The first book we read in the infamous Llama Llama series, this book is a great back to school or first day of school book, taking a child through the honest journey from anxiety to fear to joy.

This reminds me of a more interactive and playful version of Eric Carle's "Brown Bear" book, featuring a little girl learning different things from different animals. We like making animal noises and motions while reading through it.

Although at its root this is a cultural book, we love this book for its story lines. The interplay between link and ting, and the collection of cute short stories make this an easy nighttime read that is fun, multi-cultural, and easy to pace.

There are a lot of books in this series, so we'll recommend you buy one and if you like it - just get the whole set. It's rare that someone doesn't love this series, as it's incredibly short, very engaging for children, and one of the first books they'll be able to read on their own. We like making standard voices for the characters. When I read it, I use a Forrest Gump voice for elephant, and a southern belle voice for Piggie... but you can make that call for yourself..

A very short board book by quirky and infamous author / illustrator Sandra Boynton. We love this book because we make parts of it a song, and the kids join us along our out of pitch performance. Its especially good for pre-talkers that are drawn in by the illustration and your ritual interaction with them throughout the storyline.

Our differences make us unique. It's a mindset we've always taught our kids, and this book is a great story built around this mindset. The story is a journey from defeat to inspiration to joy, and kids love it. Add in the fun illustrations, and common but quirky story line, and you'll keep coming back to this book.

This is a longer book, but well done. The imagination, illustration, and storyline is cute. The story is built on a plot line that has some older values in it (queen cooks for king, daughter is pretty with lots of suitors and in an arranged marriage)... but these points are brief and not the focus, so this book still gets our recommendation.

We love the cause and effect analogy stretched out across the silly interactions between a boy and a mouse. This book never gets old, and is always a hit.

A short book, simply illustrated, with poetic and rhyming writing. This series focuses on the change of seasons, and the fun things and bad things about them. We love reading these to our kids after a change of season to get them excited and remembering events from last year.

A focus on adopting a growth mindset using imaginative characters, and a mix between story and rhyme.