Here are 100 books that Peek-A-Boo! fans have personally recommended if you like
Peek-A-Boo!.
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I chose these books because they each approach big feelings with a kind of gentle honesty and expressive clarity. These classics use powerful, earnest text and heartfelt illustrations that help name, normalize, and, at times, create an adventure around feeling new, big emotions. Each of these treasured titles offers more than just a story—they give children tools for emotional resonance and resilience. They strike a delicate balance between lyrical prose, whimsical art, and emotional honesty. The Mood Swing is a charm bracelet of these different stories, woven into one. Many gave me comfort as a kid, and helped me feel supported and empowered to explore—and name—my deepest feelings.
A nighttime ritual in words and art, Goodnight Moon bathes readers in routine and gentle reassurance.
The lullaby-like text brings peace and a feeling of stability in a turbulent world.
This book shows how small, predictable patterns can calm strong feelings, helping children to explore big emotions inside a cozy, secure emotional bubble. It’s perfect for bedtime or whenever little hearts need grounding.
A beautiful anniversary edition of the classic bedtime story with shiny gold cover flourishes - the perfect gift for christenings and birthdays.
Featuring a look at the fascinating story behind the creation of one of the most famous children's books in the world, beloved by Michelle Obama and Neil Gaiman alike, as well as tips on how to get your child to sleep.
In a great green room a little bunny is tucked up snugly and safely in bed and is getting ready to say goodnight to all the familiar things in his room, one by one.
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
I continue to find hope as a constant theme in my talks and my various media appearances. Hope is so integral to being able to fight for another day. When we can plant the seed of hope and perseverance in kids from a young age, by giving the gift of books that show them the true meaning of hope and aspirations, we give them a gift that carries them well through life.
This book was originally published in 1930 and also goes back a long way in my own life as well. I have fond memories of my father reading this story to me when I was young, acting out all the parts of the story, using different voices, and more. Despite being little and unassuming, the Little Blue Engine uses hope and belief to get over the mountain. Without belief in ourselves we often can’t even begin to try, but the Little Blue Engine chose to trust in himself and it paid off - big time. We can all use a little more belief in our own abilities to create massive change in our lives.
One of the true classics in children's books is now available in a sturdy board book edition perfect for little hands! The story has been slightly abridged and features the famous illustrations from the original Hauman edition. Now toddlers can cheer on the little blue engine and that "can-do" attitude that keeps her chugging along!
As a journalist, WSJ book critic, and mother of five, I‘ve been perfectly placed to witness the astounding effects of reading aloud. For decades I've been reading to my children (and to my husband, too) every night, often for a solid hour or more. Storytime has been the central civilizing joy of our family life: We’ve bonded emotionally, gone on shared imaginative adventures, and filled our heads with pictures and words. Long ago I knew something big was happening to us, and I felt sure my children were benefitting, but it wasn’t until I began digging around into the behavioral and brain science that I learned just how consequential reading aloud can be. In my book, I lay it all out.
This book hits a kind of non-narrative sweet spot: It doesn’t tell a specific story, but every page-spread is a feast of beauty and interest and there are just enough words sprinkled here and there to encourage parents to supply their own commentary. This particular book happened to be a huge favorite in my family, but any collection that introduces great paintings and different styles of art will do the trick. I love making art part of a baby’s world from the get-go: It awakens the aesthetic senses and gives a child a sense of cultural ownership. Later, seeing a Vermeer or a Picasso, we can hope that child will feel a sparkle of recognition.
An introduction to art appreciation exposes young readers to more than one hundred works of art from a wide range of periods, cultures, and artists, and with subjects such as seasons, weather, and animals.
The problem is not with the actions young women take but with the toxic, sexist conditions they are responding to.
Tanenbaum found, based on six years of interviews with young people ages 14-30, that young women are navigating a culture littered with gendered dress codes, revenge porn, and sexually explicit…
As a journalist, WSJ book critic, and mother of five, I‘ve been perfectly placed to witness the astounding effects of reading aloud. For decades I've been reading to my children (and to my husband, too) every night, often for a solid hour or more. Storytime has been the central civilizing joy of our family life: We’ve bonded emotionally, gone on shared imaginative adventures, and filled our heads with pictures and words. Long ago I knew something big was happening to us, and I felt sure my children were benefitting, but it wasn’t until I began digging around into the behavioral and brain science that I learned just how consequential reading aloud can be. In my book, I lay it all out.
Try to get your hands on the original 1963 edition that made Richard Scarry‘s fortune and allowed him to move his family to Switzerland, for the skiing. It’s a fabulous book that’s crowded with scenes of purpose and industry, and with labeled pictures that bespeak the world’s exciting wideness. There are birds (the quail, pheasant, wren, bittern), buildings (a cathedral, pyramid, fort, skyscraper), flowers (clover, pansies, asters, foxgloves), and houses (the igloo, grass house, half-timbered house, chalet). Over time, subsequent editions were stripped of this eccentric specificity and of Scarry’s courtly depictions of traditional social roles (gone, for instance, are the “handsome pilot” and the “pretty stewardess”).
When his publisher first saw the sketches for this book in 1962, he proclaimed: "Why, this is simply the best word book EVER!" He was right: it still is!
Dr. Alice Sterling Honig, Professor Emerita of Child Development at Syracuse University, has spent over a half century working with and studying young children and creating numerous courses on how best to nurture early development. She has lectured widely in many countries and is the author of over 600 articles and chapters, and dozens of books on children and their caregivers. For nearly 40 summers she conducted an annual workshop “Quality caregiving for infants and toddlers”. As a licensed New York State psychologist, she has worked with families to ameliorate troubles in development and behavior. In Beijing, she was invited to give the “Dr. Alice Honig award” to a prominent Chinese pediatrician. She was awarded the Syracuse University Chancellor’s Citation for Academic Excellence.
By three years of age, toddler brains are two and half times as active as those of adults and they stay that way for a decade. New brain imaging techniques reveal how powerful adult-child positive interactions are for enhancing brain development from birth. With large print, charming infant and toddler photos, and easy-to-read charts, this book should galvanize parents and program personnel to support care providers’ frequent, sensitive, and enriching social interactions from birth onward to enhance and optimize early brain development.
I have published over 50 books, including award-winning and bestselling titles. I am also a publishing executive and editor with 20+ years of professional experience. My latest The Twins of Auschwitz: The Inspiring True Story of Young Girl Surviving Mengele’s Hell, with Eva Kor, got a stellar review by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and is an international bestseller. As well as spearheading four publishing startups, I have run my own business, Editorial Services of L.A. I was Editorial/Publishing Director for Golden Books, Price Stern Sloan, Intervisual Books, Hooked on Phonics, and more. I am also the Publisher & Editor in Chief of NY Journal Of Books, the premier online-only book review site.
This old standby is one of the most memorable picture board books; I still recall reading it when I was four. Illustrating babies in all spaces and of all colors, Fujikawa makes the reader yearn to play with them. Fujikawa (1908–1998), designed many books for the Walt Disney Company, including promotional work on the movie Fantasia. But her work in Babies is not so cartoony as much as illustrated pen and ink. A keeper.
Crossing is a vividly human re-imagining of the love, sacrifices, and accomplishments that two Chinese brothers - American Immigrants - experience as they travel to California to build the Transcontinental Railroad.
I decided at the age of 5 that I wanted to write and illustrate books for children. That is exactly what I have been doing the last 40 years of my adult life. I find that I walk around seeing and hearing the world as potential stories. It’s fun! I can not imagine doing anything else for a living! I recommended the 5 books that I did because they are a little strange and curious and thought-provoking. The art, as well. Therefore, they feel like they emerged from the author/illustrator from that place within, way down deep, where only authentic expression of self can be found.
This feels like a fairy tale, of sorts. A curious feel to it. It is touching and evocative and strange - in that good and compelling way. Larky Mavis is somehow an endearing outcast in her small village. Is she a gypsy, is she homeless? The village sees her as socially unacceptable. Not “normal.” It would be interesting to hear the child reader’s take. I would guess a child would relate to Larky’s guilelessness - her open heart and her trust in others. Larky finds 3 peanuts. She does not eat the third one because she sees a baby inside. Perhaps a metaphor for seeing the potential in life if one’s heart is open enough. She shares her delightful discovery with others from town.
These individuals feel they are more the expert in knowing what is inside this peanut. One declares it a worm, another a mouse, another a deformed…
Larky Mavis, an eccentric soul, finds three peanuts in the middle of the road. The first tastes like liver and onions. The second, like bread pudding. And the third -- well, inside the third is a baby. Larky Mavis decides to name it Heart's Delight and to take care of it. She shows it to the teacher, and he says it looks like a worm. She asks the parson to christen it, but he thinks it's a mouse. And when she asks the doctor to help her teach the baby to say "Ma," he thinks…
I’ve alwaysbeen fascinated by children’s language development and am a word hound. For over five decades I’ve been a teacher, teacher trainer, school founder/director, mentor, founder/executive director of a large children’s museum; author of 6 classic textbooks on how children think and learn, and author/self-publisher of one of my many story-poems. My passions are writing, studying new findings in brain development, and launching top-quality schools in underserved urban areas. Between 1969 and 1990, I founded six schools, five still running, three as private non-profit schools and two as essential entities (one called the “safety-net") in their public school systems. The MELC is the only U.S. school accredited by Reggio's founders.
Kornei Chukovsky, leading Russian children’s poet, in his book From Two to Five, describes children’s “whimsical, elusive thinking—original, picturesque, amusing speech.” "Children two to five are earth’s most inquisitive creatures with questions evoked by the mind’s tireless need to comprehend its surroundings.” I know of no other author who so brilliantly captures children’s own words. I read this book over and over for inspiration.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1963.
When I became a parent, I immediately became an expert on it. Don’t worry, you will too. Children are great. They fill your life with a sense of purpose. They are very good at being really cute, and they can be really fun to be with. Yet... let's face it, the little bugger wreak havoc in your life.
Harnessing my experience as a writer for television, and being a man, I immediately started whining and ranting about the difficulties of raising kids, the result was the book 100 Hidden Truths of Parenting that sold the world over. I love my kids, so will you, but it is a difficult journey and you need to know you are not the only one having a hard time sometimes.
This classic is actually a very good guide to maintaining you sanity and for helping you through those first few month. My parents read this when they had me, and so did probably yours. Get one of the older editions though, none of this wishy-washy modern parenting for us.
From the pediatrician whose advice has shaped parenting practices for more than half a century comes the essential parenting book—fully revised and updated with the latest research and written in clear, accessible prose for parents of all backgrounds.
Generations of parents have relied on the influential bestseller Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care as the most authoritative and reliable guide for child care. This timeless yet up-to-date edition has been revised and expanded by Dr. Robert Needlman, a top-notch pediatrician who shares Dr. Spock’s philosophy and has applied his research in his career.
At five years old, Kasiel was found with the pointed ends of his ears cut off. Despite that brutal start, he’s lived twelve peaceful years with the man who took him in. Keeping his hair long over his mutilated ears helps him hide the fact that he is Vanrian, a…
I joined the anti-bullying crusade late in life. After writing my first book, entities were contacting me and asking if I would share their anti-bullying messages on my website. I learned so much about the increasing problem of bullying and how its tentacles reach out to other social issues such as teen suicide, school shootings, and drug use. I thought that Special Ed and the Bull-ies would be my only book but decided that it was important to make it into a series. With each book I can focus on a different aspect of this growing problem and hopefully make a difference in this world.
I have always enjoyed poetry and this book introduces simple couplets to children while telling a sweet story of loving Asian parents who welcome a new child. Geared to very young children, the artwork can tell the story without someone reading it to them, but the lyrical words just add to the beauty of the message.
