Books about Books

Do you love the library as much as I do? It’s an air-conditioned paradise filled with thousands of wonders in print.

It’s also filled with children’s books and videos.

When I take my boys, I get a little tired of always bringing home books about Thomas the Tank Engine and books about Diggers, Tractors, and Machinery. However, when I go to peruse the stacks on my own, I seem to pick the same types of titles, the same authors, and even the same formats that I always pick.

I really want to broaden my kiddos reading experience but it’s hard to know where to start.

Enter Books about Books.

Here are my favorite texts that organize and categorize lots of different children’s literature options for me. I like being able to glance through the table of contents, select a section and get a whole list of titles to order via inter-library loan.

Pump up your summer home-reading program with some of the following:

Reading with Babies, Toddlers and Twos by Susan Straub and KJ Dell’Antonia

This is a great “how – to” for parents who don’t know where to start in baby reading. Of course, you can read your little ones anything you want but if you’re like me and you want to encourage growth, this book is a great starting place.

The authors include books about nursery rhymes, poetry, finger play, feelings, big changes, and interactive books. After each chapter, the authors include wonderful brief lists of books that you will love if you have little people in your house.

Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt

Mrs. Hunt has a fantastic sense of imagination and wonder. This shows in her book title selections. Her chapters include:

A Child’s first books: ages 0-3

Picture Book classics: ages 4-8

First Books for Beginning Readers

Classic Children’s Novels: ages 9-12

Stories for Animal Lovers: ages 9-12

Historical Novels: ages 9-12

Novels: ages 9-12

Young Adult Novels: ages 12-14

Poetry is for pleasure: all ages

Spiritual Life: all ages

Special Occasions: all ages

Mrs. Hunt spends the first half of her book discussing what makes a book “great” or “classic”. The second half is a HUGE book list, with check mark lines so you can mark the titles you read (we used a rating scale of 1-5)

Mrs. Hunt has books like this one available for the teen reader and for adult women. I’d like to check those out when I have a bit more free time to read alone.

The Book Tree by Elizabeth McCallum and Jane Scott

This mother and daughter team compiled a Christian reference for children’s literature.

Summary of the main sections:

Preschool Lit

Elementary Lit

Middle School fiction

Elementary/Middle school biography
High School fiction

High School biography

Each book title includes the author and a brief summary of the book’s main points. It’s very informative and exhaustive.

Books Children Love by Elizabeth Laraway Wilson

TONS of titles here.

Chapters include:

Animals, Art and Architecture, Bible and Moral teaching, Biography, Celebration Days and Seasons, Crafts, Hobbies, Dance, Drama, Growing plants, History and Geography, Humor and Language, Poetry, Mathematics, Music, Nature and Science, Outdoor activities, Phys. Ed, Reference books and Special needs.

In addition, Mrs. Wilson then breaks all the titles down into age appropriate categories, in three levels.

This book is written from a Christian worldview and family life is given priority.

Healing Stories: Picture Books for the Big and Small Changes in your child’s life

by Jacqueline Golding, PhD

Stories can help facilitate discussion on some tough subjects. Dr. Golding touches on some pretty intense items!

Browse this list whenever your child has an issue (we used a lot of the “fear” resources when our son went through the “I’m three, therefore I’m scared of everything” phase.

Here’s a summary of the main sections:

Part 1. Everyday Growing: The Basics

Part 2. Feelings

Part 3. Everyday Stress (bedtime, separation, bad days)

Part 4. Growing Up (potty training, bed wetting, starting school, losing a tooth)

Part 5. Families and Family Changes (types of families, new babies, moving, adoption)

Part 6. Relationships (friends, bullies, peer pressure, prejudice)

Part 7. Health, Health Problems, and Health Care

Part 8. Loss and Grief

Part 9. Trauma (natural disaster, war, violence, abuse)

So the next time your children threaten to bring home EVERY Thomas book on the shelf, ask your librarian to reserve one of these texts and arm yourselves with some fun new titles!

Make some tea and relax with your kiddos in a shady place and READ, READ, READ.

Katie is the Cold Noodles' mom over at http:coldnoodlesforbreakfast.blogspot.com. She's the mom of three adopted little boys, ages, 4, 2 and 1 and the wife of a hunky CPA and transracial adoption advocate. She lives in Ohio, in the heart of Amish country!

Related items

About the Author:

Katie Miller

One response to “Books about Books”