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StoryMakers Resources for Parents

Research Summaries and Guides

Children’s books

Children’s books (back to top)

Why children’s books?

Criteria for StoryMakers book selections

StoryMakers Books and Book-sharing Ideas, Fall '09

StoryMakers Books and Book-sharing Ideas, Spring '09

StoryMakers Books and Book-sharing Ideas, Fall '08

Why children’s books? (back to top)

StoryMakers offers quality children’s books to parents and primary caregivers for use as multi-purpose, fun tools to build positive home learning environments for their young children.

Quality children's books used daily and effectively in the homes of families with children 0-5 prepare children for proficiency with language and literacy, and success in reading. Success in reading strongly predicts success in school and economic self-sufficiency in adulthood.

Quality children's books give parents and children "props" around which to create the early language experience - lots of talk, lots of reading - that leads to skill with oral and written language, and success in school and beyond.

Books also promote an activity – shared reading – that strongly encourages warm, positive parent-child interaction.

In sum, quality children's books give children

• a fun, direct way to connect oral language with written language, a connection vital to success in reading;


• experiences with the purposes and power of print;


• knowledge of how books work;


• the joys of stories and discovery and learning something new; and


• positive shared experience with the most important people in their lives.

Criteria for StoryMakers book selections (back to top)

Hopa Mountain's StoryMakers program looks for quality children's board books, including both classics and lesser-known books, that parents can use to create emotionally positive and fun in-home learning experiences for their very young children.

We choose books that:

1. encourage extended child-adult "talk," interactive fun and humor, and the development of positive social-emotional feelings between child and adult

2. encourage "language play" - fun use of language sounds through, for example, rhyme, rhythm, and repetition

3. encourage the recognition of alphabet letters and their sounds

4. contain possibilities for discovering the fun – and the power – of numbers and math concepts such as shapes and sizes, measurement, sorting and classification, estimation, problem-solving, and counting

5. contain possibilities for developing an early interest in the natural world, with emphases, for example, on animals and plants, weather, shadows, common and unusual land forms, cycles of seasons, etc.

6. are appropriate and relevant across cultures

StoryMakers Books and Book-sharing Ideas, Fall '09 (back to top)

Ages 0 - 3: I Like It When  by Mary Murphy
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

Age 0 - 5: Let's Count  by Sterling Publishers
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

Age 3 - 5: Gossie & Gertie  by Olivier Dunrea
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

Age 3 - 5: My Little Word Book  by Roger Priddy
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

StoryMakers Books and Book-sharing Ideas, Spring '09 (back to top)

Ages 0 - 3: Big Red Barn  by Margaret Wise Brown
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

Ages 0 - 5: Good Night, Gorilla  by Peggy Rathmann
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

Ages 3 - 5: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

Ages 3 - 5: Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson
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StoryMakers Books and Book-sharing Ideas, Fall '08 (back to top)

Ages 0 - 2: Welcome Song for Baby  by Richard Van Camp
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

Ages 0 - 5: Good Night Moon  by Margaret Wise Brown
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

Ages 0 - 5: One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

Ages 2 - 5: Five Little Ducks by Raffi
Look here for Book-sharing ideas.

Research Summaries and Guides (back to top)

Success in School and Life brochure

The Gift of Words
How Parents Can Shape
a Child's Life Story

A Parent’s Guide to Reading
with Children, Birth to Five