Preschool

Get the best, up-to-date recommendations on children's books, activities, games, toys, and learning ideas for preschool age children.

Find picture books, nonfiction books, and read aloud suggestions.

Discover educational toys and games.

Here are some quick links to get you started:

Children's Book Recommendations By Age

Book Lists for Kids By Topic

Read Aloud Book Lists

New Books for Growing Readers Ages 5 to 8

If you have a child or student who is learning to read, you’ll be on the lookout for the BEST books to keep them interested, excited, and growing. There are several new Acorn books from Scholastic that will transition children from early readers into the easiest “chapter books” which are illustrated stories with easy […]

Storytelling Games That Will Get Your Kids Thinking Out of the Box

Engage kids with storytelling games. Once kids start telling fictional narrative stories out loud, it will improve their written stories. When I teach kids how to write stories, we generally start out loud. In other words, we think, plan, and share orally before writing silently. Of course, not all kids are oral processers but sharing out loud helps organize our thoughts and gives […]

17 Ways for Kids to Learn New Vocabulary

Fluent readers need a big vocabulary. The more words a child knows, the better reader and writer they are. (Anderson and Freebody, 1981; Graves, 1986; Stahl, 1998) (DOE, NAEP, 2011) It’s up to us as parents to help our children learn and develop a large vocabulary. The best way to learn new words is to […]

31 New Picture Books, September 2020

You probably can guess what I’ve been doing lately — reading piles of picture books! This month’s selection explodes with many can’t-miss treasures to add to your libraries and classrooms. Because there are so many new books, I organized the list by topic. Enjoy! Table of Contents Identity / Antiracism […]

5 Parenting Strategies to Develop a Growth Mindset

I have a daughter who dislikes challenges. She’d rather give up than persevere. This is probably hugely affected by her sensory processing disorder and ADHD. How, I don’t really know. But I do know that she does not have what professor Angela Duckworth calls grit and author Carol Dweck calls it a growth mindset. Or at least it’s hidden […]

Seven Secrets to Raising Eager Readers

Hi. I’m Josh. I write picture books like Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast. The 4th book in the series, Short & Sweet, releases next week! Because I’m an author, you might assume that I’ve always loved to read. You’d be wrong. I felt reading was a chore and grew up without an appreciation […]

17 Witches in Children’s Books

If your children like books with magic, reading about witches will transport them into wonderful, magical worlds. Discover picture books and chapter books about witches, for Halloween or anytime. Witches in Picture Books A Very Witchy Spelling Bee by George Shannon illustrated by Mark Fearing Young witch, Cordelia, loves spelling and spells. So much that […]

14 Picture Books that Break the Fourth Wall

When storytellers break the fourth wall, whether in film, plays, or books, it means that they break the imaginary wall between the storyteller or actors and the audience. On a theater stage, the invisible fourth wall is the invisible boundary at the front of the stage between the actors and the audience. In books, it’s […]