Rhyme time! 📚
Children's books we've read and don't dread
Reading with my children is one of my favorite parts of being a parent. It’s incredible to have them grab a book, toddle over, hold it out, and ask you to read to them. I’m a sucker for it every time (unless it’s after bedtime, and then you’re out of luck, kiddo, my love for the written word has vanished).
While our family has many favorites, there’s something special about a rhyming book. The cadence required makes reading them a different experience – it feels like some of these lines have ingrained themselves in the fabric of our family.
Having two kids who are nearly five years apart has meant that we’re reading a wide range of books these days and seeing which are evergreen. So I wanted to share some that have lasted, where the edges have been worn down thanks to so many page turns.
All books are linked to our Bookshop.org account!
Board books
CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM
Written by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault / Illustrated by Lois Ehlert
The alphabet is alive and it’s in for a wild ride. A told B and B told C, “I’ll meet you at the top of the coconut tree!” Words spreads and, as can happen at a great party, the venue gets overcrowded and reaches a tipping point. Boom boom!
After six years of reading this one, I can recite at least half of this book without looking at the words. My kids have always loved chanting it along with me. And sure, it can’t hurt to sneak in some letter recognition. But it’s really all about the drama.
EACH PEACH PEAR PLUM
By Janet and Allan Ahlberg
There’s some very satisfying pacing and crafty use of familiar characters hiding in the pages of this seemingly simple board book.
We follow a hodgepodge of fairytale folks, including Cinderella, the Three Bears, Robin Hood, the Wicked Witch, Jack & Jill. Each page has a little rhyme about one character while hinting at the next page’s subject. My kids’ joy in finding these clues has lasted for years. Each page’s character impacts the next one, until they all come together to enjoy some pie in an orchard. Yum.
ALL THE WORLD
Written by Liz Garton Scanlon / Illustrated by Marla Frazee
My praise for this book is deeply biased because it is my heart’s true desire to live in the seaside town that these people inhabit, with its robust farmer’s market, perfect climbing tree, sandy cove for kids to play in, and a cozy local diner.
The story drops you right into a day in a family’s life in this beautiful world. Underneath the simple explanations of their activities – supported by some astonishing illustrations – is a depth of meaning. It urges us to be present, and consider how simple and how vast our own life is. Because, god damn, all the world is wide and deep.
JAMBERRY
By Bruce Degen
Does your kid, like mine, have an insatiable appetite for berries? Do they also enjoy trains and balloons and boat rides and silly merriment? If so, take yourselves on a little ride to the jam jamboree.
There’s not exactly a tight plot. I suppose we follow a couple characters? I do know for sure that it features many kinds of berries and makes me say tongue-twisters like Raspberry Jazzberry Razzamatazzberry. It is absurd frivolity. My toddler requests it multiple times a day.
Picture books
BAKING DAY AT GRANDMA’S
Written by Anika Denise / Illustrated by Christopher Denise
This book is like a warm little hug. In it, we follow three little bear siblings as they walk themselves over snow-covered fields (unchaperoned! The fantasies abound) to grandma’s to bake for an afternoon. They mix ingredients, sip hot cocoa, have a dance party while they wait, and decorate. It’s so damn cozy I can nearly feel the heat from grandma’s oven.
Between the rhymes that outline their baking steps, there’s the chorus: It’s baking day, it’s baking day, it’s baking day at Grandma’s! that we couldn’t help but turn into a song. And it’s sung when the kids do actually bake at a grandma’s house. We always invite this book back into our lives when the weather turns colder.
PASTA PASTA LOTSA PASTA
Written by Aimee Lucido / Illustrated by Mavisu Demirag
This romp of a book plops you right into a happily chaotic family meal, with various family members arriving in succession. We quickly learn about each of their pasta proclivities – Nonna Ana from Catania only likes to eat lasagna… Zia Trini and Houdini only like to eat rotini….
The guests and pasta-making efforts escalate and I always find myself reading with gusto, to match the energy. It builds to a wonderful crescendo and (spoiler alert!) the need to call for pizza at the end.
IGGY PECK, ARCHITECT
Written by Andrea Beaty / Illustrated by David Roberts
I consider the picture books from Beaty + Roberts’s Questioneers series to be modern classics. Through them, we follow the Iggy Peck, Architect; Rosie Revere, Engineer; Ada Twist, Scientist; Sofia Valdez, Future Prez; Aaron Slater, Illustrator; and Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year as they discover their special talents. We love and have them all, so I went with the OG, that brilliant young man, Iggy Peck.
Beaty’s stories are so delightful and thoughtful that you almost forget the skill behind the wordplay. The rhyming propels you forward, making you excited to turn each page and sink deeper in to the stories. And I can’t get enough of Roberts’s unique illustrations, with the fabulously outfitted parents and incredible details like a kid’s room with a wall of Sade posters.
THE SNAIL AND THE WHALE
Written by Julia Donaldson / Illustrated by Axel Scheffler
This is the tale of a tiny snail
And a great big, gray-blue humpback whale.
Whew! In the opening lines we’ve got some alliteration, internal rhyming, and a sense of the scale and whimsy that’s to come. As Donaldson unfolds pages of rhyme and repetition, I start to feel like I’m reading a poetry picture book. And what’s especially lovely is that it doesn’t just rely on the rhymes – we follow the whale help the snail on a mind-expanding adventure, and by the end, the snail is able to help their friend as well.
Plus, it’s quite nice to be handed an explanation as to why I am so drawn to being on the coast…
And she gazed at the sky, the sea, the land,
The waves and the caves and the golden sand.
She gazed and gazed, amazed by it all,
And she said to the whale, “I feel so small.”
