Books for the 3-year-old Crowd

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Grace loves to read.

Actually, that’s not true. Grace hates to read, but she loves to be read to.

Whenever I tell her to read her book, she cries and says, But I don’t know the words! and then the whole thing goes south.

Quickly.

It may or may not have started to change, though. We’ve discovered some “ready to read” books that exchange some of the words for pictures.

Anyway, Grace would be happy to sit on the couch all day long and listen to books. I don’t allow that, tempting as it might be some times.

She really wishes I would.

Here are Grace’s favorite books at the moment:

1. Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor

   Fancy Nancy is by far my favorite book of the moment. I love that she teaches Grace new words in a cool, fun way. Plus, I’m pretty sure that Fancy Nancy is written about me.
   I’m just saying.

   

2. Pinkalicious by Elizabeth Kann

   “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.”
   Since we’ve started reading Pinkalicious, Grace says that line from the book a lot. The book is about a little girl who loves pink… a lot like the little girl at my house.

3. When You Were Inside Mommy by Joanna Cole

   

   We like to call this The Uterus Book. Especially with our impending arrival, we read this one a lot. It’s not really about a new baby, though, it’s about when your small child was in Momma’s tummy. Really well done. I also recommend Joanna Cole’s I’m a Big Brother and I’m a Big Sister books. They’re quite nice. Grace likes to read them, too.

4. The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch

   Any book where the girl saves the boy from certain death is always welcome in my house. I love this book. Love it! I also like the reading I downloaded from Robert Munsch’s website. A lot of his books are on there.

5. I’ll Always Be Your Friend by Sam McBratney

   This one is, sadly, out of print now, but you can still get a copy second hand. It’s about a baby fox who doesn’t want to come home with his mother at dusk. That is, of course, until he gets scared by an owl. It’s a great story about unconditional love, and it always leads to great talks between Grace and I. Things like “Do you still love me when I throw a fit?” and “Do you love me when I’m mad?”

6. Priscilla and the Pink Planet by Nathaniel Hobbie

   Another book about girlie pink things. In this one, Priscilla is totally sick of the color pink, and she goes looking for some other color.

7. Bear Snores On and Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson

   These are holdovers from Grace’s toddler days. They’re part of a wonderful series of books featuring a bear and his friends. Mostly, though, they talk about feelings and situations like being scared and left out and greedy.

8. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr.

   This is a classic, right? The whole alphabet climbs up a coconut tree and topples it over. Grace recites lines from this one, too.

9. Mouse Cookies & More: A Treasury by Laura Numeroff

   This treasury contains four of the “If You Give a…” stories, together with recipes and activities. Grace loves the silly stories. I like them, too, but I never get away with reading just one. If she opens the book, I’m stuck for all four!

10. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendek

    I thought this would scare Grace, so I held off on reading it to her until she found it a month or so ago. In the weeks since, it’s become one of her favorites. She likes that the little boy becomes the leader of the gang.
    Grace also likes how they gnash their terrible teeth and showed their terrible claws. So much that she gnashes her terrible teeth and shows her terrible claws. For a kid as fearful as Gracie, that makes me happy beyond words.

11. Dougal, the Garbage Dump Bear by Matt Dray

    This is a sweet, sweet story about a shabby old bear who gets thrown in the trash. Joe and I both love to read it. Usually to Grace.

12. Unique Monique by Maria Rousaka

    Monique is a little girl who wears a uniform to school. She hates looking like everyone else, but her school won’t allow her to wear fancy hats or hair accessories. It’s a fun story about being your own person.

13. The Usborne Book of Fairy Tales by Heather Amery

    This is Grace’s go-to book for bedtime. She likes Joe to read a story or two from it every night. The stories are short and sparse on details, so it’s perfect for nighttime.

What are your kids’ favorite books right now?

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Tagged as: Author, books, Fancy Nancy, home school, Joanna Cole, learning to read, Literature, Paper Bag Princess, Picture books, Pinkalicious, preschool, reading, Robert Munsch, Shopping, Usborne Books