The cliché of babysitting is of teen-aged girls who park their charges in front of a TV and then commence raiding the fridge and calling their boyfriends. I always saw babysitting as an opportunity to read picture books, not just because I personally enjoy them, but also because it might share my joy of reading to a younger generation. When I babysit, there are a set of books I habitually take along, which have been tried-and-true to entertain and engage kids in the stories. I would suggest these books not only to babysitters, but to anyone who might have kids come and visit their homes (such as grandparents or other relatives).
Whenever I babysit, my go-to books are the following:
A little girl writes to her teacher Mr. Blueberry for advice when she finds a whale lost in her pool.
- Dear Mr. Blueberry by Simon James
A little girl writes to her teacher Mr. Blueberry for advice when she finds a whale lost in her pool.
Note: Apparently Mr. Blueberry has a German accent,
according to the children I was reading it to.
- If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond
As you can probably gather from the title, a boy gives a
mouse a cookie, and hi-jinks ensue. Why
that boy didn’t just eat the cookie himself I don’t know.
- The Lady with the Ship on Her Head by Deborah Nourse Lattimore
Madame Pompenstance is in despair of ever winning the hair-decorating
contest at the ball. Unbeknownst to her,
as she leans over on the beach to put on some shells, a tiny ship docks on her
head. Great illustrations are full of
color and details.
- Library Lil by Suzanne Williams, illustrated by Steven Kellogg
Super-strong Library Lil goes against the tempting
distraction of TV-couch-potatoism and a gang of motorcycle goons.
- Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch by Trinka Hakes Noble, pictures by Tony Ross
Rancher Hicks goes to town. His wife Elna stays home. The story vacillates between the ho-hum life
of town and all the events that happen meanwhile back at the ranch. This is a fun book to read with varied
speeds: read as slow and sleepy as you can when reading the town scenes, then
read as fast as you can during the ranch scenes.
- Oscar’s Book by Jeffrey Moss, pictures of Michael Gross
The illustrator’s name is “Gross” and he’s drawing Oscar
the Grouch? Coincidence? I think not.
- Outrageous, Bodacious, Boliver Boggs! By Jo Harper, pictures by JoAnn Adinolfi
Any book that encourages reading aloud in a Southern
Twang is fine by me.
- What Do You Do With A Kangaroo? By Mercer Mayer
After a long day of reading nice, sweet girl characters
like Fancy Nancy or Ladybug Girl, it’s nice to even things out by reading about
a girl bossing around various wild animals who are trying to steal her
toothbrush. Now THAT’S a girl I can
relate to!
- Would You like to play Hide and Seek in this book with Loveable, Furry Old Grover? By Jon Stone, illustrated by Mike Smollin (see also The Monster at the End of This Book)
The virtue of these Sesame Street books is that they are
for the most part interactive: the characters in the books ask the reader
questions, give instructions, and otherwise engage children with the story as
it unfolds.
My other favorites include:
- A Little House of Your Own by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers and Irene Haas
It is a dire tragedy that I do not own this book. I think I’ll have to steal it from my mom.
Stroke! Admire! Kiss! This is the book of
the world!
I’ve read a few of these books, about a child adjusting
to the arrival of a new baby in the family.
However no one can usurp Lilly the Mouse’s way of dealing with it. I’ve read this book so many times I can
even understand the Spanish version Julius, El Rey De La Casa, even
though the only Spanish I know is from Veggietales’ Dance of the Cucumber and the phrase “no comprende”*
- Ollie Forgot by Tedd Arnold
Ollie is a forgetful boy whose mother sends him to market
for some food. In order to remember the
list of items, he repeats them to himself. He also tends to repeat the last words anyone says to him, which soon
replaces his grocery list in his memory and sends him on a meandering adventure
through the village.
- The Cheerful Quiet by Betty Horvath
Like A Little House of Your Own, this is the sort
of quiet story that makes a good bed-time book, about the small pleasant things
that make you feel safe and happy when you are a child.
- Melisande by E. Nesbit, illustrated by P.J. Lynch
Melisande is like a cross between Sleeping Beauty,
Rapunzel, and a math lesson. E. Nesbit
is well-known for her stories that teach “be careful what you wish for,” and
this one is no exception.
- The Obadiah books by Brinton Turkle (such as The Adventures of Obadiah)
Think Quakers are “plain” and boring? Think again. Obadiah is constantly being carried away by his imagination and
dreams.
- The Cranberry books by Wende and Harry Devlin (such as Cranberry Thanksgiving)
With illustrations that have clean, crisp lines and vivid
colors, as well as a cast of characters peopling a small town that seems so
real and inviting, how can you resist the holiday-themed adventures of Mr.
Whiskers, Grandmother, and Maggie? If
that doesn’t sell you, how about the cranberry recipes included in the back of
each book?
- George Shrinks by William Joyce
A little boy wakes up to find he’s shrunk, his parents
have gone, and he has a list of chores to do. While perhaps not P.C. by modern standards (who leaves their kids to
watch their baby brother? This is even
worse than The Cat in the Hat! Report these fictional parents already!), I can’t help but like this
book, and kind of want George to enlist as one of the sailors on that ship that
was on Lady Pompenstance’s head.
- The Frank and Ernest books by Alexandra Day
These are the stories of an elephant and bear who take on
odd jobs where they have to learn the specific jargon, such as diner-speak in Frank
and Ernest and baseball lingo in Frank and Ernest Play Ball.
- The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
Apparently this was one of the books I made my parents read to me over and over and over and over…you get the point. Don’t worry; I stopped demanding it as a bed-time story eventually…about two years ago, in fact.
- The Cowboy and the Black-Eyed Pea by Tony Johnston and Warren Ludwig
Another book that’s fun to read aloud just because you
can do Southern accents, this is a hilarious, flip-flop retelling of The Princess and the Pea.
*Which, I have been informed, is grammatically
incorrect. Which pretty much proves my
point that I don’t speak Spanish.
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