Battle of the Books for Picture Books

Summer is swiftly approaching. I'm still looking into great ideas for encouraging summer reading. One of my favorites is to buy your child a flashlight they can keep by their bedside table with no particular instructions about what they can and cannot do with that flashlight.

We are doing battle of the books again. I'm still organizing our novel and chapter book and nonfiction battles, but I've figured out how we're going to do picture books. There are seven brackets here because there are seven us. We are all going to read all four books in each bracket and pick our favorite. The top book in each bracket will move forward to the next round. The books will be read again and narrowed down to four, then down to two; then we will select a winner.

I'm going to use a poster to get the kids excited—I'm envisioning the sort of bracket thing people do when they are preparing for March Madness. I'll take a picture if it looks semi-decent :).

Anyway, these books are from all over the world, they are highly recommended, and I've been able to find most of them at the library. I'm only buying three :). I'm posting them here in case you'd like to try something similar with your family. If you'd like to join us and cast a vote around the middle of June, I'll keep you updated!

Happy Reading! (sorry about the formatting inconsistencies)

BRACKET ONE

1. MRS. HARKNESS AND PANDA By Alicia Potter
2. A TRIP TO THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD WITH MOUSE By Frank Viva
3. THE CONDUCTOR by Devernay
4. DOG IN BOOTS by Greg Gormley

BRACKET TWO

1) I AM DIFFERENT! CAN YOU FIND ME? by Padmanabhan

2) PRESS HERE by Herve Tullet

3) NIGHTTIME NINJA by Dacosta

4) ODD DUCK by Sara Varon

BRACKET THREE

1) IF YOU WANT TO SEE A WHALE by Julie Fogliano

2) WHEN APPLES GREW NOSES AND WHITE HORSES FLEW: TALES OF TI-JEAN by Jan Andrews

3) COWPOKE CLYDE AND THE DIRTY DAWG by Lori Mortensen

4) WATER IN THE PARK by Emily Jenkins

BRACKET FOUR

1. THE PARADE: A STAMPEDE OF STORIES ABOUT ANANSE, THE TRICKSTER SPIDER by KP. Kojo 
2. COLD SNAP by Eileen Spellini
3. THE SANTA TRAP by Jonathan Emmett
4. THE QUIET PLACE by Sarah Stewart

BRACKET FIVE

1. ISLAND by Jason Chin
2. YOU ARE STARDUST by Elin Kelsey
3. ANIMAL MASQUERADE by Marianne Dubuc 
4. THE SEVEN TALES OF TRINKET by Shelley Moore Thomas

BRACKET SIX

1)WANT TO BE IN A BAND by Suzzy Roche 

2) NINO WRESTLES THE WORLD by Yuyi Morales

3) THE HERO OF LITTLE STREET by Gregory Rogers 

4) THE GREAT RACE by Nathan Kumar Scott 

BRACKET SEVEN

1. I SAW A PEACOCK WITH A FIERY TALE. illus. by Ramsingh Urveti. 
2. BEAR HAS A STORY TO TELL by Philip C. Stead
3. BANANAS IN MY EARS: A COLLECTION OF NONSENSE STORIES, POEMS, RIDDLES, AND RHYMES by Michael Rosen 
4. CAT TALE by Michael Hall