B is for Book

I love books. All kinds of books. Small ones and big ones. True ones and fiction ones. Books with pictures and books with words. I love them all, every book, every word.

I've been a consumer of books my whole life, well at least since I could read/hold a book.  So it's only fitting that I pass this obesession on to my kids. My dream is to build them a library of books that they can cherish and come back to even when they are older and have outgrown Good Night Moon and Peekaboo Morning.  

So I am always on the hunt for a great book to read to my kids {and now that my oldest has begun reading, books that he can read to himself}.  Right now, I'm definitely partial to books written in rhyme.  It just makes it much more enjoyable to read over and over and over and over {you have a bazillion books, why do we have to read It's Lovely When You Smile AGAIN?!?}

But there are so so many children's books out there: from board books to picture books, from classics to new creations.  It's really hard to know where to start or end.  So I was excited to find this yearly list of the "Best Baby Books" by the Fred Rogers Company {yes, that Fred Rogers a/k/a/ Mr. Rogers}.  Here's this year's list for books published in 2010:

• Baby Baby Baby! by Marilyn Janovitz   
• Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig,  Illustrated by Marc Brown {I LOVE this one...so cute}
• Fiesta Babies by Carmen Tafolla,  Illustrated by Amy Cordova
• Hip Hop by Catherine Hnatov
• I Like Fruit by Lorena Siminovich {I Like Vegetables is delicious...I mean good too :-)}
• One Pup’s Up by Marsha Wilson Chall,  Illustrated by Henry Cole
• Pocketful of Posies by Salley Mavor
• Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy by Denise Fleming
• Switching on the Moon compiled by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters, Illustrated by G. Brian Karas
• Tuck Me In! by Dean Hacohen, Illustrated by Sherry Scharschmidt

Here are a few of my kiddos' favorites:


{Okay so this is mommy's favorite, but both the words and the illustrations are just wonderful!}