100 Books Like Rex Wrecks It!

This book was extremely poignant. It may not be intended for the youngest of readers. I admit, I read it on my own. But the message was deep. Children from preschool to teenage can have strong feelings about their parents’ behaviors. But what young children don’t often (can’t often) understand is where, in their parents’ history, those behaviors are born out of.

This story takes something as simple as foraging for watercress on the side of the road and examines where, in the narrator’s parents’ history, that behavior comes from. It’s sorrowful, haunting, and hopeful all at the same time. This is a beautiful book to address the “big feelings” of embarrassment kids may feel about their parents without understanding the reasoning behind their patent’s actions.

This was one of my kids’ favorite first-board books about “big feelings.” The little protagonist delights in saying “no” to everything. But when he learns that saying “no” means you miss out on the fun, his feelings change.

I loved how this book gave my sons a simple, relatable way to understand that their choices have consequences even at the tenderest age. Not big, inflexible consequences. But little ones, like how maybe ice cream after dinner isn’t an option now because they said “no” without thinking. That’s a powerful message for a little one, and my sons really took it to heart!

I love the clever rhymes and hilarious antics in the Pig the Pug books, especially this one. This Halloween-themed story is fun to read over and over again. My sons get the biggest kick out of how naughty Pig the Pug behaves when he confronts the unsuspecting grownups who cross him on Halloween night. (My favorite line might be, “It filled him with feelings that had to be vented.”)

Ultimately, the story teaches kids good manners in the cleverest way by showing how monstrous Pig’s own manners are on Halloween night and the consequences of those actions. (Spoiler alert: the ending involves an upset tummy with disastrous results!)

My son’s first-grade teacher used this book to help him learn about his “hula-hoop” of personal space, and she recommended we read it at home (which we did.) This book was a fun way to explore the meaning of giving space to our friends (such as keeping hands to ourselves), and the outer-space theme cleverly woven throughout helped keep my son’s attention.

I really appreciated the author’s unique approach to teaching young kids about personal space, which can be touchy (pun intended!).

This book struck a visual chord and changed the way I looked at picture books. As most of my favorites were in full or limited color, Jumanji’s black and white illustrations had extreme perspective and were visually exciting.

This book inspired me to push both my illustration and text for picture books toward a less juvenile or simple presentation. The illustrations in Jumanji are a departure from the ordinary in both subject and artistic approach. It urged me to look harder at the extraordinary in the ordinary.

I love this book. It brings back so many memories of growing up in the country for me. The illustrations in this book are very expressive and literally speak for themselves, no words necessary.

The day starts out pretty nice for a young bunny who is trying to get a game of kickball started.

He calls out to his neighboring animal friends to come out of their homes and play. They all step outside. There is the hedgehog, the skunk, the fox, the raccoon, and many more. All of a sudden, clouds roll in and everyone goes home except the bunny. He loves rain. This is a big book full of fun. I really enjoyed this book. For me, it's all about the illustrations. I do not like the rain. Getting caught in a rainstorm without an umbrella is no fun. But, this book reminded me of a time in… show more.

It’s raining. Pete can’t go out to “play ball with the guys.” So he’s in a bad mood. His father thinks it might cheer Pete up to be made into a pizza. He’s right, of course! Dad kneads him and twirls him up in the air. He sprinkles on cheese (actually torn-up bits of paper) and puts him in the oven (actually the sofa).

This is a celebration of the parents’ trick of distracting a grumpy child with a bit of zany humour. (Best trick in the book, as far as I’m concerned.) And what a wonderfully loving, inventive, energetic dad William Steig has created! Pete laughs “like crazy”. And the sun comes out at the end.

Betty and Maude are best friends, but their favorite toys, Duck and Penguin, are not. Together, they play but not so nicely. They destroy each other’s sand castles, paint each other when they are supposed to be painting pictures. Eventually they realize they have a lot more in common than they know and really do become good friends. What I really loved about this book is that sometimes friendship is complicated, and you don’t like each other right away. 

The art is simple but expressive and fun to look at. Julia Woolf has the perfect style to bring these characters to life. This is just a cute and fun picture book, perfect for reading to a group at storytime.

These two girls’ everyday adventure series! I adore these twin books since I am a twin myself! Color penciled illustration is always beautiful but I like how Kaya draws the rain here. You can see a drizzle, a shower, a downpour, and even an upside-down rain here. Surely the rain hater like myself can become a rain person.

Tom is the hero we need today. I love characters who know who they are and don’t care what others think of them. And I value ‘fun’ as a goal.

Tom just wants to fool around and yawns at his aunt’s disapproval. The contests between Tom and his aunt’s champion, Captain Najork, are the best descriptions of games I’ve ever read, especially when you consider that the games themselves are invented out of whole cloth and the words applied seemingly at random.