Here are 38 books that You Are Light fans have personally recommended if you like
You Are Light.
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I’m an artist with an analytical mind. I love art and stories but I also love systems and processes. Ever since taking a class at art school about making pop-ups, I’ve been in love with paper engineering. It’s been the perfect synthesis of all my loves. There’s something fascinating about transforming an everyday object (paper) into something unexpected. Combined that with a great story and you have a magical experience! I like focusing my work on books for young readers (board books - picture books) because it gives adults and kids an opportunity to interact with each other and build memories.
Sitting on the bookshelf horizontally (swing on top)—I was intrigued the moment I laid eyes on it and it did not disappoint.
Just about every book I own is structured the same with the spine is always on the side of the book. But this book has the spine on top! I opened the book and flipped the pages up as Mel falls down the tree. Then, through the clever illustrations and design of the text, I wound up turning the book upside and found myself flipping the pages down to make Mel fly back up the tree. What sorcery was this?
I’ve seen many illustrators try to have readers turn a book, but I have never had such a smooth and seamless experience!
3
authors picked
Mel Fell
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
4,
5,
6, and
7.
What is this book about?
A Caldecott Honor Book and ALA Notable Book of the Year! An innovative and charming tale about a plucky little bird, from the award-winning author-illustrator of Fox the Tiger.
Readers will delight in turning their book sideways and upside down to follow Mel on her journey from downward fall to triumphant flight in this tale of self-confidence and taking a leap of faith.
An especially enjoyable and satisfying read-aloud!
Twelve-year-old identical twins Ellie and Kat accidentally trigger their physicist mom’s unfinished time machine, launching themselves into a high-stakes adventure in 1970 Chicago. If they learn how to join forces and keep time travel out of the wrong hands, they might be able find a way home. Ellie’s gymnastics and…
I’m an artist with an analytical mind. I love art and stories but I also love systems and processes. Ever since taking a class at art school about making pop-ups, I’ve been in love with paper engineering. It’s been the perfect synthesis of all my loves. There’s something fascinating about transforming an everyday object (paper) into something unexpected. Combined that with a great story and you have a magical experience! I like focusing my work on books for young readers (board books - picture books) because it gives adults and kids an opportunity to interact with each other and build memories.
Without using any physically interactive mechanisms, this book still engages!
It breaks the fourth wall and the narrator asks you directly to do certain tasks—tap the dot, tilt the book to the left, shake the book, etc. When reading this book with my kids, I’ve never heard so many giggles. It is also a great way to help teach my kids colors, actions, and directions. Reading this book becomes a form of play!
PRESS HERE, MIX IT UP!, LET'S PLAY!, and SAY ZOOP! Collect all four interactive books from Herve Tullet!
Press the yellow dot on the cover of this interactive children's book, follow the instructions within, and embark upon a magical journey! Each page of this surprising touch book instructs the reader to push the button, shake it up, tilt the book, and who knows what will happen next! Children and adults alike will giggle with delight as the dots multiply, change direction, and grow in size! Especially remarkable because the adventure occurs on the flat surface of the simple, printed page,…
I’m an artist with an analytical mind. I love art and stories but I also love systems and processes. Ever since taking a class at art school about making pop-ups, I’ve been in love with paper engineering. It’s been the perfect synthesis of all my loves. There’s something fascinating about transforming an everyday object (paper) into something unexpected. Combined that with a great story and you have a magical experience! I like focusing my work on books for young readers (board books - picture books) because it gives adults and kids an opportunity to interact with each other and build memories.
I grew up loving animation and was captivated by how putting drawings together could create an illusion of life.
This wordless picture book somehow captures that awe with its interactive tabs. By flipping the tabs throughout the book, the characters move and feel like they are being animated.
I love that the story is a dance between Flora and her flamingo friend, literally and figuratively, as they have a disagreement. Everything about this book is well thought out—the interactive mechanisms really enhance the story. Additionally, the drawings are just so beautiful. It’s simply fantastic!
In this innovative wordless picture book with interactive flaps, Flora and her graceful flamingo friend explore the trials and joys of friendship through an elaborate synchronized dance. With a twist, a turn, and even a flop, these unlikely friends learn at last how to dance together in perfect harmony. Full of humor and heart, this stunning performance (and splashy ending!) will have readers clapping for more of this fun flamingo story!
For more feathery fun with the flamingo girls, pick up more preschool wordless books like Flora and the Penguin, Flora and the Peacocks, Flora and the Chicks, Flora and…
Twelve-year-old identical twins Ellie and Kat accidentally trigger their physicist mom’s unfinished time machine, launching themselves into a high-stakes adventure in 1970 Chicago. If they learn how to join forces and keep time travel out of the wrong hands, they might be able find a way home. Ellie’s gymnastics and…
I’m an artist with an analytical mind. I love art and stories but I also love systems and processes. Ever since taking a class at art school about making pop-ups, I’ve been in love with paper engineering. It’s been the perfect synthesis of all my loves. There’s something fascinating about transforming an everyday object (paper) into something unexpected. Combined that with a great story and you have a magical experience! I like focusing my work on books for young readers (board books - picture books) because it gives adults and kids an opportunity to interact with each other and build memories.
Lots of books use die cuts but this book cleverly uses die cuts to have Nibbles, the book monster, look like he’s eating his way through the book!
Not only that, I love how there are books within this book. Like, literally—there are three additional books with their own pages on top of the actual book pages. This book is absolutely inventive and full of fun!
1
author picked
Nibbles
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
2,
3,
4, and
5.
What is this book about?
Nibbles the Book Monster is on the loose, and he's chomping through all of your favorite fairy tales! Will anything or anyone be able to stop him?
With books within the book, Emma Yarlett's utterly appealing artwork, and lots and lots of nibbled holes, this laugh-out-loud funny and ferocious charmer's unstoppable appetite for the printed page will nibble a hole right through your heart.
When I was little, I knew I would work with books in some way, and I did, for many years working for one of the major children’s book publishers. But it wasn’t rewarding in the way I had hoped. Some kids know they want to be a teacher when they grow up. I definitely did not, yet I became one. I love finding ways to make learning fun. In my teaching days I found ways to get the most reluctant students to find something they could enjoy about learning. And now as an author, I find myself doing the same, and as a parent, seeking out books like the ones I recommend here that teach without teaching.
I love how this book turns around what we typically think of colors and how they are associated with feelings. “My sister says that blue is sad like a lonely song. But my blue is happy like my favorite jeans and a splash in the pool on a hot day.” This calm, cheerful book has characters expressing opposing views on each page, and it’s never confrontational. The message of this book, without being teachy, is that we all see things in our own way, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s also another book that makes it fun to talk about feelings, which is tough for many kids.
What is your blue like? A lyrical ode to colors — and the unique ways we experience them — follows a little girl as she explores the world with her family and friends.
Your neighbor says red is angry like a dragon’s breath, but you think it’s brave like a fire truck. Or maybe your best friend likes pink because it’s pretty like a ballerina’s tutu, but you find it annoying — like a piece of gum stuck on your shoe. In a subtle, child-friendly narrative, art teacher and debut author Jessica Young suggests that colors may evoke as many…
As children, my brother and I were constant playmates. He was an early riser and often woke me up so our day of play could begin as soon as possible. I have sight, and my brother is blind. Play for us was an all-senses experience. We felt the rumble of our bikes on the street, listened to the screech of the metal swing set, and guessed spices by their smell. We also devoured stories. We listened to audiobooks, he read to me in Braille, and I read to him. All of these experiences, and more, prepared me to be an author of numerous children’s books with sensory details to make stories come alive.
This award-winning book, first published in Mexico, is completely black, yet so colorful in its words and images.
The words describe colors with artful description, such as, “…green tastes like lemon ice cream and smells like grass that’s just been cut.” To fully engage the senses, the words are printed in Braille, and the images are raised, so they can be touched and “read” as well.
Living with the use of one's eyes can make imagining blindness difficult, but this innovative title invites readers to imagine living without sight through remarkable illustrations done with raised lines and descriptions of colors based on imagery. Braille letters accompany the illustrations and a full Braille alphabet offers sighted readers help reading along with their fingers. This extraordinary title gives young readers the ability to experience the world in a new way.
I am the author and illustrator of the baby book listed below. As a mom of a 1-year-old, I am no stranger to kids’ books. After 1 year of going through my baby’s bookshelf and finding my own personal favorites, I realized that the common theme amongst all of my favorites is that all my selects happen to rhyme. Therefore, when I set out to write my own book, it was a given that this would be a rhyming story. Since then, I have been reading and researching all of the rhyming books to create my own. After all this research, these top five books are my top picks.
This book is a great way to teach your baby about animals and color identification. It also reminds you and your baby to stop and look around at the world around you. The illustrations are simple but striking for babies. The ending of this book comes together really nicely!
A much-loved classic, illustrated by the creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Vibrant artwork and favourite animals make this rhythmic story the perfect introduction to learning about colours. Each spread leads seamlessly into the next and young children will delight in Eric's colourful collage animals and simple repetitive language.
Discover more books by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle:
From the ages of 1-4, my son Finn deeply rooted himself into the detailed world of Richard Scarry. These books could be such slow reads that we only needed two of them for long airplane rides. Through Finn’s love of Scarry books, I began searching for more books that delighted with detail. And when I did not see my family’s bicycle-rich lifestyle reflected in books, I created Cycle City.
The Lost House takes readers on a seek-and-find quest through Grandad’s quirky house to recover items needed for a trip to the park. A chaotic visual delight, The Lost House features a vibrant limited color palette on each seek-and-find spread. Cronin charms the reader with unique characters, delightfully complex interiors, and a painterly style. The first in a series, also check out: The Lost Picnic, The Lost Cousins, and The Lost Christmas.
A brother and sister want to go to the playground with their grandfather, but they can't leave until they find his socks...and his shoes...and his glasses...will they ever get out of Grandad's hodgepodge house? This treasure trove of a book by a brilliant debut author-illustrator prompts very young readers to search and find the missing object on each spread packed with Grandad's bric-a-brac.
Katherine Pryor is the award-winning author of several picture books about food and gardens. In addition to writing, she has worked to create better food choices at institutions, corporations, and food banks. She gardens with her young twins at their home on an island in northwest Washington.
My kids absolutely loved this bright, charming book that supports counting and colors as well as portraying vegetables in an irresistible light. A rainbow of vegetables is presented, culminating in a recipe at the back for a vegetable soup. The language is sparse, but we had fun reading this aloud again and again. The recipe for Every Color Soup was the first meal my four-year-old son and I created together where he was an equal participant in the cooking, and he ate every bite!
Purple, yellow, orange, and red. Just the right mix of colored vegetables make a delicious soup in this tasty introduction to colors, counting, and veggies.
All you need is a pot, a spoon, an adult helper, and vegetables of many colors to make a very special soup—Every Color Soup! Learn colors and vegetable names in this bright and colorful picture book with minimal text perfect for the beginning reader. Jorey Hurley’s bright, graphic art and simple text make this vibrant book a perfect read-aloud for budding cooks and their families. This lively picture book also comes with a recipe!
My interest in kindness was renewed when I became a mother. I realized the best gift I could give my children was raising them to be kind. So, I founded a children’s media company (now sold), Little Pickle Press, dedicated to fostering kindness in children. It was a Certified B Corporation, so we prioritized our people and the planet over profit. And we brought to life many stories from diverse voices that showed children and their caring adults the power of kindness. Today, I sit on the Board and serve as Treasurer of Kindness.org, a non-profit researching the science of kindness and developing programs to apply it in classrooms, corporations, and homes.
I love this book because it shows children how to stand up to and neutralize a bully. Even more powerfully, it conveys the message that bullies need to be seen and understood, too. When they are, everyone counts. It just takes one person to be kind, and the ripple effect is powerful.
Blue is a quiet color. Red's a hothead who likes to pick on Blue. Yellow, Orange, Green, and Purple don't like what they see, but what can they do? When no one speaks up, things get out of hand - until One comes along and shows all the colors how to stand up, stand together, and count. As budding young readers learn about numbers, counting, and primary and secondary colors, they also learn about accepting each other's differences and how it sometimes just takes one voice to make everyone count.
