Good Books That Teach Children How to Live

"Violet's Music" by Angela Johnson

Violet was different from other children. From the day she was born she loved music. She would make music all day long. She tried to get her family to make music with her, but she couldn't. She didn't give up; she kept on looking for someone to play along with her. She wondered if there were other children like her in kindergarten, but she found that no one wanted to play music all day long, so she played all alone. Finally one day while she was playing her guitar in the park she heard someone beating a drum, someone else playing the saxophone, and someone singing. They got together and became a band.

This is a great book for any child who feels different and all alone. It gives them hope and encourages them to not give up.

"A Color of His Own" by Leo Lionni

A chameleon looks at other animals and realizes he is different because he doesn't have a color of his own. Parrots are green, elephants are gray, and pigs are pink, but he changes color wherever he goes. Chameleon tries to be like the other animals by staying on one leaf, but he soon finds that leaves don't stay the same. When he meets an older and wiser chameleon they become friends and chameleon learns that what is on the inside and having a friend is more important than having a color of his own.

Art - Practice mixing colors - Give each child a set of watercolors and have them practice mixing color to match objects that you have brought in such as leaves, crayons, balls, etc.

Created for a
Purpose

"Because of You" by B. G. Hennessy

This lovely book lets children know that they are important and were created for a purpose. They were created to be loved and to love others, to be cared for and to care for others, and to be helped and to help others.

"When two people help, care, share, and listen to each other, they are friends.

When people all over the world "help, care, share, and listen to one another, it is called peace. Even something as big and important as peace begins with something small and precious. It might begin because of you."

"Scaredy Cat" by Joan Rankin

There are a lot of things to be scared of for a little kitten who doesn't understand the world. But Mama Meow explains to little kitten why he doesn't have to be afraid. When little kitten does feel just a little brave and takes a chance, he learns that things aren't always what they seem to be.

This book can be used with the "Scaredy Cat" Bible Lesson about Daniel in the Lion's Den on The Resource Room complete with crafts and activities to reinforce the lesson.

"The Kindness Quilt" by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Minna, a little bunny, goes to school and hears the classic Aesop's Fable, " The Lion and the Mouse". After the story the teacher tells the children they are going to do a "Kindness Project". She asks them to draw a picture of something they do that is kind. Minna does four things that she thinks are kind, but can't decide which to draw a picture about. She ends up using all four for her picture. When she shows her picture to the class they all think it looks like a quilt. They decide to put all the pictures together on the wall to make one big quilt. Other classes get involved and the kindness quilt keeps growing and growing.

Have your children make their own kindness quilts.

"Chicken Sunday" by Patricia Polacco

This is a great book about cultural diversity, kindness, truthfulness, and friendship.
The main characters are three children from different backgrounds who become
friends. They want to get an Easter hat for the grandmother of two of the
children. When they realize they don't have enough money for the hat they
decide to talk to the shop owner to see if they can earn the rest of the
money. When they get to the shop, some older children throw eggs at the
shop and the shop owner thinks that the three children are the ones who
threw the eggs. He calls the grandmother and she confronts the children.
When they tell her it wasn't them she tells them that they will have to
figure a way to show him that they weren't the ones who threw the eggs.
They decide to make him beautiful Russian colored eggs. When he sees the
eggs they remind him of his homeland, and he asks the children to have tea
with him. He suggests that they make more eggs and sell them in his shop.
The children do, and make enough money for the hat.

You can find more information about this book and other on the author's web site. Take a quiz about the story, print out a mini-poster and make a postcard with pictures from the book.

"Mary Louise Loses Her Manners" by Diane Cuneo

Everyone, including Mary Louise, is shocked when she loses her manners one morning because she forgot to pay attention to them. Instead of saying, "Thank you very much", she says, "Spank you very much". And instead of saying, "I'm sorry", it comes out as a burp. Mary Louise sets out to find her manners. She looks everywhere: in her pockets, up her nose, between her toes and inside her shoes. When she doesn't find them there, she searches through the neighborhood to look for them; and everywhere she goes she displays bad manners. She finally finds them under a heap of newspapers in the library.

This is a great book to teach and remind your child about proper manners. The illustrations and the book are comical, and are refreshing ways to teach a not so exciting subject.

Language Arts - You can also use this book to teach your child about idioms - phrases whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definition.

Examples: Mind your manners means to practice good manners, angry as a bear means you are very angry, and back to the drawing board means you go back to the beginning and start all over again. You will find hundreds of idioms on the Dictionary of English Idioms web page.

"Please is a Good Word to Say" by Barbara Joosse

"Cat and Mouse in the Night" by Tomek Bogacki

(PreK - First Grade) In this series of books Cat and Mouse learn that the night is as scary as it seems. Cat and Mouse are left behind by the others and it soon gets dark. At first they are very scared, but soon they learn from the owl that the night can be very beautiful.

The pictures in this book are so charming. This look like stuffed animals that have come alive.

The cat and mouse shapes in this book are simply drawn. Children would enjoy trying to drawing animals like these.

"Skippyjon Jones" by Judy Schachner

Skippyjon Jones is a rambunctious little Siamese cat that loves pretending to be Skippito Friskito an adventure-loving Chihuahua. He rides his stick-horse mouse to old Mexico where he meets a band of chihuahuas named the Los Chimichangos. Skippito helps the chihuahuas fight El Blimpo Bumblebeeto Bandito who stole all the Chihuahua's beans and now was coming for them because they are full of beans too.

This book introduces children to Spanish words through a delightful story. Don't miss the other Skippyjon Jones books in this series. If possible get the CD that comes with the book. Children will love listening to the story read by the author while you flip the pages of the book. Children who are not familiar with Spanish may have a difficult time following the story because it is read very fast. You may want to go over some of the Spanish words used before listening to the CD.

"Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."

This is a great book to introduce children to the story of Martin Luther King, Jr's life. Martin learned at a young age of the importance and power of words. He grew up listening to his father's sermons and saw how they changed people's lives. He decided at a very young age that he would "get big words too". He changed the world with his words and they continue to live on even today.

You will find a Bible lesson that goes along with this book with crafts and activities on The Resource Room.

"The Crayon Box that Talked" by Shane DeRolf

This short story is about a bunch of crayons that couldn't get along, but at the end of the story, when they see a beautiful picture with all the colors in it, they realize that each one them is important and beautiful in their way.

Make a crayon box display and move the crayons as they speak in the story.

“I don’t like Red!” said Yellow,
And Green said, “Nor do I!
And no one here likes Orange,
But no one knows just why.”

At the end of the story the crayons realize that they are all very important when they see a beautiful picture being drawn by the author. You can also draw the picture as you tell the story.

You will find a Bible lesson that goes along with this book with crafts and activities on The Resource Room.

"A Pig is Moving In" by Claudia Fries

A Pig is Moving In is about animals who live in an apartment building. When an apartment becomes vacant they find out that a pig is moving in. They are all very worried because everyone knows that pigs are messy. They all decide before the even meet him that they don't like him. On moving day each of the animals see Pig at different times while he is moving in. They don't talk to him, but do notice the messes he is making. What they don't notice is that he comes back each time to clean up his mess. They tell each other about all the messes Pig makes, getting very upset. They decide to confront Pig and tell him he needs to behave properly if he wants to live in their apartment building. When they get to his apartment and Pig opens the door a sweet smell of cinnamon floats out. When they tell him that they noticed the messes, he apologizes and says he hopes he cleaned them all up properly. All the animals were very surprised and embarrassed that Pig had picked up the messes. Pig invited them in for tea and cookies, and they learned not to judge others before getting to know them.

Peg (Blue Bananas)  

"Peg" by Maddie Stewart
ISBN 0-7787-0841-1

A great book about compassion and loving others the way they are. Peg is a book about a one legged hen.  A farmer doesn't want Peg because she only ahs one leg. He leaves her behind for the fox to find.  Lucky for Peg, Benjamin Bottomly finds her and takes her home to his father’s farm.  Peg wants to be a mother so Benjamin gets her a very large egg to hatch.  When it hatches the baby is an ostrich who thinks Peg is a wonderful mother.  Benjamin keeps bringing home eggs from different types of birds for Peg too hatch.  When one of the beautiful hens makes fun of Peg for being floppy, lame, and plain, Peg's children all say "That is our mother and we love her!"