February is I Love to Read Month, and we’ve put together a list of the best books to help you celebrate. Dawn LaBrosse, youth services librarian for Washington County Library, suggests some of her favorite reads for kiddos of every age.
Babies/Toddlers/Preschool
Baby Baby Baby! by Marilyn Janovitz
At first glance, this book may seem like any other baby book, but when we look closer we can see just how much it offers. The story is about everyday things babies do, and babies and young children love this because they can recognize the commonalities between themselves and the baby in the book. Parents will love the alliteration and repetition that is so important in language development. Plus, it’s a board book, which means that little ones can put this book through the wringer and back again and it’ll survive.
Moo! by David LaRochelle
This book has been critically acclaimed; it won the Minnesota Book Award and was named as first selection for the statewide early literacy program, Once Upon a Reader. It’s completely comprised of one word: moo. Using different punctuation, varying numbers of “o’s” in the word and accompanying the illustrations, readers are prompted to tell the story of a rebellious cow through the use of varying voice inflection. There’s also a Moo! movie online at onceuponareader.org.
Beginning Readers
Busy Bunny Days by Britta Teckentrup
It’s the Where’s Waldo? of this generation, and then some. This book features colorful pages bursting with activity and an endless amount of detail. The same setting graces every few pages, but the animal characters move on each page, showing a full day’s schedule. Readers can then go through and follow each unique story; this isn’t a book that is quickly exhausted. Follow animals in the town, on the farm, and at the port in this beautifully illustrated, instantly lovable book.
Urgency Emergency! Itsy Bitsy Spider by Dosh Archer
We all think we know our nursery rhymes through and through, but do we really know the whole story? This clever story tells the other side of the Itsy Bitsy Spider falling down the water spout, and what Little Miss Muffet really thinks of it all.
Elementary Readers
Stick Dog by Tom Watson
This one’s for those reluctant readers out there. A marriage of the popular titles Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Adventures of Captain Underpants is perhaps the best way to describe this book. It follows an elementary school kid who writes a story about a dog who becomes hamburger-crazed at first whiff of a family grilling in the park. What ensues is an adventure full of fanciful plots to get the burger, paired with pages full of hilarious stick figure drawings. This is reading they’ll actually want to hole up with.
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
This book follows 12-year-old Willow Chance, a young girl with incredible intelligence and a unique brain. Willow sometimes has trouble relating to others and making friends, and a huge change in her life leads her to look into herself and find out what life and relationships can be. It’s a story that has more triumph than tragedy, and asks readers to ponder what it means to be true to yourself.
I Love to Read Month Events
On Saturday, February 7, don’t miss your chance to see Thomas Kingsley Troupe give a free presentation for children and their families. Troupe is the author of the popular Furry and Flo series, as well as a number of other beloved children’s books. All ages welcome. Free. 1:30 p.m. R.H. Stafford Library, 8595 Central Park Place; 651.731.1320
Other programs during the month of February at RHS include:
- Preschool Story Time, Mondays and Thursdays 10:30 a.m.
- Toddler Story Time, Tuesdays 10:30 a.m.
- Baby Story Time, Wednesdays 10:30 a.m.
