Looking for book suggestions

[Renee]

I am a Special Education Teacher currently working in an early intervention program with 3 to 5 year olds. I am always looking for great books for families - both educational and entertaining. Any suggestions?

[Tiff]

I would recommend books by Mo Willems - parents and kids will both love these. These are more fun than educational. :)

[Amy]

I love:
QUICK AS A CRICKET
I LIKE MYSELF
THE Z GOT ZAPPED

books that have good rhythm or actions :). I don't know if it's the same in your setting, but I'm finding a lot, certainly not all, but quite a bit of our parents with early intervention services often struggle with reading in some fashion themselves. So I try to find high quality books that pack a lot into a short amount - so I don't usually recommend much Dr. Seuss for example at home for that purpose.

Another one I found which is geared toward the child and is for use with an adult as well, is WHEN MY WORRIES GET TOO BIG. It's for kids who live with anxiety (good for anxious parents too).

[Rebecca]

Personally I love Dr. Seuss for so many reasons. The rhythm and repetitiveness is so wonderful for these children. Sometimes they memorize them and can even "read" them to their parents.

I also love The Z Got Zapped. I use it in my kindergarten in a lot of literacy activities. There are so many "alphabetic" books out there that are wonderful too.

Rhyming books such as "Sheep In A Jeep", "Sheep In A Shop", "Sheep In A Ship".

I also love books that don't have any text at all, where the children make up the story themselves or with their parents. Here is a link to many wonderful titles:
http://picturingbooks.imaginarylands....

[Kim]

I just finished reading "Quick as a Cricket" to my three year old (one of her favorites). I also love Weslandia. It's especially good for a child following his or her own path :-) The Russell the Sheep books are great too.

[Emily]

Because you are a special education teacher, I recommend "Leo the Late Bloomer." Even though it is a picture book, I think the message is really a reassuring one for the adults who are reading to their young children.

"Raising Blaze: Bringing up an Extraordinary Son in an Ordinary World" was really eye-opening for me, both as a teacher of young children and as someone with a younger brother who has special needs. I gave it to my mom to read, and she really enjoyed it as a mother with a special needs son. The author really sees her son as extraordinary and her experiences and struggles as a parent of a special needs child are easy to relate to.

One of my families who have a child with Retts identified "Finding Nemo" as a movie about special needs fish (both Dori and Nemo having special needs). I know it's a movie and I'm probably blaspheming by posting about a movie here, but the messages from the movie seemed to help that family a lot, particularly when it came to "letting go" of a child with special needs.

...I'll think about it some more. Also, if these are not along your line of thinking when you posted the question, please post clarifications.