Harold Finds a Voice

TITLE:  Harold Finds His Voice
AUTHOR:  Courtney Dicmas
ILLUSTRATOR:  Courtney Dicmas
PUBLISHER:  Child's Play Inc
COPYRIGHT:  2013

Harold is very good at imitating sounds.  He goes out into the world to find other sounds and is surprised by all the sounds he hears.  This makes Harold want to find out his own sound.  Will he like how he sounds?

This is a cute book with big, bright illustrations.  Young children will enjoy the various sounds that Harold finds.

The Day the Crayons Quit

TITLE:  The Day the Crayons Quit
AUTHOR:  Drew Daywalt
ILLUSTRATOR: Oliver Jeffers
PUBLISHER:  Philomel Books
COPYRIGHT:  2013

At school Duncan is going to color, but he finds a stack of letters from his crayons.  The crayons each tell him why they are quitting and what he needs to change.  Some feel over used (like red for all the holidays). Some feel under used (like pink since it is more of a girls' color).

I love crayons so the title and front of this book caught my eye.  This was a fun read to imagine crayons coming to life and writing letters.  It would be great to use in a classroom and have children write their own letters.

This is on the 2014 Bluebonnet Award list.  It is AR level 3.8.

My Little Book of Cars

TITLE:  My Little Book of Cars
AUTHOR:  Michael Worek
ILLUSTRATOR:
PUBLISHER:  2013
COPYRIGHT: Firefly Books

Read this book with your toddler to discover cars and other modes of transportation.  This book is filled with great photos of all sorts of cars, trucks, and other things that go!

This is a good book to develop vocabulary for your toddler.  It uses some color words too to describe the cars.  One thing I noticed is some of the pages have simple two word phrases to describe the picture while other pages have sentences.  However, there are no capital letters or periods used on these pages which I found odd.

Drummer Boy

TITLE:  Drummer Boy
AUTHOR:  Loren Long
ILLUSTRATOR:  Loren Long
PUBLISHER:  Philomel
COPYRIGHT:mm2008

A boy finds a little drummer boy on his door step one day.  He enjoys hearing the drummer boy play his drum until one day it accidentally gets knocked into the trash can. This leads to a cold journey for the drummer boy through the community where he is able to make a difference for others he encounters.

I know this is a Christmas book but I enjoyed reading it and wanted to share it here with you.

This picture book is AR level 4.5

My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood

TITLE:  My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood
AUTHOR:  Tameka Fryer Brown
ILLUSTRATOR:  Shane W. Evans
PUBLISHER:  Viking
COPYRIGHT:  2013

Join Jamie through his day as he experiences various emotions.  He describes these emotions using color and a rhythmic text.

I thought this book was nicely illustrated and would be beneficial for a class discussion on feelings.  Then I can see this book turning into a great writing and art project for a class.

What's on my Farm?

TITLE:  What's on my Farm?
AUTHOR:  Michael Worek
ILLUSTRATOR:
PUBLISHER:  Firefly Books
COPYRIGHT:  2013

Find out what you can find on a farm in this adorable children's book.

What I like about this book is that there are a lot of pages of pictures with one word/phrase per page about the picture.  Sometimes you find these picture books that only have a few pictures, and every farm book has the same 5 animals in it.  This one is different in that it has the regular animals and farm words but a lot of others as well.  It includes pictures of animals as well as foods grown on farms like grains, berries, and watermelon.

This would be a wonderful book for your young toddler to increase vocabulary.  The cover is puffy and thick; this is not a board book.