The unparalleled bond of love of mother for child is revealed with stunning simplicity as child asks and mother playfully answers the question of "where did I grow?" A thoroughly memorable book to be read again and again to children 1 to 5 by their mothers of all ages.

Young children will relate to little Llama so secure when Mama is near, so sad when she's out of sight. Llama can be read in a quick and concerned voice while Mama speaks in slower, reassuring tones.

With a twinkle in her voice as she chronicles his wrongdoings, the mother narrator continually reassures her child that regardless of his misbehavior she loves him and always will.

As gentle as the playful lamb on the book's cover, as rhythmic as ocean waves, Mem Fox has created a beautiful bedtime experience for parent and child alike. To be read softly and subtly as the little listener drifts into quiet contentment.

In this slice of Americana, the readalouder will delight small listeners with loud sound effects evocative of a real train ride, paired with a quiet, slowly paced narrative.

The warmth and love between grandfather – who can transform an outgrown garment into an instantly wearable like-new one – and grandson – who can outgrow a like-new garment at a rapid rate – is depicted in every facet of this beautiful book. The unusual illustrations call forth Eastern European shtetl life at its richest; the narrative and dialogue are as ingenious as the grandfather himself. Each of the characters can be portrayed in distinct voices: the quiet, confident grandfather; the emphatic, sometimes nagging mother; and the exuberant, young Joseph whose grandfather, he believes, can fix anything.

Andrew Bear voices very well the conflicts and dreads of an only child awaiting the arrival of a new sibling. He and his two parents provide the readalouder with lots of contrasting dialogue opportunities, and provide little listeners 2 and older with a chance to laugh, identify, and, of course, with a springboard for discussion about the role of an older sibling in bringing up baby.

A wonderful message of diversity and similarity which will be loved and appreciated by the very youngest child. The readalouder's voice can be warm and calm while reading; then animated in talking with little listeners about the outer differences yet inner similarities of the earth's children.

Kroll covers tremendous ground in six short chapters, each opening with a different child asking a parent about how they became a family. Children depicted are a rainbow of colors with diverse backgrounds: Ruben was born into a two-parent family with other children; Katherine Grace, adopted by American parents from Korea; Habib, adopted in this country by African-American parents; Mark was adopted at age four months by his single uncle after his single parent mother died; Olivia was adopted by a single mother who stays in touch with her birth mother; and physically-challenged Nicole is the only girl adopted into a family with boys. To be read in upbeat-spirited style to children ages 3 and older with emphasis on differences in voices between parents and children.

A cheerful young girl narrates her merry tale of happy family and high self-esteem. Describing her "chestnut-brown" mother and her blonde, blue-eyed father, she says, "I look like both of them – a little dark, a little light. Mama and Papa say, "Just right!''' Children ages 3 and older will join in with the readalouder's "just right" refrain every time. Readalouders can use the book simply for entertainment or as a vehicle for discussion about intermarriage among the races.

In a super spoof on "parenting experts", Babbitt shows that the best expert on what's good for the child may be the child. The readalouder can bring to life the characters in the palace – the searching king and queen, the staff, and the prince – through different intonations, pitches and volumes in voice. Fun family reading for children 3 and older.

I Am Really a Princess is a super vehicle for the stand-up comic readalouder who loves to perform a book to laughing listeners. Children 3 and older will enjoy, if not identify with, the young heroine. She is sure that when her real parents, the King and Queen, find her, they will deplore how she has been made to share her room with her sister, go to school, take piano lessons, have no pony, and live a generally non-royal life.

A beautiful testimonial of a child's sense of the unconditional love of both nuclear and extended family. Simple prose and lasting sense of contentment for children 3 and older.

The message of both of these books is: home is more than one culture for many, many people in our multi-national, technology-driven age. In My Two Worlds, a young girl from the Dominican Republic, who resides in New York, is delighted to be on the hot, sunny beaches of her festive first homeland for her birthday, then back again, playing in the New York snow. She loves both places equally. Similarly, the narrator of Grandfather's Journey concludes, "the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for another." Both books are good discussion vehicles for the question of what constitutes home and homeland.

In a wonderful tribute both to individual differences and to grandmotherhood, Wild captures the universal love of children for their grandparents, and within that context, the particular love of one set of grandchildren and one grandmother for each other. Perfect for children 3 and older and their grandmothers of any age. The readalouder can read this slowly so that the emphasis on individual differences comes clearly through.

In an original satire on many a fairy tale, Pulitzer and NBCC winner Anne Tyler proves she's as talented a children's writer as she is an author of adult fiction. This delightful tale of Princess Molly the Messy should vindicate all non-royal listeners ages 3 and older who find security, pleasure and satisfaction among heaps of clothes, cracker crumbs, a bedful of books, and perhaps a stray animal or two. To be read-aloud in all seriousness, with contrast in the characterizations between King Clement the Clean of booming voice, Queen Nellie the Neat of quiet ways, and ever-so-dull, self-impressed Prince Thomas the Tidy.

Some babies come home from the hospital; others, like Joel, come via the airport. Few have such greeting committees as does Joel when all of his parents' friends and their children turn out to welcome him into the community. The book is a grand celebration of the overnight birth of a family when a much-awaited first baby arrives. To be read with rising excitement to children 3 and older.

A poignant tale wherein a once beloved cat, cast aside by new parents, understands them when she has her own kittens. This blank verse is best when read in a quiet tone, with frequent pauses. The sub-text will engender discussion among young listeners of what kinds of changes occur when new arrivals enter the family, and whether and how it's possible to expand the family without older children feeling - for a lifetime - left out.

A wonderful testimony of unconditional love, with a cat as the major character. Spider, a perfectly terrible, unmanageable, unmannerly, ill-behaved creature is adored anyway by his mistress.

Little One in the 30^th Anniversary Edition of The Way Mothers Are will not only reassure children three and older that their actions and parental love need not be synonymous but will also open discussion on this as well as a wide range of other behavior-related questions. Spider the Horrible Cat will similarly stimulate good discussion from children 5 and older. Read hand-in-hand within the family, all children and parents will benefit from the meanings of these two tales.

A beautiful story of a young Russian boy's hesitant journey to America. Through he is with his parents and sister, all seems strange, even when they are greeted and taken home by their already Americanized aunt, uncle and cousins. Then a piece of home surfaces in the most surprising form; and at last he is at home in his newly adopted home. May be read softly and slowly.

A superb depiction of a loving family environment in which a single mother working a night shift is frequently greeted by her two young children when she returns home "by the dawn's early light." They play, eat, and have the quiet family time her work precludes them from enjoying in the evening. A beautiful portrayal of love's triumph over economics and logistics. A good springboard for discussion with children ages 4 and older whose parents work non-traditional hours.

Hershey conveys the true love of place and people through her simple words and uncluttered style. A charming, evocative recollection of a seemingly timeless place and pace. "I wish I lived in that cotton mill town…" is repeated frequently and each time can be read aloud with emphasis on a different word to convey yet a different part of the message.

Songwriter McCutcheon has created a spectacular Adoption Day rhyming story. A must for every family with an adopted child, an excellent choice for school and library readalouders and a great chance for listeners to join along in the refrain. This charming, enduring theme should be precedent setting; for why not celebrate one's adoption day as well as ones' birth? And why not use the book as a springboard for discussion about adoption with interested children, adopted and not adopted, 4 years and older?

With an ear for his ancestors' tales of yesteryear, Hall brings to life a story of turn-of-the-century New Hampshire childhoods recounted by his mother and grandmother. Here Lucy remembers her mother's turning the front parlor into a haberdashery, making and selling hats to passersby. Young readers 4 and older will enjoy hearing about times when families stayed and played together, and love and laughter filled their homes.

Cleary captures the archetypal first – or perhaps only – child with two parents to deftly manage. To be read with tongue in cheek in the voices of tired parents alternating with the ever-alert voice of Petey. It will sound like home to children 4 and older and parents of all ages.

Listeners 4 and older who have gone to work with their parents will empathize as the lighthearted young narrator skips through her story about a day with her Mama's "work family." Listeners who haven't been to their parents' workplaces will no doubt beg to go after hearing of what fun it can be!

In his story of sugaring-off parties of the turn of the century, where whole families participated in dancing, singing, laughing and eating, London depicts simpler, less hectic times. Children 4 and older will love hearing about the excitement, involvement and sheer fun of those times, as the readalouder tries to keep from weeping with nostalgia. A wonderful vehicle for discussion of ways that contemporary families might develop similar customs, albeit in different locations, climates and social times.

Becoming a big sister can mean double trouble when its twin sisters added to the family. With understanding and humor Bunting's young narrator chronicles the problems she faces, adjustments she makes, and the love that she feels in the sudden increase of her family. A springboard for discussion about feelings of displacement, and a myriad of other issues involved in becoming the older sibling.

Brimming with love and set in a 1940s coal town, Hendershot tells the story of a no-nonsense, wholly self-sufficient Grandma who raises and kills chickens from the coop and plucks them for soup, gathers coal for the furnace from her backyard mine, and tends the farm animals, all while enjoying the companionship of a loving granddaughter. A wonderful look at a "pre-feminist" grandma for children 4 and older.

In this brief poetic yearning for the prairie – the setting of MacLachlan's Newbery award-winning book Sarah Plain and Tall – the author makes clear that it's what you know first that you love best, and that becomes your lifelong frame of reference for what's right, good and beautiful. Children ages 4 and older who face a move will particularly identify with the plight of the child in the book whose family is moving. The story can be read slowly and plaintively in the voice of a child ambivalent about leaving the familiar for the unknown.

William's nostalgia for his Grandma's restaurant where customers are all treated like part of the family is contagious. Actually William mourns the loss of his Grandma's robust health, as much as the restaurant, and speaks freely of his anger. Like Kinda Blue by Anne Grifalconi (Little Brown and Co.), William and the Good Old Days is a book that depicts real emotion in the child. The readalouder can read William's narrative slowly and thoughtfully, interspersing Grandma's always cheerful voice.

Bunting creates a nostalgic portrait of a family in transition, as two young sisters and their parents travel by covered wagon across the prairie to their new home: a lot of land in the midst of what looks to be nowhere. It's a great springboard for discussion for children who are facing, or have recently faced a move, as it gives them permission to mourn their lost home as well as encourages a new beginning. Bunting makes clear to children 5 and older that roots do not take hold overnight.

This jewel of a story sets a standard which too few books today meet of truly expressing the characters' innermost emotions. Grifalconi has that rare talent of speaking from the soul of a child, in this case the fatherless child who narrates her story. The author creates a wonderful opportunity for the readalouder who loves dialects, as she writes in the slow, easy rhythms of the deep rural South. A book for any child five or older who has experienced the loss of a close loved one.

Three children in a large family take turns narrating the family move across country from Kentucky to Oregon in the 1800's. Each sees the same experience differently, each speaks in a different voice about the feeling aroused by the new sights and sounds. An interesting look not only at the experience of migrating west, but at the ways in which each individual views a similar experience so differently that it stimulates discussion of the question: Is it really the same experience? Expertly written blank verse requires the readalouder to take a deep breath before each paragraph and then read it as a complete thought.

Sent to her room by her parents for what she considers misinterpretations of her behavior, Patty Jane plans various retaliations including staying in her room forever, digging a tunnel to freedom, or even joining her brother's birthday party. The authors, whose combined backgrounds include writing for Saturday Night Live, Woody Allen and the Harvard Lampoon, provide the readalouder with a clever, well-paced stand-up comedy vehicle for entertaining listeners ages 5 and older. All the reader need do is slip into the role of the self-righteous heroine/narrator, read rather slowly with plenty of emphasis, and all are guaranteed a good time.

Appalachian sisters love a Saturday spent with their mother, aunt and grandmother, ragsale hopping from place to place, school or church. A simple, nostalgically told story of a close family-fun-filled shopping day of times past, very different from the mall experiences of many children today. This can be read softly to children ages 5 and older with bursts of excitement and enthusiasm as new bargains are found, new locations are shopped.

A wonderful explication of one young boy's desire to be at once independent of – yet cared for by – his family. And, simultaneously, an illustration of a family that at once lets go, yet remains close by. As such, it's an excellent vehicle for discussion with children 5 and older of ways they feel they can best forge ahead while feeling secure of what and who is close behind.

An upbeat hopeful story of a time when immigration was an everyday occurrence, when nearly everyone in the lower east side of New York was a recent immigrant, when neighbor helped neighbor, and when belonging was easy. The readalouder will enjoy portraying Jake – a young boy given butterfly seeds as a memento from his grandfather – in strong excited voice, and will enjoy varying the voices of the neighbors who help Jake plant his gift. A good springboard for discussion with children 5 and older about seizing the chance to make the most of new beginnings.

Just as grandfather is being carried through the woods to a rest home, his clever grandchildren devise a perfect way to scare their father into bringing his father back home again. A terrific trigger for the discussion of the place of aging grandparents in the extended family structure; a poignant tale for anyone 5 and older.

Two young children go with their mother to visit their father in prison for the first time. The children are frightened and bewildered; their parents attempt to maintain family pride and solidarity under trying circumstances. This is not a happy book, but it's a crucial one for any child 6 and older with a parent who has ever been in prison, is currently in prison, or who knows anyone with a parent, sibling or other relative in prison. It will open a discussion of right and wrong in this society: who is punished, how, when, and why.

A book that started out as a quilt works as a picture-book biography of a dozen important black women, including Sojourner Truth, Zora Neale Hurston, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman and Marian Anderson. The women speak from their portraits to two visiting children. Their voices, though individual, form such a powerful collective that listeners 6 and older will be moved to new or renewed appreciation of the accomplishments of black women in this country. There is ample chance for the readalouder to alter tone, volume and accent so that each individual voice is distinct, contributing further to the power of their collective story.

An exciting chapter book which can be read at several sittings to children ages 6 and older. Two families, one American Indian and one white, have simultaneously much and little in common. The fathers have wanderlust, the mothers abide by their husbands' decisions, the daughters are best friends, each has a new baby brother and each girl is vibrant and adventurous. Yet the white family is secure on their land while the Indian family is not: thus the crux of the story. An excellent vehicle for discussion about injustices to Native Americans plus a wonderful chance for the readalouder to portray several characters, each differently, while narrating action-packed drama.

Written by an adoring grown grandson who convinces his Grandma Essie, now over 90, to narrate the story of her large mobile family's life at the turn of the century. This she does charmingly and seemingly effortlessly. Readalouders can use the book to encourage listeners ages 7 and older to collaborate on books with their own grandparents and together write down the grandparents' story with the grandchild's illustrations.

A lovely story of the adaptation of a Korean grandmother to her granddaughter's new world, as well as a good discussion springboard for questions of acculturation. Halmoni acquires some new American ways while tenaciously retaining and thus sharing with American children one of her most important cultural traditions.