Marielle’s Favorite Books for Beginning Readers
Marielle’s Favorite Books for Beginning Readers
With so many books for beginning readers to choose from, it´s not easy to make a selection of my favorites. The books I list here made a lasting impression on me and my family and still to this day come to mind in one way or another in our daily lives.
1 / 15. Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina Monkey Business!
My kids had so much fun reading this book. I´m sure it was because of the naughty monkeys. They acted the story out on our boat and had a blast. Check it out in the videos below, where my children are 5, 7, and 9 years old.
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<h2 class="heading-primary elementor-heading-title">Caps for Sale <br>Joey age 5</h2>
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<h2 class="heading-primary elementor-heading-title">Caps for Sale <br>Gina age 7</h2>
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<img width="294" height="426" src="https://homelearninglab.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gina7.jpg" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" loading="lazy" srcset="https://homelearninglab.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gina7.jpg 294w, https://homelearninglab.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gina7-207x300.jpg 207w" sizes="(max-width: 294px) 100vw, 294px">
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<h2 class="heading-primary elementor-heading-title">Caps for Sale<br>Nicholas age 9</h2>
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2 / 15. Morris has a Cold by Bernard Wiseman Funny!
I read this story a zillion times to and with my kids and they never stopped laughing nor got tired of it. We still use “my nose is walking” whenever someone in our family has a cold 🙂
3 / 15. Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik, Maurice Sendak Loving!
First of 5 classic books about Little Bear. Moms around the world and kids alike will recognize themselves in the stories about this little cub, who likes to go on adventures and discovers that his mom is always there when he needs her.
4 / 15. Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel Clever!
My kids loved Owl and we read his stories over and over again. Years after we had stopped reading them, we kept looking for strange bumps in the bed and the moon that obviously had followed us all the way home
5 / 15. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson Brilliant!
Meet the Moomin family: adventurous philosopher Moominpappa, wise and thoughtful matriarch Moominmamma, lovable, friendly Moomintroll as well as the smallest (and fiercest) member of the Moomin household, adopted daughter Little My and a host of friends and visitors who make up the wonderful world of the Moomins. The stories celebrate themes of love, tolerance and equality mixed with a good dose of common sense.
My husband, a Swedish-speaking Finn (like the author), read these stories to the kids in Swedish but don´t worry, they are all available in English.
6 / 15. Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel Friendship!
First of many in the series of Frog and Toad. Just thinking about these two puts a smile on my face. The stories are simple, yet they portray the concept of friendship in a beautiful, selfless way.
7 / 15. Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish, Fritz Siebel Hilarious!
Amelia Bedelia is not the best housekeeper, but she makes the best Lemon Merengue Pie in the world and that makes up for everything.
My husband takes wordplay to the next level, always and everywhere, and Amelia Bedelia became one of his favorite books. Also, in our household Amelia Bedelia has become a synonym for Lemon Merengue Pie 🙂
8 / 15. The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Robert Lawson Be Yourself!
I think this book truly is a gem. It´s a sweet and charming story for people of all ages about being yourself. Being different isn´t wrong and small things often make us the happiest. This book reminds us of that. Now that we live in Portugal (with lots of cork trees) and travel through the Spanish plains regularly, the landscapes often remind us of Ferdinand just sitting quietly under his cork tree, smelling the flowers.
9 / 15. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig Emotional!
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Sylvester finds a magic pebble and makes a wish that has unexpected results. If your kid is ready for it, this is a magical book. I love it because kids can relate to it easily which might trigger many emotions and questions. In our case it led to interesting conversations with my children about their feelings.
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I used this book to address emotions with my kids by acting out certain parts of the story. For example:
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- page 9, the lion is confused, perplexed, puzzled and bewildered.
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- page 10, Sylvester was scared and worried
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- page 31, the embraces, the kisses, the questions, the answers, the loving looks and the fond exclamations!
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10 / 15. Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler Sweet!
This is a sweet and funny rhyming tale about a monkey trying to find his mom with the help of a butterfly. It is also an educational journey throughout the jungle meeting a variety of animals. The story reminds me of how we all perceive things differently depending on who we are and where we come from.
11 / 15. The Story of Ping by Marjorie Flack, Kurt Wiese Family!
The book tells the story of a beautiful young duck named Ping who lived with his mother, his father, his two sisters, his three brothers, his eleven aunts, his seven uncles and his forty-two cousins in the wise-eyed boat on the Yangtze River. The story points out the message about how being disobedient can get you into trouble and at the same time stresses the importance of family.
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Living on a boat ourselves, this book intrigued my children and like Ping, they would make sure they weren´t the last one to get onto the boat whenever we got home, to avoid getting into trouble
12 / 15. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey Raising a Family!
<p>This book is a delightful introduction of duck behavior from egg to adulthood and has many similarities with the challenges of bringing up children. Mom and Dad Duck, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard, initially find the Boston Public Garden too busy and dangerous to raise a family but decide to move there after all once their offspring is old enough to brave the challenges.
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Duckling Diplomacy<br>
In 1987 a thirty-five-foot bronze statue of McCloskey´s ducklings was installed in Boston´s Public Garden. After First Lady Barbara Bush brought Raisa Gorbachev to view the statue, an identical one was created and installed in Moscow’s Novodevichy Park in 1991; it was a gift from the children of the US to the children of Russia. The duckling diplomacy between Mrs. Bush and Raisa Gorbachev, helped breaking the ice between the two countries. President Bush and President Gorbachev were able to negotiate The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties, limiting the long range nuclear weapons between the two countries.
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13 / 15. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans Cheeky!
"In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines
Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines
In two straight lines they broke their bread
And brushed their teeth and went to bed.
They left the house at half past nine
In two straight lines in rain or shine-
The smallest one was Madeline."
This story is about a seven-year-old girl that lives in a boarding school in Paris and has to have her appendix removed. Although the rhyme scheme in this book is sometime lacking and far from smooth, the same rhyme scheme made it fun for my kids and easy to memorize the text and read it with me.
14 / 15. The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne CherryInteresting!
The Great Kapok Tree has absolutely gorgeous illustrations and a beautiful message about wildlife preservation. This book tells the tale of a man who is about to chop down an enormous tree in the Amazon rain forest but gets too tired and falls asleep. While he is asleep, all of the animals who would be affected by the tree's absence speak to him and try to convince him not to chop it down. When the man wakes up, he gets up, throws away his axe and walks out of the rainforest. The open ending of the book leaves you with a perfect opportunity to have interesting conversations with your children. Everybody might agree that the man took the right decision by not chopping down the tree. The book gives you many reasons why that might be the case, but what are the consequences of his action? What will the man´s boss say? Will the man still have a job when he gets home? Will he be able to feed his kids? An interesting book to introduce kids to real life dilemmas and looking at things from different perspectives.
15 / 15. Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton True Friendship!
In a small town called Popperville, a man called Mike Mulligan believes that his steam shovel, which he named Mary Anne, can dig as much in a day as one hundred man can dig in a week. He gets one last chance to prove it.
It´s a beautiful story about true friendship (I love the way Mike talks about his Mary Anne), hard work and ingenuity. It was one of my kids´ favorite bedtime stories (not necessarily mine) and if you read it to your children, you will find out why.
Joey
age 5
Play Video
Gina
age 7
Play Video
Nicholas
age 9
Play Video
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