Spring Story Time

The first book that I read for my Spring story time was Bloom Bloom by April Pulley Sayre. This delightful nonfiction book features photographs of a diverse range of flowers and habitats. Tulips, California poppies, Eastern redbuds, magnolias, and bluebonnets are just a few of the flowers that are featured. April Pulley Sayre does a wonderful job of both explaining and showing the growth process of plants and flowers in the spring. For example, "Leaves emerge. Stalks surge." Also, "Buds grow. Blossoms show." I'm so glad that there are more nonfiction picture books now that can be incorporated into story times. My audience was mostly babies, so I didn't have the opportunity to do a lot of interaction, but older children could be asked questions, such as, what color are the flowers? what kinds of flowers are these? where are they growing? can you see the caterpillar, and where is the bunny? There is a section at the back of the book that provides more information on the flowers that are featured. 

The second book that I read was When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes. I love all of Kevin Henkes' books and I absolutely adore Laura Dronzek's illustrations. This book takes the reader through the transitions of the seasons from winter to late spring. The illustrations are colorful and vibrant and there are possibilities for many interactive questions while you are reading the book to an audience. For example, how many birds, bunnies, umbrellas, kittens are there in the pictures? What colors are the flowers? What colors are the umbrellas? Why is there snow on the daffodils? When Spring has finally arrived, you're not done waiting because "Now, you have to wait for Summer." 

Alternate Books 

Books that I had, but did not read. 

my spring robin by Anne Rockwell features a girl who is looking for a robin who sang to her last summer. During her search, she sees a bee, a yellow forsythia bush, a magnolia tree, sprouting ferns, a toad, daffodils, violets, an an earthworm. Will she see her robin? 

The main character in Ten Seeds by Ruth Brown plants ten sunflower seeds. However the seeds become victims of insects, animals, and even a ball! Eventually one sunflower blooms and flourishes and at the end of the book the boy has ten seeds. This would be a good book for a counting story time as well. It would also make a great flannel board; I just haven't had a chance to make one yet. 

In Mouse's First Spring by Lauren Thompson, Mouse and Momma explore a day in spring together. They see a butterfly, a snail, a bird, a frog, a worm, and a flower. 

Hello Spring! by Shelley Rotner is another delightful nonfiction book about spring with photographs. The book both tells and shows flowers that bloom, animals that wake up from hibernation, animals that you can see during the spring, and even explains briefly how fruits and seeds can grow into new plants and trees through the process of pollination. There's also a brief glossary at the back of the book. 

In Hooray for Hoppy! by Tim Hopgood, Hoppy is a young rabbit who can't wait for spring to arrive! How will he know when spring is here? By using his five senses of course! When Hoppy hears birds singing, smells flowers, sees lambs, tastes fresh green grass, and feels the warm ground he knows that spring is here. 

In Shake a Leg, Egg! by Kurt Cyrus a mother goose and her goslings watch the last egg waiting for it to hatch. When will it hatch? The mother goose tells the egg, "Buds are bursting open. Sprouts are breaking through. Eggs are hatching everywhere. You can do it too!" Finally, at the end of the story, the egg hatches and a young gosling is ready to meet the world. 

Fairy Tale, Medieval, and Rhyme Story Time

So, this was originally intended to be a preschool fairy tale story time, but my audience was mostly toddlers under two, so I modified the format. I've included the other books that I pulled and a brief blurb about each.

The first book that I read was The Three Bears by Byron Barton. This retelling of The Three Bears features bright vivid pictures. I particularly enjoyed looking at the expressions on Goldilocks' face. The text is short, succinct, and easy for young children to understand. 

The next book that I read was Hickory Dickory Dog by Allison Murray. I read this book after saying the Hickory Dickory Dock rhyme and using a flannel board to illustrate it. I absolutely love this book and it was the book that was just right for my audience's attention span! Zack and his dog, Rufus, are best friends. When Zack goes to school, Rufus does not want to be left behind! A clever rhyme tells the events of Zack and Rufus's day. Rufus sneaks into the school yard, "helps" the children during art class, eats the leftovers at lunch, and jumps into a pile of leaves when the children are working in their garden. At the end of the day, Zack and Rufus go home and Zack gives Rufus a bath. The book closes with a picture of Zack and Rufus sleeping in bed together. 

Alternate books that I did not read: 

Anansi The Spider by Gerald McDermott is a tale of the Ashanti of West Africa in the country of Ghana. Anansi is a folk-hero to the Ashanti. In this tale, Ashanti gets swallowed by a fish and a falcon swoops down from the sky and grabs him. Thanks to the joint efforts of his six sons, Anansi comes home safely. Anansi finds a great globe of light in the forest, but is not sure which of his sons to give it to. He asks Nyame, the god of all things, to hold the beautiful globe while he decides. Anansi and his sons argue about his decision all night, so Nyame takes the beautiful white light up into the sky. 
You can see the beautiful white light every evening; it is the moon! 

Over at the Castle by Boni Ashburn is a delightful book that can be sung to the tune of "Over in the Meadow". In this story, everybody in the castle, such as the lords, the servants, the cooks, the knights, the jesters and the prisoner have jobs to do. But what job do the dragons have? At first, it seems that all the do is laze about. However, at the end of the story, they breathe out flames to go along with the fireworks over the castle. 

How can you not love a little roly poly pony with big eyes who farts? You can't help yourself; you end up loving this pony! In The Princess and The Pony by Kate Beaton, the warrior princess wants a big and strong warhorse. Instead she gets ...... the pony. When the day of the great battle comes, the princess tells the pony, "Just ..... do your best". When Otto the Awful heads toward the princess, he stops in this tracks and pets the pony. Warrior after warrior pauses to admire the pony. Everyone votes the princess and the pony the most valuable warriors of the day. 

Falling for Rapunzel by Lydia Monks puts a twist on the familiar Rapunzel story. When the prince comes to rescue Rapunzel, Rapunzel keeps mishearing what the prince is asking for. For example, when he asks for her to throw down her hair, she throws down her underwear. Rapunzel throws down her dirty socks, not her curly locks. She throws down a cantaloupe instead of a rope. Instead of the prince getting twine, she throws down her swine. Finally, the prince asks for her braid and she throws down her maid! The prince and the maid fall in love and ride off together on his horse. 

Waking Beauty which is also by Leah Wilcox provides quite the twist on the story of Sleeping Beauty! The prince does everything but kiss her. He jumps on her bed, throws water at her, and even shoots her out of a cannon! When he finally does listen to the fairies and kiss her, he's very surprised by what happens next! 

In The Foggy Foggy Forest by Nick Sharatt, children can guess who the shadows are. Some interesting characters in the forest are a unicorn playing a horn, an ogre doing yoga, Cinderella and Snow White in a water-pistol fight, and Little Red Riding Hood in her ice cream truck. 

In this fun farmhouse version of The House That Jack Built, The House That Zack Built by Alison Murray, tells how a buzzing fly stalked by a kitten wrecks havoc all throughout the farm. Zack cleans the dog, collects more cream from Daisy, herds the lambs back into their pen, and rescues the cat from the tree. Then he shoos the fly away and together, the cat, the dog, and Zack sit down and admire the house he built from blocks. 

Nursery Rhymes Story Times!

Today's preschool story time featured nursery rhymes! 

I started off by having the children sing along to Old MacDonald Had a Farm. I had a flannel board displayed for this song and would point to the animals, for example ... a cow, pig, or horse and wait for the children to identify the animal. Then we would continue singing the song.

Then, I read, well actually sang Old MacDonald Had a Boat by Steve Goetz. It's a humorous take on the original Old MacDonald Had a Farm. In this book, Old MacDonald has everything that he needs to build a boat: a truck to haul the supplies, a saw, a hammer, a torch, a sander, and a bucket of paint. At the end of the story, he has finished building his boat and he and his wife use the boat to go water skiing! I thought that the children would like this more than they did; they didn't seem to really get into it. However, not all of the children were preschoolers; some of them were babies and toddlers. So maybe this book would work well with an older audience?

Then we sang The Itsy-Bitsy Spider and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. We also did Roll, Roll Sugar Babies and sang Skinny Marinky Dinky Dink.

The second and last book that I read was Teddy Bear; Teddy Bear (a classic action rhyme illustrated by Michael Hague). First I read the book and then the children and I acted out all of the movements in the rhyme together.

I finished story time with a Baa Baa Black Sheep flannelboard. 

Tree Story Time!

Today, I did a preschool story time with the theme of trees. It was a lot of fun for both me and the kids! 

The first book that I read was Shake the Tree! by Chiara Vignocchi. This delightful story starts with a mouse who sees a nut in the tree. He decides to shake the tree a little to the right and a little to the left to get the nut ..... but a fox falls out! The fox decides to eat the mouse, so the mouse runs right back up that tree! Then the fox shakes the tree and down falls a warthog! After the fox runs up the tree, the warthog shakes the tree and a bear falls out. When the bear shakes the tree all of the animals, all of the leaves, and the nut fall to the ground. Everyone is relieved and happy when the bear decides to eat the nut. It's fun to read this story and shake the book a little bit to the right and a little bit to the left as you read it. Also, this story is very interactive. You can ask the children the following questions: 
1. Who fell out of the tree?
2. Who ran up the tree?
3. Who wants to eat the nut?
4. Who wants to eat whom?

I finally got around to making a flannel board version of Fall Is Not Easy by Marty Kelley. The leaves for the trees that I made were loosely based on his illustrations. I added red leaves with pink hearts and blue leaves with white clouds. I kept the spring leaves, summer leaves, rainbow leaves, smiley face leaves, and jack o lantern leaves. This book is about a tree that has trouble changing its leaves in fall into the traditional fall colors of red, yellow, and orange. In the book, the tree never succeeds into changing into the fall colors, but in my flannel board it does. 

Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson is one of my favorite story time books, along with her other book: Touch the Brightest Star. During the winter, you and the children tap the tree for leaves to grow! Rubbing the tree brings beautiful pink buds to the tree and touching each bud causes the buds to bloom. Give the tree a jiggle and watch the blooms fall off! Shake the tree to cause the red apples to fall. Pat the leaves and blow a breeze to get golden, red, and orange leaves. Clap your hands to bring the snow! Be patient as the bluebird builds a nest and lays a beautiful turquoise egg - your reward is a baby bluebird! 

Alternate Books: 

The Busy Tree by Jennifer Ward 

Tree: A Peek-Through Picture Book by Britta Teckentrup 

Dinosaur Story Time!

Today was dinosaur story time and dinosaurs are a huge hit with the preschoolers!

The first book that I read was Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein. The children absolutely loved this book! The story features Dinah, a young dinosaur who has just hatched. She stomps, chomps, and then she sees two small animals kissing! So, she decides to try that next. However kissing proves hard to master as Dinah whomps a small animal, chomps a big dinosaur, and stomps on a little fish with legs that has just started to walk on land. She tries to kiss another animal, but ends up eating him instead. "Whoops," said Dinah. "Not good." Another dinosaur hatches out of an egg and together the two dinosaurs chomp, stomp, and whomp. The children had a lot of fun chomping, stomping, and whomping!

The next book that I read was Rex Wrecks It! by Ben Clanton. The children loved this story as well. Rex, the dinosaur, wrecks all of the lovely things that Gizmo, Sprinkles, and Wild have built. He wrecks Gizmo's out-of-this-world rocket, Sprinkle's magical heart, and Wild's wooden wonder of wisdom. When Rex wrecks the biggest, strongest, most awesomerific block castle ever, Gizmo gets an idea. His idea is to have Rex help them build their next project. At the end, after everyone admires their project they all wreck it together! The children enjoyed "rawring" along with Rex.
Instead of a third story, I presented a flannel board about ten dinosaurs. Ten dinosaurs are crowded together in a cave. They toss and turn and push and shove and roar! And roar some more! Each time this happens one dinosaur rolls out of the cave (disappears from the flannel board). The children and I had fun counting down the dinosaurs.
I had two more stories that I had set aside for story time, but did not read. These books are as follows:

In Dinosaur vs. The Library by Bob Shea, Dinosaur is on his way to the library and roaring as he goes. On his way, he meets a cow, baby chicks, a shy turtle, and sad owl. He roars at them and wins! Now Dinosaur will roar where no one has roared before ..... the library! The librarian asks Dinosaur to use his inside roar and he does. But here comes the ultimate test - can Dinosaur not roar for a whole story in story time? Dinosaur stays quiet and both Dinosaur and the library win! This book is great for a story time book or a one-on-one read aloud. The children love to roar right along with Dinosaur!

In If I Had a Triceraptops by George O'Connor, a young boy imagines what it would be like to have a triceratops as a pet. He would take her on walks so she could meet new friends, play fetch with her, and train her tricks like sit up, roll over, play dead, and high five! Of course, she might get into trouble for eating his homework or chasing the neighbor's car, but it would all be worth it when she greeted him after he came home from school. This book is great for a story time book or a one-on-one read aloud.

Interactive Story Time!

My new preschoolers have been full of the wiggles lately! So, I decided it was time to have an interactive story time. There's no particular theme to this story time, it's just composed of interactive stories.
The first book that I read was Follow Me! by Ellie Sandall. This book tells the story of a group of lemurs as they chase, hunt, race, and climb their way through the jungle. The children and I counted the lemurs together at the beginning of the story. I asked the children what one lemur was chasing. The lemur was chasing the butterfly. Another lemur was hunting a snail. One of the lemurs was racing a turtle and of course, winning! The highlight of the story is when the lemurs are leaping over stones and almost become a meal for the crocodile! Fortunately, they get away by swinging on vines high above the crocodile's head.

Find a Cow Now! by Janet Stevens is the charming story of a city dog who is tired of napping and chases his tail, grabs onto the rug, and attempts to round up the chairs. Bird tells him that he is a cattle dog and needs to go to the country to find a cow. He's supposed to be herding cows. Dog goes off to the country. When he gets there, he meets a chicken, a pig, and a donkey. He mistakes all of these animals for a cow! The children and I had fun making the chicken, pig, and donkey noises. And of course, we got to give great big MOOs! The dog and the cow go through the city and cause a huge commotion. They go back to the country together and Dog goes back to his home in the city. He is happy that he found his new friend, a cow.

Where Are You? by Sarah Williamson tells the story of a green snake following a pink snake and trying to find the pink snake. The pink snake hides in various places: on a boat, under a lily pad, in a truck, in an airplane, around a bicycle wheel, and on a light post by the tree. The green snake finally catches up with the pink snake on the light post. The children had a lot of fun pointing out the pink snake and showing me where the pink snake was!

Back to School Story Time!

This morning I had my "back to school" preschool story time. Granted school was already two weeks in session, but this was when I finally got it organized and ready to go !

The first book that I read was The Pout-Pout Fish Goes to School by Deborah Diesen. The main character in this book is a young fish, Mr. Fish, who is experiencing his first day at school. Unfortunately for him, he keeps going to the classes for the older and more experienced fish by mistake. Try as he might, he cannot print his name, make a rhombus, or do long division. During each of his experiences trying to accomplish something he "flub-flub frowned making blub-blub bubbles then he plopped down his pencil and he counted off his troubles: Trouble One: I'm not smart! Trouble Two: I'll never get it! Trouble Three: I don't belong so Trouble Four: Forget It!" The kids listened patiently to Mr. Fish's litany of woes once, but not the second time; so I didn't read them throughout the rest of the story.
The story finishes with a positive "I can do it" attitude when Mr. Fish's teacher, Miss Hewitt, tells him "Don't you fret! You don't have to know things you haven't learned yet!" She reassures him by saying "You're a fish who is smart. With practice you will get it. Young fish, you belong-don't you ever forget it!"
The story ends with Mr. Fish and his classmates successfully learning new things! "The class got to work, and Miss Hewitt helped them through it. They listened, then they tried ...... and everyone could do it"!

The next book that I read was If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff. This charming story is about a mouse who keeps wanting and asking for things and constantly getting into trouble. For example, "when you give your lunchbox, he'll want a sandwich and a snack for later. Then he'll need a notebook and some pencils." I had high hopes for this story, but this was the story that the children seemed to be the least interested in.

The last book that I read was Dinosaur vs. School by Bob Shea. The kids loved this book! I think it was their favorite story! In this story, Dinosaur faces a number of new challenges, such as: meeting new friends!; dressing up!; glitter, glue, and googly eyes!; monkey snacks!; and making music! But when Dinosaur and his friends clean up, everybody wins! The kids enjoyed roaring along with Dinosaur as he faces each challenge. So much so that we had to stop roaring because we weren't using our "inside roars"! But in spite of that, they still really enjoyed the story!
One on One Read Alouds
I ordered both of these books from other libraries with the intention of using them for this story time. But when I received and read them, I realized that the were too long for story time. That said, they are wonderful books for a parent to read aloud to a child!

The book, Otter Goes to School by Sam Garton, features an otter who decides to be a teacher and she enrolls her stuffed animal companions, Giraffe, Pig, and Teddy in a school. Otter teaches math and Giraffe excels at math! Giraffe gets lots of gold stars. Otter teaches music and Pig has a beautiful singing voice! Pig gets lots of gold stars. But Teddy hasn't excelled at anything! He told Otter that, "he didn't like school. The other students were better than him at everything." Teddy is heartbroken. She waits for Otter Keeper (the man who owns all of these stuffed animals) to get home. Otter Keeper tells Otter that, "everyone is good at something, and that you just need to find out what that something is." Otter decides to have an art lesson and Teddy draws a picture that "was the best picture ever!"

Rosie Goes to Preschool by Karen Katz is a wonderful book about a preschooler named Rosie who provides instructions and reassurance to the reader as she takes the reader through a typical preschool day. This is a wonderful book for a child who is reluctant to start preschool! Rosie also provides helpful tips throughout the book such as: "Don't forget to raise your hand if you want to talk".

Fish Story Time!

I started my story time with The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen. The children loved the story of the pout-pout fish who pouted at everybody because he has "a pout-pout face" and he has to spread the "dreary wearies" all over the place. His life is changed when another fish gives him a big kiss on the lips. Then he starts smiling and smooching other fishes. The children and I repeated the "blub, blub, bluuub" refrain and all of us enjoyed saying "blub, blub, blummb." This is a good interactive book for story time that illustrates the importance of being kind.

The next book that I read was definitely their favorite - Swallow the Leader by Danna Smith. A small group of colorful bright fish start to follow each other and the children enjoyed counting ten fishes including the shark! The shark starts to swallow all of the fish one by one, so the children and I counted down as well. Fortunately for the fish, the shark burps and all of the fish that he swallowed come right back out! I always enjoy a happy ending for children's books.

The last book I read was Poor Little Guy by Elanna Allen. In this story, a cute tiny yellow fish with glasses is caught by a huge white octopus. The octopus teases him saying things like, "let's play catch of the day!" and "how about a round of fish and chips?" However, the little fish who happens to be a blowfish gets the last laugh when he puffs up in the octopus's mouth. The octopus lets him go.

Colors Story Time

For my colors story time, the first book that I read was Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson. I love the Bear series by Karma Wilson and this book did not disappoint! As Bear walks through the woods and greets his friends, he spots the following colors: blue, red, yellow, green, and brown. When I got to the page where a certain color was featured, I asked the children to tell me what color it was. The children loved participating!

My only regret is that the group was too big (25) to point out some of the smaller items on each page and ask the children to identify the color. For example, the blue flowers and blue berries, the red raspberries, birds, flowers, and mushrooms, the yellow flowers, bees, and apples, and the green apples and frog. I think if I had a smaller group (10) pointing out these items and asking the children what colors they are would really enhance the story time experience.

The next book that I read was Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. This is also a great interactive book. Each item in the book was featured in a color that it does not have. For example a lemon is not red, it is yellow. The items that are featured are cut out in a stencil pattern highlight. There were only two things that I didn't like about the book. Some carrots are purple and the moon is silver was too difficult for the kids to guess. I just read it as the moon is gray.

My story time children needed some extra time to "shake their sillies out", so I didn't read a third book. My two possible picks for the third book where Yellow Is My Color Star by Judy Horacek and The Parrot Song by Edouard Manceau.

Yellow Is My Color Star tells the story of a girl explaining that yellow is her favorite color. She mentions the other colors too and there is an illustrated page for each color. Throughout the book, she asks the reader, "Which color do you love the most?" and shows each color as jam that you could put on toast and the colors are illustrated via a queen's gown and crown, frogs, fish, and cars. This is also a good interactive story where you can ask the children what the colors are and also ask them to count the queens, frogs, fish, and cars.

The Parrot Song by Edouard Manceau has a simple catchy text that can also be sung as a song. Different colors are illustrated as rain drops, flowers, and parrots.

City Story Time!

I decided to use the theme of cities for my story time. The first book that I read was Tap Tap Boom Boom by Elizabeth Bluemle. This book tells the story of people caught in a thunderstorm in the city. They use the subway as a refuge and a place to stay until the storm stops. Elizabeth mentions that, "The storm above makes friends of strangers. We laugh undercover at thunder and danger." The book ends with the sun coming back out and the display of a beautiful rainbow! This book is a wonderful interaction book! Together, the children and I tapped and boomed. They really got into it!

The second book that I read was City Shapes by Diana Murray. This also an amazing interaction book. The book introduces the concepts of shapes through objects that are commonly found in the city. For example, the stacks of brown packages are squares. The children had a fun time guessing the shapes, although they found some shapes to be difficult to identify, such as ovals and diamonds.
The third and final book that I read was Count on the Subway by Paul Dubois Jacobs and Jennifer Swender. This is also a very interactive book where the children and I counted the turnstiles, singers, empty seats, cars, etc. Unfortunately some children could not see the book. Probably because there were 47 children! This book might best be suited for a smaller story time crowd.

Toy Story Time!

I did this story time twice. Once for a Pre-K and K class from Martin Luther King Jr., Elementary School and once for our regular preschool story time at the branch. The children loved it!

The first book that I read, I don't like Koala, by Sean Ferrell is a fun and interactive story that invites a lot of participation. Adam receives a stuffed Koala bear, but he does not like him at all! Koala is the most terrible terrible with terrible yellow eyes! His eyes follow Adam everywhere he goes. Adam tries to get rid of Koala by putting him in a pot, stuffing him in a purse, and dumping him in the laundry hamper, and by other means. I asked the children where Adam put Koala. They loved to give me the answers! Adam leaves Koala in the woods one day to get rid of him, but when he comes back home, Koala is there waiting for him! Which is sort of creepy when you think about it, but this is a children's story, not a novel by Steven King. At the end of the story, Koala protects Adam from the monster in his bedroom and they become friends. But Adam's father turns to Adam's mother and says, "I don't like Koala."

The second book that I read, Sleep Tight, Anna Banana!, by Dominique Roques is a funny and charming story about a little girl who keeps on reading when she is supposed to go to bed. She keeps her stuffed animals up but all they want to do is go to sleep. When she tries to go to sleep, they keep her up by making music, bouncing on the bed, and running races around the bed. I asked the children what the stuffed animals did to keep Anna awake and they had fun telling me the answers. At the end of the story, Anna and her stuffed animals reach an understanding and everybody goes to sleep.

The third and last book that I read, I Must Have Bobo!, by Eileen Rosenthal is the story of a little boy named Willie and his search for his sock monkey, Bobo. Earl, the cat, is constantly taking Bobo and hiding him in places. The children had a lot of fun telling me the places where Earl hid Bobo. Some of the children had a hard time connecting the cat with his name, Earl, so in the future, I'll probably just ask, "Where did the cat take Bobo?" or "Where did Earl take Bobo?"

Story Time Books for Building a Better World!

Tomorrow is our summer reading kickoff day! If you're looking for good story time books that tie in with the build a better world theme, look no further! I read these books in a story time today and I'm looking forward to reading them again tomorrow!

Billions of Bricks by Kurt Cyrus is a fun and interactive book that shows the entire building process from beginning to end. The children had a lot of fun guessing what the builders were building and they were delighted and amazed to realize that the builders built an entire city!

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld illustrates what a crane truck, cement mixer, dump truck, bulldozer, and excavator do during a construction job. Then, each weary vehicle gets ready to go to bed and go to sleep after a long day's work. This book features a delightful rhyme and lovely illustrations that were rendered in Neocolor wax oil pastels.
Rex Wrecks It! by Ben Clanton is one of my favorite story time books! As Rex's friends, Gizmo, Sprinkles, and Wild build absolutely amazing things: an out-of-this-world rocket, a magical heart, and a wooden wonder of wowdom, Rex wrecks it! Can Rex learn to play with his friends and build something absolutely amazing with them?

Bang! Boom! Roar! A Busy Crew of Dinosaurs by Nate Evans and Stephanie Gwyn Brown is a wonderful alphabet book! The children loved the story of the dinosaurs as builders and enjoyed guessing what they were building. What did they build? A play ground! We spent some time at the end of the story identifying everything that was on the play ground.

Arches to Zigzags: An Architecture ABC is a nonfiction alphabetical book that introduces the children to various aspects of architecture, such as balconies, eaves, finials, hinges, joists, and keystones. It's an informational and entertaining book with beautiful photographs.