Books that will get kids reading

My little boy loves to read. He's 5 and in kindergarten. And he honestly NEVER gets tired of reading. This morning he begged me to help him find a certain book that I had put up because I felt it has recently become over-read (if there can be such a thing... well, I was getting tired of it). When I didn't jump up to get it for him, he moved on. He wasn't going to wait for me...he wanted to read! He got out an old scratch-n-sniff Christmas Bear book that I loved as a child. It was 6:05 am, and before he got out of his pajamas, and before his dad or I had fully gotten out of bed, he was reading to himself out loud on our bed.

I realize this love for reading isn't the case for all kids. Getting kids to read can be hard. Getting them to write can be harder.

Well, yesterday a childrens' author came to the school I work at. He talked about the writing process, and he got the kids excited about writing. The excitement in the room was catching.

The author was Jerry Pallotta, a native of Massachusetts, who grew up in a fishing and lobstering community. His first book was called The Ocean Alphabet, where each letter of the alphabet represented something you'd see in the ocean. Pretty cool. But then he wrote more alphabet books... and more. Every book on a different topic. Jets. Dinosaurs. Bugs. Reptiles. More and more alphabet books. These books were teaching far more than the ABCs... they were rich with vocabulary that kids were interested in. Then, he added math books. Odd numbers, counting by 5's, Hershey bar fractions. Now, he has more than 60 books in print.

After Mr. Pallotta's presentation, I visited his book display where he was signing each copy that sold. I couldn't decide what to buy. Each book was $6. And I had enough money for 3 books. I would've liked to buy so many more. I ended up getting one for my son, one for his teacher, and one for my nephew in Kansas. Below are the 3 books I ended up with.

The Icky Bug Alphabet Book-
This one is full of fun facts, rich vocabulary, and beautiful pictures of bugs.



Icky Bug Shapes-
This is a fun book that shows how shapes can be found in nature, from oval-shaped lady bugs to the rectangle designs on the cicadas wings. It too, shares gobs of interesting facts that make science fun.



The Skull Alphabet Book-
This one is so neat! On each page is a picture of an animal skull, but you have to guess what animal it is. A is for...? The author gives you clues like how many legs it has and where it lives, but kids have to be detectives to figure it out for themselves.