Use Your Imagination

Jamberry by Bruce Degan
The ultimate in fruit based daydreams as berries run in the rivers and fall from the sky until everything is a Jamberry. For my little fruitatarian this is a book he'd love to live in.

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood
A sweet take on the modern archetype of the American con artist. Our smooth talking narrator manages to convince the mouse that there’s a big hungry bear coming and the best thing he can do to protect his strawberry is to share it with us and eat it. When you’ve finished the book, ask your toddler to find the picture of the bear in the book. Of course, there isn’t one.

If... by Sarah Perry
There are some real leaps of imagination in this book. I especially like "if ugly was beautiful" of course you have to see the illustrations to really kickstart some imaginative thinking.

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
"there's no such thing as a Gruffal...oh". A clever little mouse talks his way out of trouble with the unwitting help of a creature he thought he'd invented. I love this book, it's smart and funny and a real example of how not to be scared of monsters.

Dinosaur versus Bedtime by Bob Shea
The little dinosaur in this book is pretty resourceful, he wins out against a pile of leaves, a bowl of spaghetti and even some talking grownups, but can he win against his greatest foe. Bedtime. The stars around the illustrations when the diosaur wins always make me want to say "ta-dah", so when I'm reading it aloud, that's just what I do.

We'll be singing "I'm a Little Airplane", "There's a Monster in my Closet" and "The Ants Go Marching".

Colours

(Every time I do a colour based storytime, it always descends into chaos, but I'm always willing to try again).

What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Ann Schwartz
A lovely little rainbow book, with coloured ribbons strung between the pages, this book is told from the point of view of a little bunny, who asks her colourful friends "What makes a rainbow?"

A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
A confused chameleon tries to find a sense of identity amongst his changing colours, instead he finds a friend with whom he can change colour and still know who he is.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
It's a classic for a reason and I've recently noticed that the fruits that the caterpillar eats are in the same order that you would use when weaning children onto solid food. This could be a coincidence. But it's a fun little observation nonetheless.

The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater
"My house is me and I am it. My house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams." An early Daniel Pinkwater book about letting the colours of your personality shine through. It's a little longer than I'd normally read at storytime, but it's got such great colourful illustrations, it would be a shame to not read it.

Fortunately by Remy Charlip
A very strange little "good news/bad news" style book where our hero borrows an airplane, gets chased by tigers and ends up at a party. When something good happens to him the illustrations are in colour, when something bad happens, they're in black and white. It's utterly absurd in a way that children really appreciate. This book gets a lot of laughs.

Family

So Much! by Trish Cooke and Helen Oxenbury

This is a beautiful big book, with a wonderful warm heart. It's the story of the gradual gathering of a large family, through the eyes of the baby. Helen Oxenbury's illustrations are as emotive as ever and Trish Cooke's lyrical words are a delight to read aloud.

Where's My Mom? by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

A poor lost monkey is befriended by a mother butterfly who has a little difficulty in understanding that he looks just like his Mom. The story may be about tramping through the jungle looking for your parents, but the page to page hilarity of the butterfly getting it wrong always amuses the preschoolers, especially when she mistakes the Mom for the "elephant, again!".

Ben and Gran and the Whole Wide Wonderful World by Gillian Shields.

This one may be difficult to source in America, but try your local bookstore, they'll certainly try to find a supplier for you. Ben lives on one side of the world and Gran lives on the other side, although sending messages is fun, it's no substitute for seeing your favourite person. So Gran goes on an epic journey to get to Ben whilst Ben prepares for her arrival. This is a great book to read to a transportation loving toddler, as Gran uses any means necessary, including camel and high speed express train to get to Ben.

Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen.

Sometimes families go on adventures together and in this popular version of the traditional story it's the Dad who takes the lead. It's illustrated by Helen Oxenbury who apparently enjoyed the subject matter being people and not anthropomorphic animals. There is a real sense of family adventure here and we can all understand why the bear looks so sad and lonely on the last page.

Mama Do You Love Me? by Barbara M Joose.

Toddler's love to push their parents and test the limits of the love. This charming book with an Innuit theme, calmly explains that Mama's love knows no limits, even if you turn into the meanest polar bear there ever was.

The songs will be This Train is going to Grandma's and will visit the grandparents of everyone who wants to tell me where they live, Deep Down in My Heart and Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. The poem will be Everybody Says by Dorothy Aldis.

In Flight

Sadie the Airmail Pilot by Kellie Strom. I love this book. It has so much detail, both in the illustrations and the story telling. Sadie the pilot has a huge adventure when her plane goes down after a delivery to Knuckle Peak weather station. Will she make it back? Is that a monster? Will her stomach ever stop growling? "Things look grim, but don't get nervous, nothing scares the airmail service".

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell. A modern classic about young owls with abandonment issues, don't worry it has a very happy ending.

Blue Balloon by Mick Inkpen. This was one of the first proper storybooks that my son really enjoyed and he still likes it now. It has some very clever folded pages and flaps which never distract from the story, which is simply that of a boy's imagination running wild with the help of a blue balloon. Kipper the cartoon dog makes his first literary appearance in this book too.

Lisa's Airplane Trip by Anne Gutman. Lisa has never been on an airplane before, which is not surprising as she is a cuddly rabbit. This translated French travelogue is really charming and has lots of jokes for the grown ups. I would highly recommend this as a storybook to introduce toddlers to the concept of air travel, if you're about to take a trip yourself.

The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle. He didn't just write The Very Hungry Catterpillar you know, in fact Carle has quite an opus of colourful children's books. This one has a good selection of flying bugs, mosquitoes, a cicada, a bee, a dragonfly and a lunar moth. Oh and there's a surprise noise at the end, which is always popular.

I'll be singing I'm a little Airplane, The Up and Down song and Yellow Bird (although not all of it) And the poem is I Am Flying by Jack Prelutsky.

Family

The Family Book - Todd Parr.

Everyone is different and so are our families. This is a very simple list book with illustrations in primary colours (the illustrator's style will be familiar to anyone who's seen the author's TV show "Todd's World"). But the most refreshing thing here is that there is no family set-up left unlisted. Single parent families, two Mums, two Dads, adoption and even communal style living are all part of the Family package. I love reading this to children and knowing that they accept it as fact.

Ben and Gran and the Whole Wide Wonderful World - Gillian Shields.

This one may be difficult to source in America, but try your local bookstore, they'll certainly try to find a supplier for you. Ben lives on one side of the world and Gran lives on the other side, although sending messages is fun, it's no substitute for seeing your favourite person. So Gran goes on an epic journey to get to Ben whilst Ben prepares for her arrival. This is a great book to read to a transportation loving toddler, as Gran uses any means necessary, including camel and high speed express train to get to Ben.

Going on a Bear Hunt - Michael Rosen.

Sometimes families go on adventures together and in this popular version of the traditional story it's the Dad who takes the lead. It's illustrated by Helen Oxenbury who apparently enjoyed the subject matter being people and not anthropomorphic animals. There is a real sense of family adventure here and we can all understand why the bear looks so sad and lonely on the last page.

Mama Do You Love Me? - Barbara M Joose.

Toddler's love to push their parents and test the limits of the love. This charming book with an Innuit theme, calmly explains that Mama's love knows no limits, even if you turn into the meanest polar bear there ever was.

Harry the Dirty Dog - Gene Zion.

Back in the 1950s families were made up of one Mom (who cooked), one Dad (who went to work), one little girl (who liked dolls) and one little boy (who liked trains), they usually had a dog. This is nonsense of course, families have never been this way, but the Harry series of books gives us some interesting historical perspectives, not least into the way we used to think about family. Harry runs away from home to avoid taking a bath, but really misses his family and after getting very dirty he returns home to find that no-one recognises him. There's only one thing he can do. And yes, there is a coal chute in this book, you could use it as an opening gambit in a conversation about renewable energy sources!

We will be singing, "This Train is Going to Grandma's", "Splash, Splash, Bubble Bubble, Quack Quack" (one of mine...lyrics and music to come soon), and "I'm a Little Airplane" and the poem will be Seeing All My Family by Claire Salama.

Welcome to the Storytime Blog

It comes as no surprise to any parent when Educational Psychologists tell us we should read to our children for at least 20 minutes every day. Children love books and even before they can read they are learning so much from us when we read to them.

In this blog I hope to use my storytelling experience to suggest great books which you can read to your own children. I am not sentimental and I'm often highly opinionated about the books I choose to read, these are not exactly the average back cover blurbs. I've also grouped the books into themes, with songs and usually a poem. This can help you to explore a particular topic, or just when your toddler wants more books about trucks.

I have been reading to a group of under 5s at the local bookstore (Cover to Cover, San Francisco) for over a year, I have a two year old son and we read a lot.