Favorite Books for Boys

Hi!  I am excited to be writing a post for Whitney’s blog while she takes a break to enjoy all those newborn snuggles with Fletcher.  I cannot wait to hear all of your stories about being a mom to a little boy!  Being a boy mom is the best. You will love learning a whole new world of trucks (who knew there were so many kinds?) and reading dinosaur books trying to figure out how to pronounce all those names.

A little bit about me… My name is Kelly and I have been married to my husband Corey for six years.  We have two kids (Charlie who is 4 and Eloise who is 15 months).  It has been awesome getting to raise these two little ones.  It is so rewarding getting to see their unique personalities and watching their relationship bloom.  We live in Chicago.  I grew up in the same town as Whitney and Kevin so living in Chicago is very different but we love it!  

 

When Whitney asked me to write about anything related to raising a boy, I knew I wanted to talk about favorite books for boys. Before I decided to stay home with Charlie, I was a first grade teacher for many years and later a reading teacher.  One of my favorite workshops I attended while teaching was about building a classroom library.  I still remember the presenter talking about the importance of nonfiction books to get boys interested in reading. Many years later as I purchase books for our home, I make sure we have a good mix of fiction and nonfiction.

When Charlie was one he loved the board books with real pictures and the name of the object next to it.  We own many of the “First 100 ___ (animals, words, trucks)” books by Bright Baby and the “My First _____ (dinosaur, abc, things that go) Board Books”.  Charlie loved to point to each picture and learn all the names. 

Books by the author Michael Dahl have been great for teaching about manners and fixing poor behaviors.  The books cover topics such as saying thank you, calming down, and not hitting using animals or dinosaurs as the main characters.  These books use a simple story to talk about many of the issues that came along with being a two year old boy.  

Eloise and Charlie love to read books and it is one of our favorite activities to do together. When I asked Charlie he had a long list of books he wanted to share, but I will keep it to his five current favorites now that he is four! 

ABCs on Wings by Ramon Olivera

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin 

Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker

Airport by Byron Barton

Thanks Whitney for letting me share some of our favorite books for boys!