Fall is a magical time when the leaves on trees change colors and eventually fall off the branches. Looking at the beautiful colors and collecting leaves are lots of fun! Preschoolers love to explore and naturally curious about the world around. Read these stories about the changing of the leaves and learn why trees lose their leaves in the fall.
This book is a visual treat! The pictures are actual leaves and Lois Ehlert’s signature die-cut pages are fantastic. Leaf Man is beautiful tribute to nature and preschoolers will delight in Leaf Man’s wind-blown adventures.
2. Leaf Trouble by Jonathan Emmett–
Learn about the changing of seasons with two cute little squirrels in this story. Worried about the falling leaves, a brother and sister squirrel unsuccessfully try to put the leaves back on the tree. Mommy squirrel teaches them all about fall and reassures them that new leaves will grow in the springtime.
This fun picture book is about an autumn leaf blows that into a barn causing a cow to sneeze. The sneeze sets off a series of barnyard events in this silly tale that will have preschoolers asking you to reread it over and over again! Be sure to check your library for this one!
This rhyming story is a fun, leaf-hunting adventure. Preschoolers love Steve Metzger’s books and the silly sound effects that he skillfully incorporates into the story. This one will become a fall-favorite! Have your own leaf hunt after the story to continue the fun!
The silly old lady is back in this fall-themed story. She goes on a stomach-filling journey, gobbling up fall-themed items (a pumpkin, a rope, and some leaves). Preschoolers will laugh away at all of the silliness going on in this book!
In this beautifully illustrated book, we meet a young fox named Fletcher who is unaware that some trees lose their leaves in the fall. Fletcher is determined to save the leaves from falling off of his favorite tree. Unfortunately each one of his ideas fail to keep the leaves on the tree. After the last leaf falls off the tree, Fletcher carries the little leaf home to his den. He puts it into a nice cozy bed for the night. When he returns to his tree in the early morning, a beautiful sight is waiting for him. His tree is covered in sparkling icicles! His tree reassures him that all is fine and that Fletcher is free to enjoy the beauty in front of him without worry for his tree.
Every day Squirrel counts the leaves on his tree. One day, a leaf goes missing and Squirrel sets off to find the missing leaf. Along the way, Bird joins in and the two friends discover who the mysterious leaf thief is! This is a beautifully illustrated story about the natural changes that occur in the fall season.
Disclaimer:
Check your library for these and other fall leaves stories. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂
LEAF STICK PUPPET
Continue the leaf fun by making Leaf Stick Puppets–Go on a leaf hunt and collect leaves to make your stick puppet pals.
Jane Cabrera’s nursey rhyme books are the best! I love the illustrations, her sense of humor, and the positive portrayals of some dark stories. The sheep keeps generously giving its wool to the girl and other animals, allowing everyone to have something cozy to wear or snuggle into. Eventually, however, sheep runs out of wool. Now what is going to do? The little girl comes up with an idea to repay the sheep’s kindness. She knits a sweater for sheep to wear!
This is a whimsical, humorous story about a sheep who can’t fall asleep. Russell struggles at bedtime, thinking maybe it’s not dark enough. Perhaps he’s too hot or too cold. Maybe he needs to adjust his pillow! We’ve all felt like Russell at some point. Finally Russell decided to count things in hopes that he falls asleep. Hmm, what should Russell count? Why sheep, of course! This does the trick and soon Russell is fast asleep.
This book is so funny! My son and I just cracked up reading it. This book is about a whimsical, but clueless sheep and the sheepdog who tries to protect her. Sheep is a self-declared expert at watching sheep. When the dog arrives to take over the position, sheep decides to help sheepdog do the job properly. Sheep pins back the dog’s hair from its eyes, finds some binoculars, and gets a map. While sheep is being “helpful,” the dog has to save her from predators, as well as her own mishaps because she is not paying attention. After both go through so much trouble to help the other, sheep realizes that she is NOT a sheep watching expert. What is she supposed to do now? Dog suggests that maybe sheep is dog-sheep. Of course! Everyone knows that sheep is an expert at watching dogs.
My son loves all of these sheep stories. His favorites are “Sheep Take a Hike,” “Sheep Blast Off,” and “Sheep Go to Sleep.” Each story is silly and the sheep always seem to accidently cause trouble! Preschoolers can relate to good intentions going wrong. Get ready for lots of giggles as you read this set.
Although not a book solely about sheep, I had to include this beautifully illustrated and rhythmic bedtime story. Darkness is falling, the stars are out, and its time for young animals to go to bed. The term for each baby animal is given as each little one snuggles in with a parent. In this sweet book, the parents provide love and comfort and wishes for sweet dreams to each animal. The story ends with a mother putting her child to bed. Good night.
Little lamb is just a baby and too shy to leave its mother’s side. Preschoolers will be able to relate to the longing to try something new and the trepidation that often comes with venturing out on one’s own. Little lamb meets lots of animals, but isn’t ready to go off and play yet. It’s okay to do things are your own speed and comfort level. When a little mouse and its mother come along, little lamb finally feels brave enough to step away from mom and play with its new friend!
Preschoolers will love this rhythmic story featuring lots of fun sheep. They’re swinging and sliding, playing and traveling, near and far, and some are even in space! But where is the green sheep this whole time? Read this one and find out! My son loves this book and says that you have to check it from your library because it is so good 😊.
In this silly story, poor sheep is trying to sleep in the barn, but all of the other animals are noisy. One by one, they all come to the barn quacking, mooing, neighing, clucking, and oinking while sheep is trying to sleep. Preschools will enjoy the rhymes and the funny illustrations of sheep growing more and more exasperated with each new visitor. Check this one from your library and find out if sheep ever gets to sleep!
Check your library for these and other sheep stories. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading:)
It’s Spring and cute bunny stuff is popping up everywhere! Preschoolers can’t resist cute little rabbits. Here is a list of my family’s favorite bunny books. Check your library for these and other stories with bunnies, rabbits, and hares.
My son loves Rosemary Wells’ stories! The Easter Bunny brought him this book one year and he immediately wanted us to sit down together and read it 🙂 In this story its Max vs. his sister, Ruby. Both bunnies want to make a cake for Grandma. Max wants to make a gross worm cake and Ruby wants to make an angel food cake. Max makes his cake but it’s missing something—red hot squirters. When Ruby sends Max to grocery store, Max tries to add the red hot squirters to the list, but he can’t write yet. Max inadvertently keeps spilling Ruby’s ingredients, resulting in more trips to the store. Finally Max draw a picture of the red hot squirters and the grocer gives him some. Soon both cakes are ready. Grandma is so excited—She doesn’t know which to eat first!
In this funny book, P.J. Funnybunny doesn’t want to be a rabbit anymore. He lists all of the bunny things that he is sick of, and thinks that life would be better if he was a different animal. First he tries being a bear, but that wasn’t exciting enough. P.J. then tries living with birds, beavers, pigs, moose, possums, and skunks, but nothing is quite right. Finally P.J. Decides that he wants to be a bunny and he hurries back home to his family.
A mommy rabbit gently reassures her little bunny that no matter what may come or where the little one may go, mommy will always be there. The little bunny comes up with all sorts of fanciful scenarios that would take it away from mommy. Mommy, however, always has the perfect reply. A beautiful story about the strength of a mother’s love.
Bunny loves attending the library’s outside Storytime. But when it gets cold and Storytime moves inside, Bunny is left out. Bunny comes up with a plan to sneak into the library at night and take books home to read. Soon Bunny’s friends want books too. When the animals sneak into the library, there’re caught by a librarian. The librarian gives the animals their own library cards! Now they all get to check out books and discuss their stories at Bunny’s book club 😀.
It’s springtime and little bunny is too excited to sit still. There is so much to see and do! Bunny is super busy chasing dragonflies, making new friends, and checking out the world around it. When mama bunny calls, baby bunny races home to tell mama about its fun adventure. This book is not very long and has fantastic illustrations, making it a great choice for wiggly preschoolers.
This is a silly rhyming story about a boy and bunny who appears on his head one day. At first it seems like having a bunny on your head might be a problem, but both boy and bunny quickly show that you can do anything with a bunny on your head. Get ready to giggle as the boy races down a hill on a sled, eats, and drives a moped with a bunny on his head!
This story is a children’s classic! Little Nutbrown Hare and the Big Nutbrown Hare take turns saying how much they love each other. Preschoolers will enjoy the hares’ analogies of the size of their love–as high as they can jump, to the tips of their toes, and to the moon and back! This is a lovely and reassuring bedtime story to read with your little love.
It’s nighttime, but Rabbit doesn’t want to go to bed (preschoolers can relate!). Rabbit thinks that if it doesn’t get dark, then he won’t have to go to bed. Rabbit hatches a plan to catch the dark in a cookie tin and not let it out so that rabbit can stay up. In this story, preschoolers learn the importance of nighttime, and eventually rabbit agrees to let the dark out of the cookie tin. The reader gets to lift the flap and open up the cookie tin, releasing the dark in an awesome pop-up!
Mr. McGreely has dreamed of planting a vegatable garden. Finally, this is year that is going to do it. Three little bunnies are excited about the new vegetables he’s growing and they sneak in to eat the yummy food each night. Mr. McGreely builds fences, walls, a moat, and finally a fortress around his vegetable garden to keep the bunnies out. It looks like the bunnies are finally locked out of the garden. Mr. McGreely does a happy dance and carries his basket into the fortress, across the moat and over the wall to pick his vegetables. But who is that hiding in the basket? It’s the bunnies! Muncha, muncha, Muncha!
No bunny books list is complete without Peter Rabbit! In this board book edition of the original Peter Rabbit story, preschoolers can get to know this naughty bunny who sneaks into Mr. McGregor’s garden. This version is shorter than the original, but still has Beatrix Potter’s charming illustrations.
George is a very curious monkey and always seems to get into trouble. One day, George finds a family of bunnies in a hutch. The bunnies look so soft and fluffy. George really wants to hold one, so he opens the door and takes out a baby bunny. Uh-oh, the bunny hops away and now George can’t find it! George didn’t mean to lose the bunny and he feels bad. He looks everywhere, but the bunny is still missing. Mommy bunny comes to rescue and finds her hidden baby! Yay! George puts the bunny family safety back in their hutch.
This book has just the right about of humor and spookiness that preschoolers love! Jasper Rabbit loves carrots and eats them all of the time. All is well until the carrots start to follow him. . . (cue creepy music). My son loves this book and it’s sequel, Creepy Underwear. It was not scary for him at age 3, and he thought it was really funny.
Check your library for these and other bunny books. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂
More Bunny Fun!
Bunny Maze: help the bunny get through the maze to the yummy carrot!
Ten books about eggs and the animals that hatch from them! Discover some of the baby animals that begin their life in an egg. These egg stories show us that it is more than just birds who come from eggs.
In this book three frogs discover an egg. The frogs believe they have found a chicken egg, so when the egg hatches and a green, scaly animal emerges, the frogs call it a chicken. Your preschooler will laugh at this case of mistaken identity! Leo Lionni is not only a great storyteller, but his illustrations are also fantastic. Preschoolers will love the reunion between mommy alligator and baby alligator, or mommy and baby chickens as the frog say!
Self-described good egg, Shel, is nice and kind to others. He is constantly trying to reign in the “bad eggs.” After a numerous attempts change the other eggs’ behavior, Shel begins to crack up from the stress. He needs some self-care and quiet. He goes on a healing journey of self-discovery, where he realizes that no one is perfect and that he really doesn’t need to police other eggs’ behaviors. Shel returns home with a new, positive outlook toward his friends and a responsibility to take care of himself. The silly pictures lighten the deep message to make this book an enjoyable read for both parents and kids.
My preschooler loved this book! We ended up buying it because he wanted to read it so much. This book is the sequel to The Good Egg, and tells about the great adventure all of the eggs go on. While not an outright Easter story, the eggs do dye their shells in an assortment of colors. The eggs hide throughout the store and wait for Shel to find them. A hilarious egg hunt ensues as Shel searches for his friends. He finds all but one! Meg is missing. The friends have to work together to find their missing friend and complete their dozen.
There are four little eggs: a pink egg, a yellow egg, a blue egg, and a green egg. This sparely worded book tells the story of these little eggs. All but the green egg hatch. The baby birds are curious about the green egg. They peck and peck and peck at the egg. Finally the egg hatches and you will be shocked to see who is inside! Take a look at this sweet book about acceptance and friendship with your preschooler and find out who is in the green egg. This book is a great introduction to graphic novels, where there are few words and the storyline is largely dependent on the illustrations.
Did you know that dragons lay eggs? In this dragon bedtime story, Flicker and his sister, Flame, have 10 minutes until bed. These little dragons take to the sky and zoom all over the place. Along the way they discover a lost egg. With only minutes until bedtime, Flicker carries the egg back to its mommy. They made it just in time too, as the egg is beginning to hatch! Flicker gets to watch the baby dragon hatch before returning home just as his 10 minutes are up. Preschoolers will love this rhyming dragon tale!
Rooster is so excited that his baby chick is about hatch! He goes running through the farm years yelling, “Hurry! Hurry!” so that all of the animals will be able to witness the birth. The farm animals are quick to comply and everyone makes to the barn in time to see the baby chick pecking it’s way out of the egg. This book only has 2 words per page and relies heavily on the pictures to help convey the urgency. Preschoolers will get caught up in the excitement of the new baby coming.
Gossie and Gertie can’t wait for Ollie to hatch! They grow more and more impatient, but Ollie just won’t come out! Preschoolers will sympathize with the two little goslings who are finding it really hard to be patient. Gossie and Gertie try to help Ollie along by sitting on the egg and pecking at the egg. Ollie and his egg end up on an adventure in attempt to get away from the little goslings. Will Ollie ever come out of his egg? Read this one and find out!
Like all birds, penguins also hatch from eggs. Can you believe that an egg can survive in the cold of Antarctica? Read this egg story and learn how the daddy emperor penguin protects its egg.
9. The Noisy Egg by Judith Nicholls–
This rhyming book tells the story of a happy mother duck who builds a nest, lays her eggs, and waits for them to hatch. One day, she hears noises coming from an egg! There’s some tapping and cracking, but no quacking. Then a beak pokes through and finally a face. The first ducking is here and is soon followed by the others. A short and sweet look at the hatching process presented at a preschool level.
Take a look at all these different kids of eggs. Can you guess what kind of babies are inside? Is it a bird or a turtle or a frog? The authors gives lots of context clues to figure what kind of animals are in the eggs. A fun way to learn about animals!
Check your library for these and other egg stories. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading:)
Egg Crafts
Hatching Chick — make a fun, movable hatching chick craft from a paper plate!
Torn Paper Nest — make a bird’s nest out of construction paper.
Mosaic Egg — use scraps of construction paper to create a beautiful mosaic egg.
My son is really interested in robots and we have been searching our library for robot books. We found some awesome ones and some that really didn’t keep my son’s interest. We’ve rounded up the best ones (in our opinions) to share with you!
My son LOVES this book! He actually clapped after I read it to him! A mysterious UFO lands in Dog’s backyard. A robot space dog appears and Dog is excited to someone who looks like a dog. However, it is the household appliances that the visitor is here for, and they come to life and start to fly around! When play time is over, the appliances return home. Poor Dog feels left out of the fun! Robot space dog gives Dog a special nose and now it is Dog’s turn for adventure! This poetic, rhyming book is absolutely amazing. The story and the pictures will capture your child’s imagination.
Doug and his robot family are traveling through the countryside to visit Doug’s grandbots. The family plugs into the car to receive knowledge about farms. Doug gets lots of interesting farm facts. However, when the car gets stuck and Doug gets to explore an actual farm he finds that hands-on experiences are way cool! Doug combines his new knowledge with the farm facts that he learned to help free the family car.
The adventures of Otto the robot are sure to delight the preschool crowd. Otto is a space robot visiting Earth. Otto misses his family so he builds a robot to take him. Read this funny story to find out if he make the spaceship fly. Otto has several more books, each one sparsely worded with humorous pictures!
In this awesomely illustrated story, we learn how robots are such a huge part of our lives! Robots are in our house, in factories, in the ocean, and even in space — robots are everywhere! Preschoolers will enjoy the rhyming text and might even start thinking of places where they’ve seen robots too.
This book combines preschoolers’ love of Pete the Cat with their love of robots for a story they are sure to enjoy! When Pete’s friends do not want to play the same things he does, Pete builds a robot to play with him. The fun doesn’t last long when Robo-Pete gets out of control! Pete learns that you can’t replace good friends. So even if his friends don’t always want to play the same thing, playing with good friends is fun anyway.
Loosely based on The Three Little Pigs story, this book is a giggle-inducing space and robot adventure. The little aliens set out to build themselves homes, only to have the big, bad robot knock down the first two homes. Will the aliens be safe in a house made of bricks with solar panels and a telescope? Great tool for learning about the planets and interstellar travel! This book is little on the long side and may not be ideal for wiggly kiddos; parents can skip parts to make it shorter if needed.
A young robot discovers a message in a bottle that is signed “Love, Beatrice.” The robot asks the older robots what love is. “Does not compute” they reply as they read the young robot its favorite bedtime story, tuck it in, turn on a nightlight, and give a goodnight kiss. The young robot sets on an adventure to find Beatrice and learn the meaning of love. Along its travels it finds other animals and people who try their best to explain what love means to them, but none of these explanations compute. Finally, the robot meets Beatrice. Beatrice says that love makes her feel safe and cozy and cared for. The young robot realizes that he knows that feeling! Now he has a name for it — love.
This is a non-fiction story about the Curiosity Rover on Mars. It is written in story format with lots of facts sprinkled in at an easy to understand level. We discovered this book when my son was 4-years old and he fell in love with this book! It has 2 of his favorite things: space and robots! Originally we checked it out from our library, but we ended up buying this one. The pictures are fantastic and my son learned so much about Mars and the Rovers! This lead us to explore Nasa Kids Club, which has tons of kid-friendly space information, games, STEM activities, and things to make at home.
You are going to love this sweet story about a boy and robot. After the two meet and spend a day playing, Bot powers down. The boy thinks Bot is sick and tries all of the usual home remedies to help his friend feel better. Unfortunately nothing works. The boy eventually falls asleep next to Bot. When Bot powers back on, it thinks the boy is sick! Bot tries all of the usual robot remedies, but none of them help the boy. The wakes up and both are well and ready to resume playing!
Check your library for these and other robot books. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading:)
This is one my son’s all-time favorite books! Billy Bloo gets stuck in goo. Who will save him? A whole series of silly characters try and rescue him, only to find themselves stuck too. Yikes! A cowgirl, a pirate, acrobats, and even the Queen are stuck, and its starting to look like they may never get out. An unlikely critter passes by, a scared shriek from one of the would-be rescuers, and suddenly they are being dragged out, one-by-one. Hurray! You and your kiddo will be cracking up throughout this book!
Not only does this book have a positive message about loving yourself just the way you are, but the story is a fun read-aloud to share with your kiddo. With awesome rhymes galore, you can’t help but get caught up in the this girl’s exuberance as she tells that world that she loves herself just the way she is. I love the pictures! David Catrow’s illustrations in this book remind of Dr. Seuss’ silly illustrations.
Your preschooler is going to love this one! Silly Sally went to town, walking backwards upside down. Along the way she encounters a pig, a dog, a loon, a sheep, and Neddy Buttercup, who is walking forwards, right-side up. They dance, they play, they sing, and they sleep, before finally making it to town.
Whether you read the board book or the hardback edition, this story is great for preschoolers! It is full of sounds that will have kiddos engaged, giggling, and even making up some of their own! This is one my storytime favorites because they kids have so much fun repeating Mr. Brown’s sounds with me 🙂
In this story we meet a wonky donkey who accumulates more problems, more rhymes, and more giggles as the story progresses. Preschoolers will love mimicking the sounds in this book and laugh as the story becomes even more ridiculous. By the end of book, we have a spunky, hanky-panky, cranky, stinky, dinky, lanky, honky-tonky, winky wonky donkey! My son says you have to read this one!
Lucille Colandro’s “There was an Old Lady” series is a favorite with preschoolers. The old lady is ridiculously silly and the kids love to laugh at her antics and say “you can’t do that” when she swallows a cow, some hay, a pig, duck, horse, sheep, and a fiddle! Why is she swallowing all of these things?
Sesame Street’s Elmo presents silly, tricky tongue twisters that will have everyone giggling! Good luck trying to read these tricky words with a straight face. Both you and your kiddo will be cracking up as you compete to see who can say it fastest! The pictures are filled with Sesame Street favorites and the rhymes are full of great vocabulary words.
This book is great for preschoolers. It has a mermaid, awesome pictures, silliness, and a rhyming story! A couple of kids and dog try and catch a mermaid. They have shiny bait and lots of traps, but the mermaid is quite clever and escapes. Oh no, one of their plans backfires and the kids and the dog find that they are the ones trapped. Yikes, a bunch of sharks are coming! What are they going to do? Mermaid to the rescue! Whoo-hoo, everyone is safely returned to shore 🙂
Fred, a little pug, is in dog school. He learns to stay away from cars and poo (cue the giggles). He also learns a lot of important words, except for what the word “Fred” means. If only he knew how to Fred! Fred goes to ask the dog in the upstairs mirror, but doesn’t get an answer. Only when Fred is rescued by his boy from a duck pond, does Fred realize that “Fred is a name and it is mine!” Preschoolers will love Fred, a wiggly dog with big googly eyes, who tries to wag his tail off.
We love this silly tongue-twisting tale of a hippo that comes down with the hiccups. Its hiccups are so bad that the hippo disrupts all of the animals around him. The animals get together and decide that something must be done to cure hippo of the hiccups. Each attempt at a cure is hilarious and the rhyming, tongue twisters adds to giggles. Your preschooler will laugh their way through this book!
For more silly rhyming stories, take a look at my Dr. Seuss Stories for Preschoolers and ask your local librarian for book suggestions. I’ve included links to purchase these titles on Amazon. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂
Unicorns are amazing! Who wouldn’t want to read a unicorn story? There are so many unicorn books available now and my son and I have read a ton of them! We have narrowed the list down to our top 15 unicorn books (and that was hard to do!).
This is my son’s favorite unicorn book! It’s hilariously told from the viewpoint of a goblin, whose own magical greatness is overshadowed by unicorns. (He can turn a piece of broccoli into broc coli-flavored ice cream and socks into slugs!) The goblin grumbles about his unicorn neighbors, proclaiming that they are the worst, that is until they save him from a dragon.
This rhyming, brightly illustrated story is a fun read! A class on a field trip to the zoo try and catch a unicorn. Silly antics and faulty unicorn traps ensue. But thanks to the zoo animals’ help and a bit of unicorn magic, the kids are the ones who find themselves caught in the traps! This is my son’s favorite in the “How to Catch” series. He thinks it is so funny how the unicorn outsmarts the kids!
This a beautifully illustrated story about a little girl who discovers a young unicorn. Margaret’s family moves to a cottage by the sea where Margaret sees unicorns springing from the water! They disappear as quickly as they arrived, all except for a baby unicorn who got stuck. Margaret saves the baby unicorn and cares for it during the fall and winter. These two form a loving friendship and the unicorn helps Margaret feel more at home in the cottage. Spring arrives and it is time to reunite the unicorn with its family even though Margaret will miss it so much. There is a warm cozy feel to this story and you will find yourself reading this one over and over again.
Uni the unicorn is a magical unicorn who believes that little girls are real! The other unicorns insisted that little girls were make-believe. Uni was certain that there was a little girl waiting to be her friend. In this beautiful story, Uni imagines all of the fun and wonderful things they would do together! At the same time, a little girl was out there believing the unicorns are real and was waiting to make one her new friend. Check out this read-aloud from Brightly Storytime!
Get ready for cuteness overload in this book! Kitty thinks she’s a unicorn and she sets out to prove it. However, when she meets a real unicorn, she doesn’t feel very unicorny anymore. Unicorn surprises everyone by saying that he is really a kitty-corn and unicorn whips out his cute fluffy kitty ears and puts them on his head! Now both of them are kitty-corns.
Is it a unicorn or a narwhal? A young unicorn named Kelp lives under the sea with a group of narwhals. Kelp feels like he doesn’t quite belong under the sea. One day, he meets a bunch of unicorns on land and they are just like him! These unicorns teach him all kinds of cool unicorn stuff. So while being with unicorns is awesome, Kelp misses his narwhal family. He returns home to tell them that he is actually a unicorn, not a narwhal. His family new that the whole time, but it didn’t stop them from loving him! In a beautiful display of love, family, and friendship the narwhals and the unicorns all get together at beach where Kelp can be with everyone at the same time. Preschoolers will love the beautiful illustrations throughout this book.
Little Miss Sophie is a self-proclaimed unicorn expert. She dresses her toys, dog, and little brother as unicorns and then teaches them all about unicorns. She seems to know a lot about unicorns, but is so busy being the teacher, that she doesn’t notice when a real unicorn sneaks into her group. My son loved to point out the “real” unicorn in the illustrations and laugh as Sophie misses her new student. Preschoolers will love the cute pictures!
We love Bob Shea’s humor and illustrations! This book is full of humor, rainbows, cupcakes, and lots of fun! In this book, Goat is feeling insecure after Unicorn moves into the neighborhood. We’ve all felt like this at one point. Now Goat is questioning whether his bike is cool. When Goat and Unicorn bond over goat-cheese pizza, Goat learns that everyone feels insecure sometimes, even unicorns. Great story for illustrating the message that everyone has their own talents.
We love the Sparkle books! In this first one in the series, a little girl named Lucy responds to an ad for a unicorn. She sends in her money and waits for her unicorn to arrive. Lucy imagines the perfect unicorn and just can’t wait for her new friend to get here. However, when her unicorn arrives, it is not all what she pictured. Sparkle isn’t very tall, is not pink, and looks like a goat.
Peppa Pig and unicorns, preschoolers say, “yes, please!” Suzy and Peppa are playing with Peppa’s wooden horse, but they think that playing with a unicorn would be even more fun. Peppa tries using her imagination, but Suzy wants a real unicorn toy. The girls add rainbow ribbons to the horse’s tail, and then it looks a little more like a unicorn, but not still not enough for Suzy. When they go to bed, Daddy Pig transforms the horse into a pretty unicorn! Wow! Preschoolers will love seeing their T.V. pals in this book and will enjoy the sparkly book cover.
A unicorn appears in this cute interactive book! Unicorn is sad and it is up to the reader to help unicorn feel better. By waving out fingers to make magic dust, swishing the book, telling unicorn jokes, and being a good friend, the reader helps make unicorn feel better. A sweet story about the power of talking to a good friend.
This Ten Minutes to Bed series is the cutest! In this one, little unicorn isn’t sleepy even though dad says it is ten minutes to bed. Little unicorn uses her remaining minutes to explore her Ancient Forest home. This is a magical place with unicorns and a gnome mushroom village, trolls, dragons, a magical transporting rainbow! Little unicorn makes it home just in time and quickly falls asleep. Preschoolers will love the rhyming text and adorable, bright illustrations!
Do unicorns only reveal themselves to people who believe? In this book, you be the judge to whether it is a horse in a hat or a unicorn hiding its horn. The author poses a series of scenarios as to help determine whether it is a horse or a unicorn throughout the book. It’s just a horse having a bad hair day so that’s why it is in a hat, right? In the end, the author suggests that perhaps you have to believe in unicorns in order to see them. Your child will love guessing if it is a unicorn or a horse.
This “Never Let a Unicorn” series is perfect for young unicorn lovers! We’ve read quite a few of these. In this series a young girl has a toy unicorn that her imagination brings to life. In this story, the girl doubts the claims to never let a unicorn scribble and decides to give her unicorn a crayon. The unicorn promptly eats it! The little girl doesn’t give up so easily so she shows unicorn how to scribble by making some drawings with crayons. since unicorns don’t have hands, the girl ties a crayon to the unicorn’s horn. The MAGIC horn! A colorful eruption of scribbles fly out of the horn and all of the girl’s room! Uh-oh. Maybe that’s why you should never let a unicorn scribble. Fortunately, it is just the girl’s creative imagination that makes a mess, and her bedroom is exactly the way it was before. There are several more books in this series to enjoy too!
Yay, it’s unicorn day! A day to do awesome unicorn-stuff, be with friends, and have lots of fun! This book is filled with all of the awesomeness that you’d expect from unicorns–sliding down rainbows, singing, cupcakes, and a glitter fight! Everyone is having such a great time that no one notices the brown unicorn with a string tied under its chin. Wait a minutes, that’s a horse! The horse is so disappointed that its horn fell off because it was enjoying unicorn day and doesn’t want to leave the celebration. The unicorns, however, tell the horse to stay because they don’t care that this new friend is a horse. They have all been having lots of fun together and that is more important than whether one is a horse or a unicorn. My child enjoyed this story and loved the illustrations (especially the glitter fight!).
Can’t get enough unicorn-ness?
Unicorn Crafts:
U is for Unicorn Craft: create a unicorn from construction paper shaped like the letter U.
Try these unicorn exercises:
-Are you ready to practice being a unicorn?!? Let’s begin by stretching each leg. Stretch each leg 10 times, and neigh with each stretch.
-Now, it is time for unicorn jumps — jump up and down 10 times with your hands together on top of your head pointed up, making a unicorn horn.
-Let’s do some Hoof Hops — hop on each foot 5 times, rotating hooves.
-All unicorns have to perfect their unicorn prance. Practice your unicorn prance and neighing for 1 minute.
-Magic Sprinkles — wave your arms and wiggle your fingers to spread magic all around. Try this 5 times to make sure that you get magic everywhere!
-Unicorns are great dancers — show off your best dance moves.
–Tail Swish — shake your tail 5 times!
Find the Differences Unicorn Scene:
Can you find 5 differences between these two magical pictures?
Whether it’s February or not, it is always a good time to read about love. Here are 12 picture books about love that are perfect for preschoolers! Check your library for these books and ask your librarian for other book recommendations.
My family loves this book! The dog in this story reminds us so much of our own. Just like the doggy in this story, ours loves LOVE! Plum the dog loves her family so much, but she also loves playing with pillows until they are destroyed, splashing in the pond, and eating ice cream that doesn’t belong to her. Just like Plum, we all make mistakes sometimes, but the love from our family is unconditional.
This book is short and sweet. Diane Adams uses the story of a little girl who is caring for a duckling as an analogy of the love a parent feels toward their child. The girl raises the duckling until it is big enough to join the other ducks in the big pond. Preschoolers will like the gentle illustrations and touching story.
The Beatles’ song is now a picture book! Marc Rosenthal adds beautiful pictures to the words of the song, “All you need is love!” Though sparsely worded, preschoolers will see love in action across the pictures as a cute little blue bird leads the reader through the book. Check your library for this one!
A young robot discovers a message in a bottle that is signed “Love, Beatrice.” The robot asks the older robots what love is. “Does not compute” they reply as they read the young robot its favorite bedtime story, tuck it in, turn on a nightlight, and give a goodnight kiss. The young robot sets on an adventure to find Beatrice and learn the meaning of love. Along its travels it finds other animals and people who try their best to explain what love means to them, but none of these explanations compute. Finally, the robot meets Beatrice. Beatrice says that love makes her feel safe and cozy and cared for. The young robot realizes that it knows that feeling! Now it has a name for it — love.
This story is a children’s classic! Little Nutbrown Hare and the Big Nutbrown Hare take turns saying how much they love each other. Preschoolers will enjoy the hares’ analogies of the size of their love–as high as they can jump, to the tips of their toes, and to the moon and back! This is a lovely and reassuring bedtime story to read with your little love.
Pete the Kitty is so cute! My preschooler loves this young kitty and your kiddo will love this little guy. In this book, Pete names all of the things he loves. He loves his family, his friends, his guitar, ice cream, and playing. This is a great conversation starter for you and your little one to talk about all things that you love.
Jane Yolen’s rhyming How do Dinosaurs series does a great job of breaking down concepts and demonstrating good behavior for preschoolers. Mark Teague’s illustrations are full of humor and the dinosaurs species are listed inside the book’s cover. In this dinosaur book, the families say I Love You in a variety of ways. Even when young dinos misbehave, their parents reassure them that they will always be loved. You’ll find that you and kiddo will be telling each other how you much you love them after reading this book together.
I discovered this sweet story at my library and fell in love. This book is a beautiful representation of a dad’s love for his son. It reminds little one’s that their dads’ love is as powerful as a rocket ship flying into space, as big as a whale swimming in the ocean, and loud as lion’s roar. Kids will enjoy the illustrations filled with fire trucks, rockets, and race cars, and all sorts of animals. The text is short and melodic, making it a great choice for bedtime.
This is a great story about the loving bond a family shares. Kids will enjoy the rhyming text and the silly animal antics. The cows go to the moon, the yaks take a Cadillac, the sheep set sail, and more silliness. The continuous refrain of “I will love you” will gently reassure preschoolers of their family’s love. A great choice for bedtime!
My son loves this book and its sequel, Zombie in Love 2 + 1. Mortimer, a zombie, is looking for love, but without any luck. DiPucchio’s story and Scott Campbell’s illustrations make this funny book a winner! Preschoolers will giggle at the kid-appropriate zombie grossness, such as of a limb falling off in another of Mortimer’s failed attempts at finding love. The reader will cheer for Mortimer through all of his dating attempts and be delighted when he finally meets the zombie of his dreams.
Love Monster is this cute, hairy, kinda googly-eyed monster. He lives in Cutesville which is full of the cutest little animals. Love Monster finds that it is hard to fit in here, so he heads out to find a friend. Preschoolers will giggle as Love Monster searches high, low, and inside. Just when Love Monster thinks that there isn’t anyone out for him, a friend pulls up in the bus headed for Cutesville. It goes to show that friends and love find you unexpectedly. Preschoolers will love this sweet story and adorable illustrations!
Olaf is full of love and we love him back! In this sweet Olaf story, our favorite snowman goes around the kingdom of Arendelle, pointing out everything he loves. He loves flowers, hugs, and his friends most of all.
Check your local library for these picture books about love! If not, I have included links to purchase them on Amazon. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂
Snuggle up together and read these hug stories with your little one! Hugs are sure to follow 🙂 These sweet stories are perfect to read with preschoolers. While none of them are holiday stories, they are great for Valentine’s Day and all year-long!
Hank is a grumpy cactus who sits in his pot all alone. He looks out at the desert and watches as tumbleweeds, cowboys, lizards, and other creatures go by. Hank does not like being disturbed and he does not want a hug. He yells at everyone to leave him alone. When they do, Hank finds the being alone has become lonely. A hug sounds pretty nice now. He devises a plan to make friends with Rosie the tumbleweed. Hank grows a beautiful flower to give her. The next time Rosie tumbles along in the wind, Hank offers the flower. Rosie happily excepts the flower and hugs her new friend, but now she is stuck to Hank. They find that stuck in a hug with a friend is a great way to be stuck!
My coworker gave this book to my son and oh my gosh does he love it! This story is about a little boy who calls himself the Hug Machine because he loves, loves, loves to give hugs. He hugs everyone and everything, including porcupines and blue whales. This book is full of humor and heart and ends with a special hug just for the Hug Machine. Check your library for this sweet story.
Join Olaf in a game of hide-and-seek. This is a fun interactive book, where the reader gets to “play” with Olaf. Olaf’s joy is contagious as he asks the reader to give him a hug. Olaf runs splat into the book page and bonks his nose. He mistakenly thinks that the reader is playing a game and that he can’t get a hug until the game is over. Olaf suggests Leap Troll and Ring Around the Reindeer before settling on hide-and-seek. All right, no peeking as Olaf hides. I hope you can find him because Olaf really wants a hug!
Tiny T. Rex’s friend, Pointy, is a sad and Tiny wants to give him a hug, but his arms are not very big. Tiny goes around asking his family for advice. While everyone offers ideas, none are quite right until Tiny asks his brother and sister. They tell him to practice. So Tiny puts everyone’s advice together, makes a plan, trains hard, and practices hugging. Kids will laugh as Tiny mistakenly practices on a cactus and the leg of a flying dinosaur! In the end, Tiny hugs Pointy and Pointy declares that it is the biggest hug ever.
Kai, a little mer-boy, loves to give hugs, which he and mama call a squish! He hugs all of his ocean friends with exuberance. But one friend, a puffer fish, doesn’t want to be squished! Kai learns that everyone shows affection in different ways. Turns out puffer fish likes to give fin-bumps! This is a sweet story that helps little ones understand that we have to respect our friends’ boundaries.
In this story, a hug between a slug and a beetle turns into a giant group hug, as more and more animals find themselves in need of some comfort! Preschoolers will love the pictures in this book and enjoy seeing their favorite woodland animals. The author’s rhyming text gives a quick overview of each animal before they join in the group hug. Along comes bear and suddenly, all of the animals are scared. Will anyone hug bear? Slug will! Soon all of the animals are back in the group hug 🙂
A little porcupine wants a hug, but no one dares hug these spikes! Poor porcupine. But then porcupine meets snake, who isn’t scared of porcupine’s quills. Finally, it is hug time, and what a lovely hug it is! There is a friend out there for everyone. Preschoolers will enjoy this short story and expressive illustrations.
I hope you enjoy these stories as much we do! Just so you know, to help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s affiliate program. So if you buy the book through one of the links on my site, I get a may small percent from the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂
The Lunar New Year is a world wide celebration, although it is heavily celebrated in East Asia. It ties in with the coming of spring and a time of rebirth. I’ve selected books about the Chinese New Year because I am most familiar with it, but ask your librarian for Lunar New Year books about other cultures! For preschoolers who do not celebrate the holiday at home, these books will provide a gentle introduction. I picked books that are relatively short, have great pictures, and feature some familiar characters to keep kids’ interests.
This is a great choice for preschoolers learning about Chinese New Year. It is a short story, with bright illustrations. In this book, a girl is excited for the new year to come. Her family prepares by cleaning, hanging decorations, getting haircuts, making dumplings, scaring away the bad luck, and participating in the lantern parade. Finally, it is time to wake the dragon and let the new year begin! My son was curious about why the dragon looked different then the dragons he was used to seeing in books, which lead to a discussion about how European dragons and Asian dragons are different from each other.
Preschoolers love Adam Wallace’s “How to Catch a …” series! They have engaging pictures, rhyming text, and are infused with humor. In this Chinese New Year themed story, the kids are out to catch a dragon. They’ve got their traps ready, but the dragon keeps outsmarting them! Preschools will giggle at the kids’ foiled attempts to catch a dragon.
Preschoolers love the bold, bright pictures that are featured in Maisy’s books. Maisy’s stories provide gentle introductions to a wide array of topics. In this Chinese New Year story, Maisy takes the reader through all of the steps involved with preparing for the New Year. Her friends come over to celebrate with her. They all wear red, eat yummy traditional foods, and listen to the story of the Chinese Zodiac. My son loved looking at the Chinese Zodiac and talking about the different animals. He was so curious about why the rat won the race and what animal represented the year he was born! This was a fantastic book to introduce him to Chinese New Year and prompt further questions and discussion.
Preschoolers love Peppa Pig! Using a beloved character to teach something new really helps keeps kids engaged. So while this is not the most detailed or the most culturally accurate book on the subject, it will provide preschoolers with a good introduction to the Lunar New Year holiday. In this story, Peppa’s class is going to be celebrating Chinese New Year and the kids are so excited! They decorate the classroom with paper lanterns and put on a dragon dance. Peppa’s enthusiasm is contagious and you might find that your kiddo wants to hang decorations too.
This cute story is a Chinese New Year version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It is a little bit on the long side, but it is entertaining! Goldy Luck’s mom asks her to bring a plate of turnip cakes to the neighbors, the Chan family (pandas). But Goldy is hungry and sleepy. Her mother sends her to make the quick delivery. Goldy stumbles into the house to find that the Chans aren’t home. Poor Goldy spills the turnip cakes all over the floor. Before she can clean them up, the smell of rice porridge distracts her. As the tale goes, she eats porridge, tries (and breaks) chairs, and sleeps in the beds. When the Chan family gets home, she wakes up and runs away. In this story, Goldy feels bad to the trouble she caused the Chans and Goldy tries to make amends. She brings porridge, offers to help fix the chair, and clean up the mess she made!
While this story is not about Chinese New Year, it does introduce preschoolers to Chinese American culture. Plus, it helps reinforce color recognition! Told in simple, rhyming text, this is a story about a girl who spots the colors of the rainbow everywhere around her. She goes in rainbow color order, pointing out food, clothing, animals, flowers, toys, clouds, and household items. A glossary at the end of the book explains some of the things that preschoolers might not be familiar with to help further discussion with your kiddo. We had to look up one of the fruits that I didn’t know, so I was learning new stuff too 🙂
Check your library for these Chinese New Year books! I hope you will enjoy them as much as we did. I’ve joined Amazon’s Affiliate program to try and help cover the costs of this site. So if you buy something through one of my links on Amazon, then I might get a small percentage of the sale (no extra cost to you). Thank you for your support!
