62. Color Farm by Lois Ehlert

Bibliographic Citation:
Ehlert, Lois. Color Farm. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1990. 40 p. ISBN 978-0397324408.

Awards/Selection Lists:
None

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:
Cut-out shapes reveal colorful farm animals which are identified in text on each page.

Personal Reaction:
Animals are created through the use of cut-out shaped pages of different colors. Animals are created through the combination of each layer of pages under the cut-out page, and accompanied by matching text. This book offers learning for young children through a simple method of combined colors and shapes created from the cut-out pages.

Age Recommendation:
I would recommend this book for children 3-6 years of age.

Themes/Issues:

Shapes, colors, farm animals

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.

Narrative Skills: 
Children are invited to participate in the narration of the story through shape, animal, and color identification. 

Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is not a direct focus of this book.

Print Awareness:
Each animal and shape is identified through large, black, capital letters which spell out the corresponding name of each.

Print Motivation: 
Children will enjoy naming the animals, objects and colors on the page, and seeing how the pictures change as the pages are turned.

Vocabulary:
The vocabulary in the book focuses on shape, animal, and color identification.



Author/ Illustrator Website:
No official website

58. Hide and Snake by Keith Baker

Bibliographic Citation:
Baker, Keith. Hide and Snake. New York, NY: Harcourt, Inc., 1991. 40 p. ISBN 978-0152339869.

Awards/Selection Lists:
None

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:
A colorful snake hides among many different brightly colored objects, inviting the reader to find him. 

Personal Reaction:
Keith Baker's vivid illustrations are paired with simple text to encourage children to seek out the snake on each page. Children become part of the story through hunting for the snake, and are encouraged to help narrate the story through its simple plot.

Age Recommendation:
I would recommend this book for children 3-7 years of age.

Themes/Issues:
Hiding, camouflage, snakes, garden

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.


Narrative Skills: 
Children are encouraged to help narrate the story through finding the snake and guessing where he might be next.


Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is highlighted through the rhyming text of the story.


Print Awareness:
The text of the story is printed in a large, simple font, dancing along the edge of the illustrations of each page. This fun way of incorporating the text draws attention to the words as they correspond with the pictures.

Print Motivation: 
This simple story, with bright illustrations, and rhyming text is fun to read and to listen to. It also provides a game of hide and seek that will engage children.


Vocabulary:
The vocabulary is centered around the things that snake hides among, and includes familiar words for young children. 



Author/ Illustrator Website:
http://www.keithbakerbooks.com/

56. Red Sled by Lita Judge

Bibliographic Citation:
Judge, Lita. Red Sled. New, NY: Antheneum Books for Young Readers, 2011. 40 p. ISBN 978-1442420076.

Awards/Selection Lists:
Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review; Best Children's Book of 2011
School Library Journal, Starred Review
Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review
CCBC Choices, 2012

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:
A group of animals borrow a child's red sled and enjoy sledding down the hill together before returning the sled to the place where the child left it.

Personal Reaction:
This nearly wordless book is a delightfully fun book. The text of the story consists of sound effects, in various font sizes and colors, that support the illustrated details of the story. Illustrations bring the animals' facial expressions to life, and the reader is able to live out the joy that they feel as they sled down the hill through the night.

Age Recommendation:
I would recommend this book for children 2-5 years of age.

Themes/Issues:
Animals, winter, borrowing, joy, fun

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.


Narrative Skills: 
Narrative skills are encouraged through the mostly wordless pages of this book. Children are encouraged to participate in telling the story through the details that they see in the illustrations.



Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is addressed through the use of phonological text to represent sound effects in the story.

Print Awareness:
The text of the story is printed in areas of the illustrations to show how they connect to the sounds that would take place during the action being represented.

Print Motivation: 
This book offers an entertaining look of the joy that animals would feel if they were able to ride a sled. Children will enjoy reading this book and being a part of the nearly wordless story along with creating sound effects to support the story.

Vocabulary:
Readers and children create the vocabulary for this story through describing the events in the illustrations.

Author/ Illustrator Website:
http://www.litajudge.net/

54. White is for Blueberry by George Shannon

Bibliographic Citation:
Shannon, George. White is for Blueberry. Illustrated by Laura Dronzek. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books, 2005. 40p. 978-0060292751.

Awards/Selection Lists:
ALA Notable Children's Book, 2006

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:
This book is about looking at things from a different perspective to see that additional colors can be associated with the objects.

Personal Reaction:
This concept book introduces color awareness in a way that suggests looking at things from a different perspective. Colors are associated with illustrations on a page, and the words do not match the pictures, until the reader turns the page to reveal how the color of the object changes  from a changed perspective. An illustration of a black crow begins the book associated with the word "Pink", which is revealed on the next page of pink babies hatched from eggs. 

Age Recommendation:
I would recommend this book for children ages 4-6 years of age.

Themes/Issues:
Colors, looking from a different perspective, discovery

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus if this book.

Narrative Skills: 
Children are invited into the narration of the story through color and object identification.

Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is not a direct focus of this book.

Print Awareness:
The text is part of the story as the words change colors to match the illustrations.

Print Motivation: 
The vivid colors of the book, paired with the discovery of the objects make this a book that children will want to revisit, even on their own.

Vocabulary:
The vocabulary in this book relates to colors and changing perspectives to see inside the objects on the page.



Author/ Illustrator Website:
http://www.georgewbshannon.comcastbiz.net/

45. Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Bibliographic Citation:
Seeger, Laura Vaccaro. Green. New York, NY: Roaring Brook Press, 2012. 36 p. ISBN 978-1596433977.

Awards/Selection Lists:

Caldecott Honor, 2013
ALA Notable Children's Books, 2013
Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Booklist Starred Review
The Horn Book, Starred Review
Kirkus Reviews Starred Review
School Library Journal Starred Review

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:
This award-winning concept book represents objects and animals in varying shades of green.

Personal Reaction:
Objects and animals representing varying shades of green are revealed through the die-cut pages of this book. Acrylic painted artwork represents each object of green.

Age Recommendation:
I would recommend this book for children 2-5 years of age. 

Themes/Issues:
Green objects, shades of the color green

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.

Narrative Skills: 
Children are encouraged to participate in naming the green objects on each page.

Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is not a direct focus of this book.

Print Awareness:
Simple text which identifies the name of the shade of green on the page support the beautiful illustrations.

Print Motivation: 
Preschool age children will enjoy looking through the die-cut pages and viewing the beautiful illustrations of green objects on the page.

Vocabulary:
Vocabulary offered by the text of this book pertains to the different shades of green that exist through objects in the world around us.



Author/ Illustrator Website:
http://www.studiolvs.com/website_root/StudioLVS_Home/Home.html

44. My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall

Bibliographic Citation:
Hall, Michael. My Heart is Like a Zoo. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books, 2009. 32 p. ISBN 978-0061915109.

Awards/Selection Lists:

None

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:
Twenty paper animals made from colorful heart shapes are included in this book about emotions.

Personal Reaction:
Animals are created from collages of brightly colored hearts, and are accompanied by simple text describing emotions that match the animal on the page. Alliteration is sprinkled throughout the book, which promotes phonological awareness. The text of the book is printed in a simple to read, white font, which is easily noticed among the bright colors on the page.

Age Recommendation:
I would recommend this book for children 3-5 years of age.

Themes/Issues:
Love, heart shapes, emotions, bright colors, animals

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.


Narrative Skills: 
Simple text that matches the artwork on each page encourages participation from children in the telling of the story, and in making guesses as to the type of animal on each page. 

Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is addressed through periodic alliteration throughout the book.

Print Awareness:
Text is presented in a simple white font against the colorful background of the page and colorful hearts that make up each animal.

Print Motivation: 
The simple text and colorful heart-made animals make this an inviting book for preschool-aged children to revisit on their own or with an adult reader.

Vocabulary:
Vocabulary pertains to each animal name, as well as the descriptions associated with each animal.



Author/ Illustrator Website:
http://myheartislikeazoo.com/

43. Dancing Feet by Lindsay Craig

Bibliographic Citation:
Craig, Lindsay. Dancing Feet!. Illustrated by Marc Brown. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 2010. 40 p. ISBN 978-0375861819.

Awards/Selection Lists:
Gold Winner, National Parenting Publications Awards, 2010
Winner of the Best Books for Babies (Fred Rogers Company), 2011
Publisher's Weekly Starred Review

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:
Children are prompted to predict which animals are dancing as the text and illustrations provide  clues.  

Personal Reaction:
Rhythmic, rhyming text accompanies collage art to provide clues about animals dancing on the floor. The rhythm of the text encourages movement by listeners, while the artwork provides fun visual to each of the animals.

Age Recommendation: 
I would recommend this book for children 2-4 years of age.

Themes/Issues:
Rhythm, rhyme, dancing, clues, predicting

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.

Narrative Skills: 
The rhythmic text and lively collage artwork creates an opportunity for children to participate in the telling of the story throughout the book, as well as make predictions about what animals they think might be coming next.

Phonological Awareness: 
The sounds that different animals make while dancing are represented by silly words that represent the sounds (such as "stompity"). Rhyming text also promotes phonological awareness.

Print Awareness:
Text appears in a dark, kid-friendly, large font on each page. The text becomes part of the graphics on the page, as well.

Print Motivation: 
This book provides a fun, interactive experience that children will enjoy as a group or one-on-one.

Vocabulary:
The vocabulary in this book is connected to rhythms, beat, and animals dancing in the story.



Author/ Illustrator Website:
No official website

41. The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

Bibliographic Citation:
Pinkney, Jerry. The Lion and the Mouse. New York, NY: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009. 40 p. ISBN 978-0316013567. 

Awards/Selection Lists:

School Library Journal Starred Review and Best Book of the Year, 2009
Publishers Weekly Starred Review
The Horn Book Fanfare Best Book, 2009
ALA Notable Children's Book, 2010
Caldecott Medal, 2010

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:
The author/illustrator uses beautiful artwork and very little words to retell Aesop's fable of a lion who spares a mouse's life and is repaid when he needs help.

Personal Reaction:
No text is needed to tell this story. Jerry Pinkney's watercolor paintings are so vivid, showing details and textures that are truly realistic. The story, a classic fable, begins with a mouse scampering across a field away from an owl, as he stumbles across the back of a lion. The lion allows the mouse to live, and later, when the lion needs help out of a net where he has been caught, the mouse climbs into the net and nibbles through to help the lion escape. The lesson represented is that of kindness to others.

Age Recommendation:

I would recommend this book for children ages 2-5 years of age.

Themes/Issues:
Kindness, showing mercy

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.

Narrative Skills: 
Narrative skills are a large focus of this nearly wordless book. Children are encouraged to help tell the story in their own words according to what they see happening in the illustrations.

Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is not a direct focus of this book.

Print Awareness:
Print motivation is not a direct focus of this book.

Print Motivation: 
While there is not much printed text within this book, motivation toward looking at the book, and wanting to hear the story "read" is fostered toward illustrations that are so realistic that they tell the story on their own. This timeless tale is one that children will enjoy looking at and hearing many times over.

Vocabulary:
Vocabulary is not based on printed text, but on the words that the reader shares as the story is told to the child. Kindness and mercy are two words that describe the events of the story well.



Author/ Illustrator Website:
http://www.jerrypinkneystudio.com/

40. Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by by Eric Litwin

Bibliographic Citation:
Litwin, Eric. Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. Illustrated by James Dean. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2012. 40 p. ISBN 978-0062110589.

Awards/Selection Lists:

Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor, 2013

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:

Pete the Cat returns in this book about his four groovy buttons, which he loses one by one, but he keeps his cool throughout the entire book.

Personal Reaction:
Pete the Cat's attitude about life teaches many lessons for children in a very cool way. Using a combination of rhyme (or song, if you download it), and everyday language, Pete teaches that "things will come and things will go", but that we should keep on going with a positive attitude. This book also embeds subtraction of buttons throughout the story.  

Age Recommendation:
I would recommend this book for children 3-7 years of age.

Themes/Issues:
Losing things, positive attitude, subtraction

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.

Narrative Skills: 
Through the use of rhyming text/song, repeated lines, and math, children are invited to become a direct part of telling the story.

Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is not a direct focus of this book.

Print Awareness:
While the actual text of the story is printed in small text, which is not easily seen in a group atmosphere, the numbers included in the subtraction of the buttons is easily seen.

Print Motivation: 
This book is a wonderful book for print motivation, as the song/chant is fun, hip, and easy for children to participate in, and Pete the Cat is a likable character with a contagious positive attitude. 

Vocabulary:
Vocabulary pertaining to subtraction (minus and equals) are presented within the text of the story. Other everyday language is used, including common slang phrases, such as "it's all good".



Author/ Illustrator Website:
Author website: http://www.ericlitwin.com/#!
Illustrator website: http://www.petethecat.com/about

39. Hide & Seek by Il Sung Na

Bibliographic Citation:

Na, Il Sung. Hide & Seek. New York, NY: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2012. 32 p. ISBN 978-0375870781.

Awards/Selection Lists:

Booklist Starred Review, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Starred Review, 2012

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:
A group of animals decide to play hide and seek after the chameleon suggests playing, and the elephant has to find them all.

Personal Reaction:

Age Recommendation:
I would recommend this book for children 2-5 years of age.

Themes/Issues:
Counting, playing, camouflage 

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.

Narrative Skills: 
Listeners are invited to participate in counting from one to ten with the elephant before he seeks for each of the animals. This book provides an opportunity for dialogic reading as children try to predict which animals the elephant will find first.

Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is not a direct focus of this book.

Print Awareness:
Each of the numbers is printed large enough for the audience to see and read out together as the elephant counts.

Print Motivation: 
The beautiful artwork in combination with the game of hide and seek make this an enjoyable book for young children to revisit. The added twist of the champion hiding animal, the color-changing chameleon, also offers an opportunity for children to learn about animals who are able to change colors to blend in with their surroundings.  

Vocabulary:
The vocabulary in the story is surrounded around the types of animals that are represented in the game of hide and seek. The chameleon may be an especially new animal to children, and offers the opportunity for children to learn about color-changing animals.

Author/ Illustrator Website:
http://www.ilsungna.com/home.htm

38. The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

Bibliographic Citation:

Underwood, Deborah. The Quiet Book. Illustrated by Renata Liwska. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010. 32 p. ISBN 978-0547215679.

Awards/Selection Lists:

School Library Journal Starred Review, 2010
ALA Notable Children's Book, 2011
E.B. White Read Aloud Honor, Association of Booksellers for Children, 2011
New York Times Bestseller

Format Examined:
Hard cover

Annotation:

Different types of quiet are demonstrated by different animals through gentle text and soft illustrations.

Personal Reaction:

Different emotions are paired with types of quiet which are personified through adorable animals in the illustrations of this book. The text tells children that there are different types of quiet, including being "the last one picked up from school quiet", "swimming underwater quiet", and "sleeping sister" quiet". There are happy quiets, sad quiets, scared quiets, and fun quiets. The emotions and lessons from this book are quietly meaningful.

Age Recommendation:
I would recommend this book for children 2-5 years of age.

Themes/Issues:

Being quiet, emotions

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.

Narrative Skills: 
The illustrations lend themselves to helping children predict what type of quiet is happening in the picture. 

Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is not a direct focus of this book.

Print Awareness:
Each line of this book is simple and appears near the bottom of most of the pages, calling attention to the connection of the printed words and the illustrations.

Print Motivation: 
The simple text and illustrations enable children to retell this story on their own. The soft, appealing illustrations are inviting for children, as well.

Vocabulary:
Words pertaining to emotions and different types of quiet provide vocabulary throughout the book.



Author/ Illustrator Website:
http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/index.html

37. Jump Frog, Jump! by Robert Kalan

Bibliographic Citation:

Kalan, Robert. Jump Frog, Jump!. Illustrated by Byron Barton. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books, 1989. ISBN 978-0688092412. 

Awards/Selection Lists:

None

Format Examined:
Paperback

Annotation:

A frog in a pond finds himself in danger numerous times, and the only escape is to jump away, until he is caught by children under a basket, and needs help to get away.

Personal Reaction:
The circular text of this book calls for help from the audience to make sure a frog gets away from danger. The title phrase of this book, "Jump, frog, jump!" is repeated as the frog is almost caught by a fish, a turtle, and a snake, which all eat each other. Finally, a group of children catch him under a basket, but one of the children comes and lifts the basket, and the frog jumps away.

Age Recommendation:

I would recommend this book for children 3-5 years of age. 

Themes/Issues:

Circular story, frog, food chain, pond animals, repetition

Early Literacy Skill Value:

Letter Knowledge: 
Letter knowledge is not a direct focus of this book.

Narrative Skills: 
Narrative skills are emphasized through repeated lines this circular story.

Phonological Awareness: 
Phonological awareness is not a direct focus of this book.

Print Awareness:
The colorful illustrations of this book are more prominent than most lines of the story, except for the words, "Jump, frog, jump!", which appear on the pages in yellow in order to promote audience involvement.

Print Motivation: 
The circular story of each of the pond animals eating the next, along with the repeated title line makes this fun book one that children will enjoy revisiting many times.

Vocabulary:
Words that are introduced pertain to pond animals and positional directions.

Author/ Illustrator Website:
No official website