On a hill behind a tree, there is a house.  In the house, there is a bed and on the bed  there is a little girl named Ana, fast asleep,  dreaming about the world outside and  beyond the hill.  Ana has to help her father and mother with the farm work. When it’s hot outside,…

I’m teaching literature this year in a program for homeschool kids. The most challenging group is the fourteen six-and-seven-year-olds. Reading levels in the group are so varied that I’m focusing on excellent picture books, and they are loving it.  More than half of these kids were in last year’s five-year-old class, so I can’t rerun…

“Once upon a time there was a little old Teddy bear. He was so old that he had lost his fur and his eyes and he was not the handsome little bear he had once been. “The children he had played with had grown up and gone away, and so he lay in a dusty…

Patsy’s mother thinks almost five years old is too young to take care of a puppy. But one day, a sweet pup follows Patsy all the way home.  Patsy hopes she can keep him. Unfortunately, the mailman knows the pup belongs to old Mrs. Murphy in the pink cottage on the hill. Mother sends Patsy…

“Never in their lives had Hetty or Hank had a pair of shoes . . . They each wanted a beautiful shining pair that sang, ‘Creaky–squeaky–creaky–squeaky,’ every time they walked.”  It’s fun going barefoot in the summer, but in the winter snow, their feet get blue with cold. When they ask their mammy for shoes,…

This delightful picture book had me laughing on the first page, before I read a single word! Who hasn’t seen this exact look on the face of a child who has absolutely “had it?” “So we packed a bag with sweaters and socks and scarves and mittens and woolen caps.” The cat and dog follow…