Comments on: Books that Teach Toddlers Life Lessons

By: anjii

anjii — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:29:10 +0000

We love all things Seuss here! The Early Reader collection is great for a condensed bedtime storytime, due to a late night, and the rest are HIGHLY appreciated by our 2 1/2 year old. Even our 3 month old seems to appreciate the rhyme and rhythym when he sits on my lap for reading times with toddler.

By: Nicki M

Nicki M — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 07:08:42 +0000

LOL! I remember reading a Bernstein Bears book to a little girl i babysat when i was 12. I was even thinking ” i wonder why Papa Bear is so dumb?” One of my favorite books is “Puppies for Sale” about accepting people(and puppies) as they are and not how we think they should be.

By: lisa

lisa — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:35:05 +0000

Swimmy is a classic. A beautiful book with a good message about what we can achieve when we work together.

http://www.amazon.com/Swimmy-Leo-Lionni/dp/3787695508/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195191100&sr=8-1

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:12:17 +0000

My toddlers are big fans of the Boynton Books, and I love the message in "But Not the Hippopotamus." In a little reversal of the "invite odd-ball friends to play with you" theme, the Hippo feels that she is overlooked and ignored, then is finally invited to join the others. She takes a bit of time to realize that she really can be part of the group if she is willing and probably could have been so earlier if she had just asked. It's basically a toddler book about low self esteem.

Erin

By: Diana

Diana — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:05:20 +0000

Well, you can’t leave out “Green Eggs and Ham”– great for reinforcing the “try it, you’ll like it” refrain at dinnertime!

Two of our 4-year old’s favorites would have to be “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” by Judith Viorst (which teaches him that it’s OK to have a bad day and that you can’t really run away from your problems) and new one called “Chowder” by Peter Brown. Chowder is a “quirky” dog who is thought of as “weird” by the other dogs but finally finds some animals in a petting zoo who cherish his unique gifts!

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:47:23 +0000

Most children's books have males as the main character. I am a big fan of the "Paper Bag Princess" by Robert Munsch. There is a good list of books for girls here.

http://members.aol.com/brvgirls/bklist.htm

By: Eric Crampton

Eric Crampton — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:45:17 +0000

I didn't think it was available online, but there's a recent NZ kid's book that's rather good. You might remember about four years ago they found a sheep that had escaped shearing for about 5 years -- they called him Shrek. His shearing was done live on national television here, and he was visited by the Prime Minister. I'm not lying. The shearing was officiated by Paul Holmes, who was the host of the main news magazine show at the time.

I was lucky enough to meet Shrek and bask in his royal presence: he made the tour of a few country fairs and such.

The kids at Tarras elementary school, near Bendigo Station where Shrek was found, put out a book about Shrek. Great fun, and available online at http://www.nzine.co.nz/changes/sheepshrek.html

I quite like. The kids came up with the story, and sales of the book help fund the school. Warning for city folks -- this is country kids' take on a sheep's life. Standard practice here has the docking of a sheep's tail when it's young, so Shrek does get his tail cut off, but he's not traumatized by it so neither should be your youngsters.

By: Eric Crampton

Eric Crampton — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:17:35 +0000

The economist's pick has to be Little Red Hen. If you work hard and folks don't help you, you don't have to share with them. Very nice!

Rainbow Fish I've despised. That ruining yourself for others is a source of joy isn't the kind of lesson I plan on giving.

By: trifles

trifles — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:15:10 +0000

Something we've considered in the past is going back to some of the older children's literature, particularly Maria Edgeworth's _Early Lessons._ The stories could use a tiny bit of revision (since at times, the parents can come off as unsympathetic/robotic -- and also, young children no longer need to have their own needleholders), but otherwise they weather very well. The book can be found online here:

http://www.archive.org/details/earlylessonswith00edgeuoft

In looking up her info for this comment (hi, I'm delurking, by the by), I found this quote on Wikipedia regarding her style, and I think it's spot on:

The preacher Robert Hall said, "I should class her books as among the most irreligious I have ever read ... she does not attack religion, nor inveigh against it, but makes it appear unnecessary by exhibiting perfect virtue without it ... No works ever produced so bad an effect on my mind as hers."

By: Patti

Patti — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:02:17 +0000

I’ve noticed the same point about “The Rainbow Fish” and his buy off plan. I don’t really like that either. I don’t often choose to read that to my son, but for some reason the neighbor kid likes to come over and ask me to read it. When that happens I just try to emphasize sharing as the good point and hope that they’re still too unsophisticated to pick up on the subtext.