15 Picture Books to Read to Your Child
I LOVE reading… and reading… and reading some more to my children. Stories resonate with the heart of children and stay with them. I have a friend, Sarah Clarkson, who has studied imagination at Oxford and poured out years of her life to studying children’s literature. Her book Read for the Heart is a treasure for every parent.
Sarah Clarkson says, “The more I study, the more I want parents to understand that a lively imagination is central to a great education and a vibrant soul. I want parents to grasp how a great story embodies the virtues they want their children to learn. I want them to understand that great stories help to form great lives, and then I want to help them know exactly which books will help them to cultivate heroes and heroines in the great true tale of life.”
Not only is it such a fun time to gather on a comfy couch and read a great story, it is actually having an impact on the the minds of this next generation. Reading to your children should be a central part of your home, woven into each day.
Here are 15 picture books that you will love:
The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant and Stephen Gammell
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
My Great-Aunt Arizona by Gloria Houston and Susan Condie Lamb
Saint George and The Dragon by Margaret Hodges and Trina Schart Hyman
Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran and Barbara Cooney
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
The Napping House by Audrey Wood and Don Wood
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
The Little Red Lighthouse by Hildegarde H. Swift and Lynd Ward
A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert and Anita Lobel
My Mama Had a Dancing Heart by Libba Moore Gray and Raul Colon
When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant and Diane Goode
Train to Somewhere by Eve Bunting and Ronald Himler
Island Boy by Barbara Cooney
James Herriot’s Treasury For Children
Happy Reading!!
Blessings,
Ruth Schwenk