Madison Public Library - Books for Four Year Olds for Tue, 06 Jul 2010

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:49:48 EST

Books for Four Year Olds

June 2010

I'm Liz, a Librarian at Central and mother of a four and 1/2 year old son. My boy LOVES books, but it can be a challenge to find just the right books for four year olds, as he is now interested in picture books, fact books, graphic novels and comics and the shortest chapter books. So many categories!

It is clear from the list below we are now officially 'into' dragons... which I think is the experience of many families with 4-6 year olds. There are really some inventive ones out there.. including The Pet Dragon, which embeds Chinese characters into the pictures. That may sound too 'teachy,' but the boy does love that one. We've also discovered a couple of new graphic novels for kids: Babymouse (which has mostly action and few words) and Magic Trixie. It is worth noting that my son seems to not care at all about the gender of main characters: Just as with Little Lulu, these two star girls. And we're back a bit into short chapter books again-- this time with Magic Tree House. Night of the Ninja is at home now along with a few others. I certainly thought it would be a few more years before he was interested in books with pictures only every few pages. I was wrong! Most favorite of all on the list, though, is Englebert Sneem. Again, it trumps parental expectation. Its plot involves nightmares and a man who sneaks into your house and sucks up dreams (later nightmares) with a magical machine. I'd have thought 'yikes! too scary!" yet it is the most read book in the house now. What does mom know?!

FEATURING: Engelbert Sneem and His Dream Vacuum Machine, Daniel Postgate . . . Queen of the World!, Jennifer L. Holm . . . Davy Crockett Saves the World, Rosalyn Schanzer . . .

Books for Four Year Olds