We have reached the stage of life where I am constantly searching for books that have some sort of teaching component.
Carla loves to read. And I find that reading a book about a topic and then discussing that topic and whatever lessons are inside it really help secure them in her brain.
But I am picky about the books.
The Berenstain Bears series is okay.
We have Too Much TV and The Truth and both are all right. Not perfect – Papa Bear is (as many cartoon/children’s book fathers seem to be) kind of a dolt, who seems to have as much to work on as the cubs do. And that annoys me, for some reason. Not that parents in kids’ books shouldn’t be real and vulnerable and have their own struggles, but… I don’t know. There’s just something mildly irritating to me about how the Bear Family parents come across. They are SUPER CHEAP though, so that’s nice.
I love the Frances books.
We have A Birthday for Frances and Bread and Jam for Frances and we have checked out Bedtime for Frances from the library many, many times. They are not perfect either; I seem to recall that the father threatens to spank Frances in the bedtime story, and I am not a fan of that. But otherwise, I very much admire her parents’ calm, unflappable way of dealing with Frances’s antics. My biggest complaint about the Frances books, perhaps, is that there aren’t enough of them.
Last fall, we were getting some… feedback from Carla’s teachers that she may benefit from a refresher on listening and following directions. So I researched a bunch of books on the topic, looked them up at my local library (NOT IN THE SYSTEM AT ALL), and ordered a few highly-rated books from Amazon.
We read them each once.
(In case it’s not clear, I did not like ANY of them. I Just Want to Do It My Way would have been better titled “Staying on Task” or “Asking for Help” or something. And, in that book and in That Rule Doesn’t Apply to Me, I found the inconsistent rhyming and use of different fonts very irritating. Plus, they seemed to be geared toward a kid a bit older than Carla is. Which I guess isn’t the BOOK’S fault so much as mine. They are destined to be donated, I think. [To be fair, Why Should I Listen was okay. It showed multiple examples of a child not listening, and the consequences. And it also showed a few examples of how bad the child felt when others didn’t listen to him.])
Now, I am looking for books about talking to strangers and being polite and keeping your hands to yourself. I have a bunch in my Amazon cart, and I just need to order them. But what I keep wishing for is these books that I had as a kid.
At first, I couldn’t remember anything about them except that they covered a wide range of topics. But then I found them on Amazon! They belonged to a series by Joy Wilt Berry, and when I was a kid, the series was called “Let’s Talk About…” Looks like the originals came out in the early-to-mid 1980s. Of course, they are long out of print. (It seems like they got revised and republished a few times, as recently as 2000. But even those aren’t sold directly by Amazon.) (I haven’t looked for them anywhere else. YET.)
It makes me laugh to scroll through all the titles. If you take a look at the ones that I remember CLEARLY from my childhood, you may get a sense of what a delightful child I must have been.
I like to think I really absorbed the lessons of the books and have transformed into a polite, honest, non-greedy, hardworking, non-bossy person. But let’s be honest, I’m still not the neatest.
It’s comforting to think of my mother seeking out books in the same way I am now seeking books for my own daughter.
I suppose I can order used copies of some of them. I wonder if they hold up to my memory of them?
Anyway, I am wondering if YOU have any books of an instructive nature – about anything, really, from using good judgment to table manners to making friends to using an indoor voice and everything beyond – that you loved, as a child or as a parent.
In the meantime, I am going to go order some books from the Cheri J. Meiners Learning to Get Along series.
And maybe a couple of other random books for good measure. (At around $3-$6 a book, why not?) (I may have a book buying problem.)
I really like the Mister Rogers First Experience books. The photos are a bit dated, but the messages are still good. Topics include: making friends, the new baby, going to the doctor, going to the dentist, etc. http://www.fredrogers.org/frc/store/books
My favorite food allergy-related book is One of the Gang by Gina Clowes. It’s a good read for friends/classmates of allergic children, not just the kids themselves: https://www.amazon.com/One-Gang-Nurturing-Children-Allergies/dp/1434369978
The Mister Rogers books look great! Every time we go to the doctor I wish I had a good book about the experience.
And I am definitely getting the food allergy book! Carla has a friend with a severe food allergy and a book about the subject would be really helpful!
I don’t have any suggestions (but I WILL be trolling the comments), but I had to say that A Bargain for Frances is one of my most-fondly-remembered books from childhood. I super loved Frances.
I haven’t read that one! Must rectify the situation immediately!
http://www.goodnet.org/articles/25-childrens-books-that-teach-kids-meaningful-values
A favorite of mine that I’ve adapted for various age groups was Mr. Peabody’s Apples. I also love the books: Chrysanthemum, The Giving Tree and The Rainbow Fish.
I’ve got a whole bunch more but can’t get to those files right now! I’ll try to do that over the next few days if you want.
This list is awesome! So many to try!
Still looking for the list I created when I was teaching, so right now I’m working off memory!
Here are two more while I continue to look:
Charlie the Caterpillar by Dom DeLuise
The Brand New Kid by Katie Couric
There are at least two more Frances books (which I also love!). If I remember correctly, they’re called “A Best Friend for Frances” and “A Bargain for Frances” and there may be another one about a sister?
You may also enjoy the Tomie de Paula books, and the Kevin Henkes books.
Yes! We have read the best friend one – very good about valuing siblings and also about being inclusive.
I don’t have recommendations for titles, but abebooks.com is my go-to for scouting used books 🙂
Thanks!! I hadn’t heard of that!
I love children’s books. I’m trying to be better about borrowing from the library but it’s hard. We have a bunch of books from the Best Behavior Series (Hands are not for Hitting, Teeth are not for Biting, Calm Down Time, etc). They helped when my 3 year-old was younger and went through a biting phase, but they are very short and simplistic. Not a fun read, but my son could parrot the central message back to me and remember it when prompted a bit in the heat of the moment.
I wish there were slightly older versions of these topics… but I haven’t found them yet.
We have several of those Joy Berry books as part of the “Help Me Be Good” series. Thriftbooks.com carries them pretty inexpensively.