Read, read, read!!

If you stopped by here yesterday you will remember I mentioned today is "Read a Book Day." This is one of those days where I REALLY wish I was a teacher and could share in this day with a class of students! Then I would have all of these out for "my kids" to read:

A tub of books in our storage room.

I love reading and that is something I thank my dad for! My dad was one of those dads that no matter what was going on would always do his best to read a book to me before bed every night. Alice in Wonderland was a favorite of ours as was Where the Sidewalk Ends. It was a night ritual I very much intend to share with my own children someday. One of my favorite things as a kindergarten teacher was all the fun books I got to read to my kids everyday! I love reading, little kid and big kid books alike! I thought I might share with you some of my all-time favorite little kid books to share with your own cuddle bugs when you get a chance!

Most of these books can be found on this website of a list of top 100 books, feel free to take a look if you would like and see if your own favorites made the list. However, here are my top ten- for now, there are bound to be books I could not think of!.

10. This Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales
    This was always a favorite of mine because it just has a bunch of silly twist of the fairy tales you here growing up. I used to love reading these to my kindergarten students when we did our unit on fairy tales. This book kind of pokes and makes fun at the fairy tales and usually gives those little darling kids a good laugh! If you have never read any of these, I hope you are able to find a copy soon!

9. Madeline
    I was always a big fan of Madeline. I even loved the cartoon tv show that used to come on. I was so enchanted by the littlest girl in the group and how she always got to such fun and neat things. I was quite a small girl, the second smallest in my grade most of elementary school, so there was a slightly empowering message in these stories. I thought if Madeline can do it, then so can I. Plus, it is really cool because she lives in Paris! :)

8. Miss Nelson is Missing
    I loved this book so much as a kid and even more so as a teacher. I love all the Nelson books! They are just fun stories to read to the students. It is fun to watch as some of the kids figure out what happened in the story with the mysterious sub who made the students BEG to have their Miss Nelson back! It might even give your own students a little push to behave better! :)

7. Pinkalicious
    This is a recent book and therefore a recent favorite. I ordered this book from Scholastic my first year of teaching. I mainly ordered this book because we do colors at the beginning of the year in kindergarten and I thought this looked like a cute book to read for pink day. This book is very cute and an instant favorite with both classes I taught. I literally had to periodically pull this book out of the kids library in our room for fear it would get torn up. Just in case you were wondering- even the boys liked this story all about things pink. By the way there is also now a Purplicious!

6. The Kissing Hand
    This is another one of those books I was not familiar with until I started teaching. This is a book we read on the first day of school. For you mothers out there with babies going away to school for the first time- this book is a must. This story is all about a little raccoon who is scared to go to school and his mother has a very special way of reminding her little one how much she loves him. Be careful, you might need to have tissues near by.

5. The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
    This was another favorite as a kid and as a teacher. I always enjoyed reading this book during our fairytale studies and having the students talk about what they think really happened and which version of the story the liked better. It was always a lot of fun to act out the original story as well as this one. The kids also enjoyed reading along with this book. The parts that happened over and over again, we would read together and they would get really into it.

4. Love You Forever
    This is another book that had stood the test of time and I think a lot of people would consider to be on their top book list. It is such a sweet story of a mother's love and how that love is returned as the child grows up. This is another one I think everyone should read and possibly have tissues for- just in case! ;)

3. Oh, the Places You'll Go
    This book is a favorite because it can be so meaningful. I would read this to my students at the end of the year. I love that this book encourages you to be whoever you want to be. I saw on pinterest where someone bought this book for their child and had every teacher they ever had kindergarten-twelfth grade sign it for them  and gave it to them as a graduation gift. I thought that was so sweet!

2. Amazing Grace
    This book has always been a favorite. It is a powerful story that no matter who you, one can achieve anything that they put their mind to. This is a wonderful story of a little girl who desires to be Peter Pan in her class play and people keep telling her she can't because she's not a boy or because she's not white. The only person who believes in Grace is her sweet grandmother who reminds her she can be anything and anyone she wants to be.

 1. The Giving Tree
     This is my all time favorite kids book. I love how this story shows love and its ultimate gift, sacrifice. The tree has such a great amount of love for this boy that he will give and give and give until he can give nothing more. It always saddens me that he had such a great love and the boy left him. I am reminded how great is the love of my Father in heaven and how often does He show me that only to find I am paying Him no attention. This book always gives me a wake up call.

Well, there you go- those are my top ten. So find one of these, or one of your own favorites and curl up with your favorite cuddle buddy. My cuddle buddy, my sweet little Cash, and I will be reading in bed before night waiting on daddy to get home! Hope you have a wonderful day of reading!