Reading together

As part of Family Literacy Day, I had a chance to read to my daughter in her classroom this morning, which was a nice treat. For us, reading is a nice go-to family activity that we all enjoy.

We’ve been through a lot of picture books. Below are some of our favourites.

Fiction

1. The Dumpster Diver

2. Freight Train

3. The Golden Goose

4. I Want My Hat Back

5. Pete the Cat

6. Something from Nothing

7. ZooZical

Interactive

1. The Book with No Pictures

2. Press Here

Magazine

1. Chirp

Non-fiction

1. Becoming Babe Ruth

2. Building Our House

3. Pluto’s Secret

4. Ralph Masiello’s Drawing Books

5. The Red Bicycle: The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Bicycle

Series

1. Boo Hoo Bird

2. Fancy Nancy

3. Iggy Peck, Architect / Rosie Revere, Engineer / Ada Twist, Scientist

4. Mr Putter and Tabby

5. Pigeon

6. Strega Nona

7. Tacky the Penguin

8. Thomas the Tank Engine

Wordless

1. The Girl and the Bicycle

2. Journey Trilogy

3. Sector 7

Your local library should have these available. The VPL certainly does. Personally, I would recommend against buying these books at a store because:

1. Your kids (or you!) will tire of them

2. They take up space even after you’re done with them

3. They cost money

I’m fairly confident that we read more (and a greater variety) because we use the library and are therefore not constrained by space or money. We probably read 300 books last year and purchased 0.

While it’s true that e-books also don’t take up (physical) space, they’re not going to displace picture books anytime soon.