| Title |
Author |
Why I Recommend This Book |
Personal Story (optional) |
Recommender |
| A House for Hermit Crab |
Eric Carle |
A great children's book about friendship, change, and marine life! |
|
Jordan Molina, English Faculty |
| The Very Busy Spider |
Eric Carle |
I couldn’t choose just one author, so I picked two! The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle is such a colorful and fun book filled with animals and a beautifully
textured spider web — you can actually feel it on the page. I loved reading it as
a child. |
|
Sophia Carlos, Student |
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
|
Eric Carle |
Love this author, he has the best pictures and best stories! |
|
Heloisa Kaman, Student, Early childhood education enthusiast |
| Driving My Tractor |
Jan Dobbins |
A farmer drives his tractor through his farm during different seasons, collecting
animals as he goes. When he hits a stone, chaos ensues. It's a lovely first book that
shows kindness, fun, and problem solving. |
My now 15-year-old "read" this book himself at the age of two. This book made him
love reading (until formal education beat that love of reading out of him). |
Danielle Swiontek, Professor, History and Sociology |
Dream Big, Little One
|
Vashti Harrison |
Dream Big, Little One celebrates eighteen remarkable Black women whose accomplishments paved the way for
future generations. |
|
Mae James, Environmental Science Major |
| Miss Spider’s Tea Party, and Miss Spider’s New Car |
David Kirk |
My second pick would be the Miss Spider books by David Kirk: any of her stories are
wonderful. Two of my favorites are Miss Spider’s Tea Party and Miss Spider’s New Car.
The illustrations are so vibrant and imaginative — I absolutely adored them when I
was a kid. |
|
Sophia Carlos, Student |
| Peek-a Who |
Nina Laden |
Very sweet lift-the-flap board book. |
|
Margaret Prothero, Professor, Department of English |
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
|
Bill Martin Jr. |
Such a fun book for any age, specially the ones starting to read!
|
|
Heloisa Kaman, Student, Early childhood education enthusiast |
| 10 Minutes till Bedtime |
Peggy Rathman |
My son loved this book for many of his younger years! It can be interactive when the
child is old enough to view and describe what they see or allows the adult to paint
a picture of the illustrations, and all the fun and mischief the characters get into. |
This was a nightly favorite in our family, and part of our routine, allowing not only
a way to start to count down the minutes till bedtime, but also what self-care need
to be accomplished, bath, brushing teeth, etc. My son's favorite parts were the stories
we made up because of the limited story line, and the songs we would create and sing
to describe each page. |
Christina Frank-Bellew, Theatre Staff |
| Good Night, Gorilla |
Peggy Rathman |
This book reminds us that while it can sometimes be hard to settle down and go to
sleep, it will happen! A zookeeper says "Good night" to Gorilla first, and Gorilla
steals his keys, unlocks his own cage, and proceeds to liberate Elephant, Lion, Hyena,
Giraffe, and Armadillo. They all follow the zookeeper home and fall asleep in his
bedroom! Needless to say, they don’t get to spend the night there. Colorful illustrations
with lots of details to explore and only the words listed above (plus “dear” and “zoo”
and “zzz”) make this board book a true classic. |
I still remember the thrill of discovering that my first baby understood words long
before he could talk when I noticed he pointed to the lion when I read "Good night,
Lion." I then asked him to identify every animal on the other pages and he could!
It was a bit of a shock how much that little baby understood: it reminded me to stop
swearing around him, for one thing, and made it even more fun to read to him because
I started asking him to point things out in the other books we were reading. |
Kim Monda, English Professor |
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear
|
Don Wood |
Absolutely loved reading this book with my children and with my students: it’s so
much fun! |
|
Heloisa Kaman, Student, Early childhood education enthusiast |