Emily Gravett

Apparently, parents spend more time doing cognitive activities—primarily reading—with girls than with boys. This was surprising for researchers on many levels. Read about it in this article:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/05/06/180816964/girls-may-get-more-teaching-time-from-parents-than-boys-do

So start them early. Girls AND boys, and that's what picture books are for! I've often bemoaned how short picture books are becoming. Hardly any text. Hardly any.

But there are some authors that make this trend okay. Their ideas are so wonderful, their concepts so unique and child-centered, the lack of words is just fine. Even appropriate. These are the sort of picture books that will help you build your child's stamina to listen to longer and longer text, because they will fall in love with books and they will want more. They will also help build your own stamina for reading aloud, and they will make you thirst to read only the best books to your kids (not Disney or Dora—sorry, book snob alert...).

Emily Gravett is one of those authors.

Here are some of our favorite books by her:



"Wait!" you might be saying. "Aren't those all of Gravett's books?"

Um, yeah. I think so. But that is because we've never met an Emily Gravett book we didn't like. She is perfect for the smallest children, but her illustrations are so good, even older kids will enjoy perusing.

And so will you!