[Educator Network] Never Ask an Educator for One Good Book
[Educator Network] Never Ask an Educator for One Good Book

There is always a response from teachers when you ask them to give you a favorite children’s book or read aloud. I think it is something woven into the fabrics that make up a teacher, like a prerequisite for walking into a classroom. However, when asking for only one book and they become stumped. If the idea of only listing one causes you to stumble and hesitate and beg for another sheet of paper where you can make a list and shove all the titles into one single space, you know what I mean. Educators love a good story.
We asked the Educator Network to give us one favorite book and, without veering from the expected, a delightful list was created.
Barbara Free Osterwisch snuck in a theme to get around any kind of limit. “I enjoy reading books that have what I’ll call patter - a bit of repetition with rhythm and tempo and words that just fly off the tongue,” she said.
Many teachers responding, like Amy Collins and Leslie De Paz felt the question was unfair. Leslie highlighted the struggle with her statement: “You can’t ask me that, there aren’t enough hours to write them all!”
However, here are some of the top choices, some you may know, some may be new and some you might remember from when you were a child.
Rhyming Picture Book
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
If You Give a Moose a Muffin and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
King Bidgood, Elbert's Bad Word and The Napping House-Audrey and Don Wood
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault
Click Clack MOO by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss
My Little Sister Ate One Hare by Bill Grossman
Picture Books
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
The Book with No Pictures by B. J. Novak
The Monster at the End of This Book-Grover
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.
What James Said by Liz Rosenberg
Blackout by John Rocco
My Pen and Wings by Christopher Myers
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
The Journey Trilogy by Aaron Becker
The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other works by Eric Carle
Building Our House by Jonathan Bean
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Corduroy by Don Freeman
The Pokey Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
Poetry and Verse
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up and other works by Shel Silverstein
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson
Chapter Books
The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne
Miraculous journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
The Wild Robot and The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown
The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
Chapter Books for Older Children
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
Birchbark House Series by Louise Erdrich
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
But of course, any time you meet a book that looks interesting is the right time to get acquainted.
The end of this story is never ask an educator to pick one good book. Never ever get a bunch of educators talking about the doors that reading can open if you don’t have some time to settle in. They will often get glassy-eyed and struggle, change their minds, adjust the list, start and stop, touch their heart and wipe away a tear, and finally they will give in and start listing all the wonderful books there are.