Curious by their nature, children want to explore new worlds, to learn new things and experience new emotions. Awakening their interest in reading, we open not only the gate to education but also to imagination, creativity, innovation.
We, parents and little ones equally, in autumn, love to nest comfortably on the sofa, dressed in the most comfortable clothes and overalls, to cover with a warm blanket and, captivated, turn page after page the storybooks for children. Each character inspires and teaches us a valuable lesson, and each story is a new adventure. Mother’s voice or father’s voice sound the best when we are cuddled in their arms and we ask them many questions about what we have just read together.
iELM has spoken with a few mums and dads and has identified several recommendations of great books in international literature aimed at children aged between 1 and 5 years old. We are listing them in order of children’s preference:
- ”The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, by Eric Carle, a special book with great illustrations.
- ”Corduroy” and ”A Pocket for Corduroy”, written by Don Freeman, a book talking about friendship.
- The book collection of Elmer the elephant, author David McKee; Elmer the elephant teaches us that it is absolutely okay to be different from everyone around you.
- ”The little girl who is colouring dreams”, written by Klaus Baumgart, telling a story on the topic: where do our dreams come from?
- ”Wandering through seasons”, a collection of books written by Rotraut Susanne Berner; the parents build the story themselves, inspired by the wonderful illustrations of these books.
- ”The adventures of Oli the earthworm”, by Olga Gudynn, having in the foreground a brave, but confused/hot-head character: Oli the earthworm.
- ”The girl who wanted to save books”, a story created by Klaus Hagerup and Lisa Aisato about a girl who fears growing up, and a great lover of books.
- ”Erus in the Valley of Patience” and ”Erus in the Valley of Generosity”, the first two volumes of the four written by Alec Blenche.
- ”The Adventures of Dunno and his Friends”, written by Nikolai Nosov.
- ”Aston’s Stones”, the story of a puppy who likes to collect stones from the street, imagined by Lotta Geffenblad.
- ”Bear’s School” and ” Jackie’s trick”, by Hiroyuki Aihara. The common character of both books is a bear little girl named Jackie.
The benefits of reading storybooks with children are well-known, and among them are included image recognition, memory development, spirit of observation development, children vocabulary enlargement and much, much more.
What books do you read with your little ones?
