Books Teachers Recommend for Introducing Children to the
Wonder of Words
by Melissa Taylor
You don’t have to be a teacher to help your children notice wonderful word choices in picture books. Read these books to show children the richness of words, and how words can be used to evoke all kinds of sensations: sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and physical or emotional feelings. Teachers use these books in writing workshop; now you can use them at home.
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Honey
Available from:Bear can’t wait to taste honey again but it’s not the right season. Waiting, he notices the world around him. Then when it’s finally time, Bear savors the sweet taste.
"Warm, golden, sweet, / clear, slowly flowing, // spicy, aromatic, / sparkling with sunlight --."Also available from: -
Worm Weather
Available from:Dynamic verbs capture a brother and sister’s rainy day adventures.
“Splish, splash, / sidewalk dash! // Worm, worm,/ wiggle, squirm.”Also available from: -
I Walk at Night
Night is the cat’s time to explore. Captivating descriptions evoke the prowling journey of this curious house cat.
“I tread on silken toes. / I wear my furry clothes. / Even in clover.”Preorder from: -
Canoe Days
Available from:Readers are transported to a perfect day of canoeing with glimpses of a fawn and ducklings, butterflies and fish. Paulsen sets a peaceful tone with his vivid word pictures.
“Across water so quiet it becomes part of the sky, the canoe slides in green magic without a ripple.”Also available from: -
Come On, Rain!
A little girl and her mother share what it’s like for them in the city during a heatwave. When they get the downpour of rain for which they’ve hoped, all the neighbors celebrate in the street.
“Up and down the block, / cats pant, / heat waves off tar patches in the broiling alleyway.”Preorder from: -
Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin
She’s just a beginner at the violin but Hana practices with vigor so she can play well in the upcoming school talent show. Well-crafted prose brings Hana’s culture and music to life.
“Ojichan played every morning. From his study, the clear, / bright notes would drift upstairs, through the shoji screen / doors to where Hana slept on sweet-smelling tatami mats, / and coax her awake as gently as sunshine.”Preorder from: -
Piggie Pie!
Clever word combinations and alluring alliterations are used throughout this story about a very hungry witch who wants to eat a pig pie. She’s sick of “mashed dragon-tongue pudding” and “boiled black buzzard feet” so she goes to Old MacDonald’s Farm to search for pigs … with hilarious results.
"Look, Shorty, I've been quack-quacked here, moo-mooed there, and clucked-clucked everywhere all over this farm."Preorder from: -
Rattletrap Car
Available from:The family’s excited for their adventure to the lake, if only their rattletrap car would get them there. The author’s wonderful use of sounds words (onomatopoeia) captures the noisy ambience of riding in a rundown car.
“Flippita fluppita / fizzelly sizzelly / wappity bappity / lumpety bumpety / clinkety clankety / bing bang pop!”Also available from: -
Trapped! A Whale's Rescue
Available from:Precise, descriptive words invite readers into a compelling story about a massive humpback whale trapped in a net, then rescued by divers.
“Towering waves cascade / down her leathery back. / She arches and leaps. Boom!”Also available from: -
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In the Land of Milk and Honey
Sensory word images give readers a vivid sense of place as a little girl travels from Oklahoma to California by train in 1948.
"We ride into late afternoon / past a snake whose body is a pen / writing calligraphy / on the paper-dry earth."Preorder from: -
Things to Do
A study of vibrant verbs, this gorgeous picture book provides an entree to imagination. If you were dawn, or rain, or a honeybee, here’s what you would do...
"Things to do if you are RAIN / Polka dot sidewalks. / Freckle windowpanes. / Whoosh down gutter spouts. / Gurgle into drains. / Patter 'round the porch / in slippers of gray. / Tap dance on the roof. / Then . . . / go away."Preorder from: -
Betty’s Burgled Bakery: An Alliteration Adventure
Someone has burgled Betty’s bakery. As the police search for clues, the mystery is recorded in playful alliterative sentences from A to Z.
“My counters and cupboards were completely cleared of carrot cake, cornbread, and crackers. // This is a considerably crummy crime.”Preorder from: -
Over and Under the Snow
As a girl and her father ski, they talk about the animal world above the snow and below it, creating a detailed picture of the surrounding wintry wonderland.
“Under the snow deer mice doze. They huddle up, / cuddle up against the cold in a nest of feathers and fur.”Preorder from:
Special thanks to the writing teachers who informed this article: Marcie Atkins, Dawn Little, Katie Wood Ray, Stacey Shubitz, and Kristina Smekens.