Bug Books!

Young kids love bugs and with the weather finally starting to warm up they are popping up all over too. It's a great time to go for a bug hunt outside and then come in and share a good book. Here are a few suggestions. Photobucket "The Very Lonely Firefly" by Eric Carle is a must have big book for toddlers. Young children love it when they can correct the book's mistake. So the firefly in this book is looking for friends and keeps seeing bright lights in the dark night, only they aren't what they appear to be. My son adores telling the firefly what the lights really are. The final page of the board book version has real flashing lights which make it a fun book to read in a dim room. Photobucket "Some Smug Slug" by Pamela Duncan Edwards is an awesome book. The text is short enough for toddlers, but sophisticated enough for older preschoolers too. There are so many levels to this book, depending on your audience you can make it a fast read or you can dive in deeper. If you dive in deeper you will notice that all the animals start with the same letter, s. There is a hidden s in even rich illustration by Henry Cole and it's not easy finding it! The story itself is about a slug that is well, smug right up until it's final moment. Great book to read while learning about the letter s. Photobucket "What a Pair!" by Megan McDonald is a really cute and funny book about working together and rolling with the punches. Bee and Ant are best friends and every year for the dress up party they go as pilgrims until this year. We get to follow them brainstorm new ideas, get frustrated when know one can tell what they are and accept that sometimes the best plans don't work out in the end. The text is long but the illustrations by G.Brian Karas are so cute that even fidgety toddlers may sit for the whole thing. Photobucket "One Hundred Hungry Ants" by Elinor J.Pinczes is brilliant. The book may use ants as a manipulative but really this is a book about division. 100 ants are marching in one straight line to get to a picnic, but the smallest ant is sure that if they go in 2 , 4, 5,then 10 lines instead it will be faster! The test is delightful, my son even though too young to grasp the math lesson loved the repetitive text and it was a thoroughly enjoyable book to read. Photobucket " I Love Bugs" by Phileomon Sturges is a great factual book about bugs geared towards our youngest little bug lovers. The text is simple, the illustrations are bright and the facts are kept simple. There is no in depth explanation of the butterfly life cycle but the facts that are presented are a perfect introduction to bugs. Books like this that can present information in a way that toddlers and young preschoolers will retain and enjoy are rare, great book!

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