Books to read to kindergarten & 2nd grade classes

I will be traveling soon to visit my nieces. I want to read aloud to their classes and am looking for reccomendations.

The kindergartener is left-brained artist, out of the box thinker.

The second grader devotes her time to her friends and making sure everyone feels included and happy.

Looking for books likely to be new to the children, perhaps very new or very old? Or not. Must be a good story and one that I can get multiple copies of fairly easily.

I would very much appreciate any recommendations you might have.

Highly recommend The Book with No Pictures, Novak if you are a good storyteller. You can look up some readings on YouTube.

Also love Paper Bag Princess

It has been ages since I have evaluated books for storytime!

I would choose books a little above their reading level and/or books with poetry or word play. In other words, books that they would find it hard to read to themselves, or where they would miss some of the point.

The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt is a good one, it has a sequel (not quite as good IMO) The Day The Crayons came Home.

Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus is fun - as is Gnash, gnaw, dinosaur - poetry/rhyming books about dinosaurs (the latter part of that probably doesn't need saying! Sorry)

I don't know how readily available they would be but Schim Schimmel's Children of the Earth... Remember and Dear Children of the Earth: A Letter from Home have beautiful art work and a lovely environmental/conservationist theme.

An Undone Fairy Tale has an outside-the-box art theme, and I've read it to kids from kindergarten to grade four.

>2 lesmel: The Book With No Pictures is an awesome book, my nieces know it, though. And you bring up a point about my reading skills. My normal speaking voice is quite expressive, but I am not up to different voices for different characters. Paper Bag Princess is on my get for nieces list, can't remember if I got it for them or not. Hmmm. I need a got for nieces list.

>3 MarthaJeanne: Excellent points, MarthaJeanne, now to find such books.

>4 Peace2: The Day the Crayons Quit is a great book and well known to my nieces. I agree that the sequel does not work as well.

Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus and Gnash, gnaw, dinosaur sound delightful.

The reason I wound up posting here is that I censored a some books that I thought that I would use for political reasons. My SIL works at her daughters' school and had to call the police when a couple of Moms got into a physical fight in the run up to the US presidential election. So, less obvious diversity, no too obvious environmental/conservation issues. MY SIL would back me to the hilt, but I do not want to put her in that position.

I will look into Children of the Earth and Dear Children of the Earth for my nieces, though.

I've read about and seen An Undone Fairy Tale, I like that you've read to multiple age groups with it. Would it be too well known?

You can see that I am torturing myself a bit with this.

It is entirely possible that this will not happen now. My SIL and older nice both have the flu. My SIL has health issues that make this particularly dangerous for her. She should be in the hospital, but hospitals are way too dangerous right now. She and her daughter don't even have the same strain of the flu.

Thanks everyone, for your help with this. If nothing else, I have books to look forward to reading myself and to my nieces at bedtime.

>6 MDGentleReader: The specific ones I used with success wouldn't help you, as they are in German.

7> Nope. Even if I could read them, the children wouldn't understand them :-). Still, good criteria for choosing.

Another idea, but probably not in print any longer: There Are Rocks In My Socks Said the Ox to the Fox. Once upon a time, I had the whole book memorized and could recite it on command. Something about a tack in his back and a bee on his knee. I adore rhyming books!

There's Red Ranger Came Calling, Breathed and A Wish for Wings that Worked, Breathed. Both are Christmas/Santa books. Red Ranger has an awesome twist at the end.

>6 MDGentleReader: I hope your SIL has an uneventful recovery.

An Undone Fairy Tale has only been entered 111 times on LT, so likely not all that well known. You probably keep hearing about it from me, because I recommend it at every opportunity.

Another thought occurred to me - Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl - possibly not for the younger group, but Roald Dahl retells well known fairy tales such as Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs and Cinderella giving a very different take on them. Little Red isn't one to need rescuing as at the end of her poem she is wearing a wolf's skin coat... and don't even ask about what she's doing by the end of the Three Little Pigs!. Cinderella has a change of heart about the prince when she finds a few things out and decides he's not quite the catch she thought he was and so on..

>11 Peace2: that sounds delightful, peace2.

Argus by Michelle Knudsen or The Mud Fairy by Amy Young were both favorite read-alouds with my daughter. She also adored The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst but that one is, I think, much better known.

It was a Dark and Stormy Night by Allan and Janet Ahlberg is another one that is a lot of fun.

One of my favorite read-alouds is Toys Go Out: Being the Adventures of a Knowledgeable Stingray, a Toughy Little Buffalo, and Someone Called Plastic by Emily Jenkins. I've read it several times to 1st graders.

>8 MDGentleReader: Mom came with me once and read some Seuss to the 4th graders ( who have had a little English) and I read 'Twas the Night before Christmas to the whole class in December. I have the Tomie dePaola edition, and they loved it. This is a mixed 1-4 class. I think kids just love to be read to. Especially poetry. But Austrian kids are exposed to English, and many of these kids speak a second language at home. Second and third generation immigrants.

I wouldn't worry too much about whether or not the kids might know the book. Kids love having an old favourite read to them again (and again). They also love knowing what's going to happen when their friends don't.

New terrific book: Skyfishing by Gideon Sterer, Rodeo Red by Maripat Perkins is clever and sounds great if you can read it in a western accent.