Storytime Picks

Our favorite titles from live storytime!

Get your thinking caps off the shelves! In honor of our 100th story, we’re celebrating some of our favorite reads, plus more ways you can encourage your children to put their thinking caps on while reading. 

Thinking Jobs: Ways to Engage with Stories

Educational researcher Rudine Sims Bishop once said that books are “windows, mirrors, and sliding doors” into the world around us. This means that books can reflect our own experiences or give us access to experiences we have never imagined!

Sometimes, books can feel like a complex puzzle. Arithmetic problems always have one set solution—but books can be interpreted in many ways. Fiction and nonfiction books, however, typically follow a usual secret formula. For example, in a fiction book there is usually a problem and a solution. These two actions give us access to a lesson that an author wants us to learn! 

When reading with young children you can take advantage of this secret formula to help promote children’s thinking and understanding. Below are some simple, but deep thinking, questions you can ask your child anytime you read together.

Fiction Thinking Jobs:

  • What is the problem?
  • What is the solution?
  • How would you describe the characters? (Hint: Look at their actions and words!)
  • How did the character change?
  • What is the lesson learned?

Nonfiction Thinking Jobs:

  • What is the topic?
  • What did you learn about this topic?

Give it a try with some of our favorite books from storytime!

Diverse Voices

Amazing Grace
by Mary Hoffman
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Tar Beach
by Faith Ringgold
9780593377864

Julián is a Mermaid
by Jessica Love
Julian Is A Mermaid Cover

Freedom Summer
by Deborah Wiles
519FE8c4wyL. SX258 BO1,204,203,200

Martin’s Big Words
by Doreen Rappaport
51kj6kPHswL. SX258 BO1,204,203,200

I Like Myself!
by Karen Beaumont
515zFL5TxUL. SX258 BO1,204,203,200

Max and the Tag-Along Moon
by Floyd Cooper
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Last Stop on Market Street
by Matt de la Peña
51l2lGyPzsL. SX258 BO1,204,203,200

Mommy’s Khimar
by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
51iKsXdY9AL. SX258 BO1,204,203,200

Mango, Abuela, and Me
by Meg Medina
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Come On, Rain
by Karen Hesse
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Jabari Jumps
by Gaia Cornwall
41ZiEvjGwFL. SX258 BO1,204,203,200

Grace for President
by Kelly DiPucchio
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Big Red Lollipop
by Rukhsana Khan
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The Day You Begin
by Jacqueline Woodson
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The Colors of Us
by Karen Katz
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La Princesa and the Pea
by Susan Middleton Elya
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Too Many Tamales
by Gary Soto
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Thunder Boy Jr.
by Sherman Alexie
9780316013727 P0 V1 S1200x630

Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale
by Verna Aardema
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Family Favorites

Fish is Fish
by Leo Lionni
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Where the Wild Things Are
by Maurice Sendak
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The Rainbow Fish
by Marcus Pfister
9781558580091 P0 V7 S1200x630

Children Make Terrible Pets
by Peter Brown
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The Pout Pout Fish
by Deborah Diesen
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The Day the Crayons Quit
by Drew Daywalt
51jkjsNPA6L. SX260

Peter’s Chair
by Ezra Jack Keats
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Ms. Whitney’s Favorites

Tacky the Penguin
by Helen Lester Noble
9780395562338 P0 V2 S1200x630

The Great Gracie Chase
by Cynthia Rylant
9780590100410 Mres

A Bad Case of the Stripes
by David Shannon
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Last Stop on Market Street
by Matt de la Peña
51l2lGyPzsL. SX258 BO1,204,203,200

Julius, Baby of the World
by Kevin Henkes
41tsiPPeCIL. SX258 BO1,204,203,200

Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile
by Won-Lyd Paye & Margaret H. Lippert
51dps8eUu3L. SX258 BO1,204,203,200

Ira Sleeps Over
by Bernard Waber
519ESrSccCL. SX258 BO1,204,203,200

The Day the Crayons Quit
by Drew Daywalt
51jkjsNPA6L. SX260

A Sick Day for Amos McGee
by Philip C. Stead
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One Word from Sophia
by Jim Averbeck
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Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type
by Doreen Cronin
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