Reading books with my kids is something I cherish. One day, they will not need me to read to them again so each time I’m asked to read a book over and over again, I try to remember that one day, I will really miss this. Keira has loved books for a long time and Roman (almost 7 months!) is finally at the point where he is getting into it. He studies the pictures and touches the pages like he isn’t sure what to make of it all, but still he seems somehow comforted. For Keira, reading books is one of the only times she is quiet lately and my favorite way to get her to wind down at the end of the day. I’m trying to get into a theme without books so we can reflect and reinforce the lessons she is learning in pre-school so we have been reading all about love and feelings lately with Valentine’s Day quickly approaching. In no particular order, here are a few of our favorites.
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Title: In My Heart
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Title: How Do I Love You
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Title: I Wish You More
Authors: Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld
This book is special to us because Roman “gave” it to his big sister on the day he was born. We have two copies of it, one with a special message from him to my daughter that is more of a keepsake and one that I let her actually touch. 🙂 It doesn’t specifically mention the word love, but it does talk about all the hopes and dreams you have for someone you love. The message is about wanting them to have a good, positive life – basically all the things you want for someone you love dearly.
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Title: Love You Forever
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Title: Guess How Much I Love You
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Title: I Love You Stinky Face
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Title: Dragons Love Tacos
Author: Jo Witek
This book is a new one to us but has quickly become one of my favorites. At 3-years-old feelings can often be challenging for my daughter to express, especially when she is mad. This book takes us through a range of feelings and then afterwards we have a chat about how certain things throughout the day made her feel.
Author: Nancy Tillman
This book is my personal favorite. Sometimes I tear up reading it. The kids probably don’t get it yet. (The baby most certainly doesn’t.) But the message is a beautiful one about how big love is and how deep it goes. The illustrations are beautiful and will make you want to add this book to your nightly reading list.
Author: Marion Dane Bauer
This book is more on the preschooler level. We’ve had it in our “library for a couple of years. Its simple enough that it holds the baby’s attention with the big illustrations and it still is a message that can resonate with my daughter. We read this one nightly for awhile when she was 2-years-old and it was a great way to snuggle her while explaining love to her in terms she could understand.
Author: Bernadette Rossetti Shustak
Similar to “How Do I Love you”, this book also has big illustrations and simple words to explain love. I thought they were actually written by the same person until I looked up the authors for this post. This one was on the nightly read list for awhile too. It focuses on loving them as a person and on good days and bad days.
Author: Robert Munsch
This book was written by a man who had two stillborn children. So, having some experience with that, I bought the book for myself really. I’ve read it to Keira once or twice and every time, I cry. As both kids get older, I hope to read it to them more. As a parent, I can very much identify with wanting to hold your child each night – when they are asleep, peaceful and very easy to love. As the mother of a stillborn child, I try to cherish this with both my living children and know what a blessing it is to just watch them breathe.
Author: Sam McBratney
The story of a child bunny and parent bunny who try to outdo each other on their declarations of love. Anyone who has had similar discussion with their children will appreciate this book. The ending also strikes a personal chord with me because this last declaration of love similar to a phrase we have on our son’s headstone.
Author: Lisa McCourt
This book is a cute story about how a mom will do anything for her child – no matter the way the child looks, feels or behaves. Sometimes I think it’s good to reinforce that message with my daighter. Being a threenager, we have our share of tough days and I try to use this book to explain to her that even on our tough days, I still love her. The child in the book is a boy and he describes animals a boy normally would – dinosaur, alligator, etc. The first time we read this I thought my daughter would be afraid of the illustrations. Luckily she wasn’t, despite her recently developed fear of many things.
Author: Adam Rubin
This book is about loving food. I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a book about loving food! I love food, Keira loves some foods and well, Roman, is learning to love or hate foods. This book is a fun book about loving tacos and hating spicy salsa. Its the first book on the list that brings up the word hate so its a good opportunity to discuss what that means. Dragons hate spicy salsa and so does Keira so they feel like relatable characters to her.
