The books have been around for more than 75 years!  That is a very long life span of a single character.  It's an impressive legacy to have for anyone.  Want to know more about the history of Curious George? Check out Curious about George it's a surprising and insightful article about Han Augusto (H.A.) Rey and his wife Margret, and how they created this monkey that is still capturing the hearts of children today.


These books I've shared with you are only a starting point.  There are over 100 children's books listed on Goodreads for Picture Books About the Library.  Also you might like to check out these other blogs for more:
11 Memorable Children's books about Libraries and Librarians
Favorite Stories about Libraries and Librarians
Don't worry adults there are plenty of books that are for us as well!  Check out these links:
Book Riot's 100 must read books about libraries and bookstores
BookBub's 11 Books that will make you Love the library even more

If you are someone who likes to keep track of what you're reading or make a to-be-read list check out some of these awesome book journals for adults:

Be sure to visit your library during National Library Week, and let the people working there know how much it means to have such a valuable resource in your community and how great they are doing!