Children's Book Picks of the Month! August 2012

I decided to resurrect this monthly series because I had such great feedback from it in the past and because I just enjoy sharing with you all the great children's books that our family comes across!  The plan is to share with all of you at the end of each month, the books that our family has enjoyed from our local library.  We love to receive good recommendations for our read aloud time or just for anytime perusal and we want to return the favor!  I'll provide the title and author of the book along with a brief summary of the books that we've deemed "must reads!"

Without further ado, let's kick off the series again with our choices from August 2012!

1.)First up is Grandpa Green by Lane Smith.

This is a sweet and charming story about a great grandson who is learning about his Grandpa's life story by walking through his very eccentric garden.  From a farm to a war to meeting the love of his life, you will smile as you follow this tale of a man grown old, but still finding a way to keep his memories alive.  The illustrations are beautiful and my children really enjoyed turning the pages to see what or WHO would turn up next!

2.) Jazzy Miz Mozetta by Brenda C. Roberts is a Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award winner.  I read this book three times on the first day we brought it home because my children, particularly Aron, loved it so.  Miz Mozetta is a spunky older lady who just wants to dance but the neighbor children think she's too old to join them while they show off their moves.  Little do they know that Miz Mozetta (and her friends Lightning Lou Lillie, Wildcat Willie, and Downtown Brown) has some pretty snazzy moves herself! 

Read along as these Fat Cats show those youngsters a thing or two about going "jitterbug mad."

3.) Children will often ask questions about God that seem simple to us, but are very deep and thought provoking for little ones.  Does God Know How to Tie Shoes?by Nancy White Carlstrom answers these questions in simple ways using teachings from the Psalms. 

What does God wear?  Does He sleep?  Does He cry?  Have any pets?  These questions and more posed by little Katrina (with a K!) are answered in love and wisdom in these pages.  The illustrations are beautiful paintings by Lori McElrath-Eslick and are captivating to the eye.  This is a great read aloud to precocious young children who are full of questions!

4.)What's on My Plate? by Ruth Belov Gross is a practical and fun book that teaches children where the food they eat comes from.

With a question and answer format that is short but descriptive, children will learn that raisins start as grapes, milk comes from cows, cereal comes from wheat and more.  This could be a good edition to a farming unit study or a health unit on good foods!

5.) Finally, there's Let the Whole Earth Sing Praise by Tomie DePaola.

Inspired by two pieces of Scripture from the Old Testament, the best selling children's author uses colorful illustrations and short phrases great for beginning readers to show how everything on earth should and can praise the Lord for He created it all!

Those are our choices for August!  I look forward to sharing with you our finds for September.  To see past picks from the series click here or the button at the top of the post!

Please feel free to share any recommendations in the comments!