Words are gifts for Life

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StoryMakers Tools for Parents

Research summaries and guides
Children's Books

The Gift of Words: How Parents

Can Shape a Child’s Life Story

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

Children’s books(back to top)

Why children’s books?

Criteria for StoryMakers book selections

Books for StoryMakers Fall 2007 Gift Round

Books for StoryMakers Spring 2008 Gift Round

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)

StoryMakers looks for quality children's books, including both classics and lesser-known books, that can help parents create emotionally positive and fun in-home language and literacy experiences for their very young children.

Therefore, 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 reader

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

3. revolve around a story or encourage the telling of a story

4. are appropriate and relevant across cultures

5. contain fun possibilities for developing early math interest and ability in young children in the areas of numbers and their order, space sense (shapes, positions - over, under, middle, etc.), size and measurement, sorting and classification, and simple problem-solving

6. contain fun possibilities for developing early interests in the natural world, with emphases, for example, on animals and plants, and physical phenomena such as weather, shadows, common and unusual land forms, cycles of seasons, etc.

Books for StoryMakers Fall 2007 Gift Round (back to top)

Birth year: Baby! Talk!  by Penny Gentieu

Age 1: Owl Babies  by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson

Age 2: Guess How Much I Love You  by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram

Age 3: On Mother’s Lap  by Ann Herbert Scott and Glo Coalson

Age 4: Turtle’s Race with Beaver  by Joseph and James Bruchac, Ariane Dewey,
and Jose Aruego

Age 5: That’s What Friends Are For  by Florence Parry Heide and Sylvia
Van Clief

Books for StoryMakers Spring 2008 Gift Round (back to top)

Prenatal – Birth year: Babies on the Go  by Linda Ashman/Jane Dyer

Gentle rhythm and rhyme characterize the simple words of Babies on the Go, making it a perfect baby-toddler-preschooler “cuddletime” book. Unlike those animals on the first several pages, many others “need more time to grow.” They are carried in pouches, on backs, even in mothers’ mouths. Lovely illustrations of how babies travel suggest the final four pages’ message: “It doesn’t matter how they go./ Inside . . . outside . . . fast . . . or slow./ On the ground or high above,/ babies always ride with love.” A chart at the end gives the names of the animals.

Age 1: Eyes, Nose, Fingers, and Toes: A First Book All About You  by Judy Hindley/Brita Granstrom

A lively invitation to fun adult-child movement and interaction, this book uses rhythm and rhyme to explore body parts and what they do. For example, "A nose is to blow./ A nose is to sniff./ A nose has holes/ for sniffing with." The font size and word placement enhance the sense of movement and joy. Playful multicultural children – plus their toys and pets – romp through the pages, trying out body parts, with a review at the end: "So here we are!/ And I'll tell you again / Kisses are little,/ smiles are wide / A hug is a bundle with YOU inside."

Age 2: Sheep in a Jeep  by Nancy Shaw/Margot Apple

Most toddlers and preschoolers love silliness, and very silly sheep who take a road trip together is what this tale is all about. Of course, not one of them can actually drive, and the silly sheep end up creating a "jeep in a heap." This book is full of language playfulness. Rhyme, rhythm and repetition – all of which encourage sharper phonological awareness in little listeners – propel the story forward at increasing speed. Pigs try to help, and a little bird monitors the drama on most pages, but no one can save the poor sheep in a jeep.

Ages 3–5, language option: Do Like a Duck Does!  by Judy Hindley/Ivan Bates

A strong, triumphant rhythm accompanies the story of a fox outfoxed by a smart, protective mama duck. Pretending to be just another “big brown duck,” the sly fox joins the five baby ducks, obviously thinking “dinner.” But mama duck, fully in control of the situation, requires him to prove he’s a duck by doing all the things ducks do – from waddling in mud to eating bugs. Humorous illustrations of the animal/bird characters, including appropriate facial expressions, invite knowing giggles from adult readers and preschoolers alike. This book offers a number of fun possibilities for addressing pre-literacy skills.

Ages 3-5, math and science option: Anno’s Counting Book  by Mitsumasa Anno

This is an unusual book about – well, lots of things! A wordless picture book, it is about the seasons of the year, the times of the day, and a town that grows up. Each two-page spread – as well as the book as a whole – encourages storytelling. It is also about numbers and number order, and about “adding to.” Starting with a blank landscape and a zero, we move to one each of about eight additions to the landscape, then to two each of these additions, then three each – on to 12 each, and a bustling town. Possibilities abound for having fun with early math and science concepts.