[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.