February is Library Lovers Month, and the first Saturday in February is Take Your Child to the Library Day, so I don’t think there’s a better time to share my love of children’s books with you. We’re friends, right? We get together once a month, hang out, talk about books, and have a great time. But what I hope is that you take my posts as a way to share books with your children, because I’m a pretty good judge of what makes for a good children’s book. But do you know who else is great at picking out books? Your kids! I highly recommend that every parent make a habit of taking their kids to pick out library books. Beyond the free access to thousands of books, libraries have so many fun and educational programs for people of all ages… and the children’s room has the best. From storytime to homework help, from movies to crafts, there is something for everyone. Your own library may have something planned for Take Your Child to the Library Day, but if not you can still celebrate as a family by going in and learning more about what your library has to offer. Ask a librarian to tell you about upcoming programs – we would love to talk to you! And as always, I’m here today to share a few more of my favorite picture books.

BEDTIME HUGS

I’m Going to Give You a Bear Hug by Caroline B. Cooney

The story is simple. A parent and child share hugs at bedtime. But it’s so much more than that. Using animals to describe the kind of hugs they will share, author Caroline B. Cooney (The Face on the Milk Carton) has created a great way for kids to use their imaginations. You and your child can start with practicing the hugs in the book, such as:

I’m going to give you a horse hug.
A grab the mane,
Race through rain,
YES OH YES, OF COURSE! Hug.

Then come up with your own. How would you hug if you were a prickly porcupine? Or a T-rex with tiny little arms? Or an octopus with eight long tentacles?

The mom’s dress in the book is yellow with red polka dots. As a visual reminder that it’s really the mom hugging the child, each animal has yellow with red polka dots somewhere on their body, like a fin or a collar. Recognizing patterns is a math skill, so young kids can be asked to look for and point out the pattern on each page.

I just found out that there is a sequel called I’m Going to Give You a Polar Bear Hug, so of course I placed a hold so I can check it out at my library. I can’t wait!

HOW MUCH DO I LOVE YOU?

I Love You This Much! by Disney Baby

Cartoon images of Mickey Mouse and his friends, in a childlike style with big eyes and round faces, show the gang sharing how much they love Mickey. Daisy loves him as much as “flowers love to bloom,” as she waters flowers. The page showing as much as “leaves love to drop” features Mickey happily raking up orange leaves, while on the opposite page, Pluto has jumped into the pile of leaves.

Since it’s aimed at babies, the book is very simple. But you could easily read it to older children and then talk about how much you love each other. Make up your own “as much as” statements that fit your relationship. If your child loves to dance, you might say, “I love you as much as ballerinas love to twirl.” If your child is really into Paw Patrol, maybe it’s, “I love you as much as Rubble likes to dig, and as much as Sky loves to fly.” I can see this quickly turning very silly, which is perfect because I love when kids love how fun many books are.

EMPATHY

Hug Me by Simona Ciraolo

Everyone needs love. Especially a cactus, who in this book is named Felipe and has a pink flower on its “head.” The other cacti in Felipe’s family don’t feel that it’s okay to “trespass into another’s personal space,” but all Felipe wants is a hug. A butterfly stays away, and when a balloon comes by and Felipe tries to give it a hug… POP! Felipe knows that his family, who blame him for the “disaster,” can’t give him what he needs, so he tries to go out and find it for himself. Of course nobody wants to hug a cactus, so he ends up turning bitter, deciding to live inside a fence with a sign warning that “trespassers will be prickled.” But as it turns out, he finds a lonely rock who is unhurt by Felipe’s hugs, and in the endpapers we see that the rock’s name is Camilla and they have become best friends. (There’s even a cute, albeit unrealistic, picture showing them playing a video game together.)

This is such a sweet story. Normally I gravitate towards picture books that are silly and fun, but wow does this little gem pack a punch! Use this as a jumping off point for social and emotional learning conversations. Before Felipe meets Camilla, ask your child to look at Felipe’s face and talk about what is happening in the story, and how Felipe feels about it. Discuss the changes that Felipe undergoes based on his experiences. Ask if your child ever feels lonely, and what they can do in that situation. Ask what your child could do if they see someone else who looks lonely (you may want to specify “another child,” depending on your parenting style).

PEEKABOO!

Pop-Up Peekaboo! I Love You by D.K. Publishing

I have been waiting to bring this series into my recommendations posts, and I am excited that I finally have a perfect opportunity. I decided to put it last because that’s how I always do it – I end almost every storytime I do with a Pop-Up Peekaboo! book. There are a lot of titles in the series, and they are all a big hit with the baby and toddler crowd. There are five different… I’m going to say animals, but we also have a book with monsters and a book with dinosaurs. So we start with one animal who is looking for its friends. On each of the first four page spreads, it finds one with a big lift-the-flap pop-up. The last page spread is when the “found” animals look for (and find) the first. This book is slightly different from the others because Smiley Sheep is getting lovey dovey gifts (balloons, flowers, chocolates, and a letter from a secret admirer) before finally finding that everything is from Cuddly Sheep.

While the books are all very similar in spirit, and borders on boring for me at times, that familiar rhythm is perfect for little ones. Every time I lift the flap, I don’t even have to look at the book at first because I know I have to say, “Peekaboo!” I’ll hold the book in front of me, lift the flap and say it, then close the flap, and I repeat it once or twice before I look at the page to see what else it says, such as, “Peekaboo! It’s some red and pink balloons! Can you guess who sent them?” Since I do use these books frequently, my storytime regulars know what to expect and will say, “Peekaboo!” with me, and sometimes the toddlers will come up and want to take turns lifting the flaps themselves.

I know this is getting a little long, but I do want to mention my favorite part of the Pop-Up Peekaboo! books, and that is the fact that in most of the books, the animals and other things pictured are toys, which add an extra sense of whimsy to the books. The animals in these books, including dragons and monsters and unicorns, are cute little stuffed animals. In Pop-Up Peekaboo! Things That Go, there are toy vehicles and people and fish. It’s really cute, and if you read one of these books at home you may be able to sneak a favorite stuffed animal to storytime so they can play peekaboo around the book with your child.

Check out Miss Michelle’s Book Nook

Miss Michelle shares her book recommendations each month on the In Our Homeschool blog. Find links to all of her posts here.

Miss Michelle is the sister of Kristen, who writes this blog. She has a daughter who is 9 and a son who is 4. They are not home-schooled, but Miss Michelle is super supportive and proud of her sister for doing it. She has been a full-time Children’s Librarian for over 15 years and loves to recommend her favorite books. You can follow her on Goodreads, where she keeps track of books she has read for storytime, at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/170007385-miss-michelle.