Favorite books for kindergartners

Big Man and I came up with this list just before xmas and I thought I'd share. If you have a kid, select books for kids, or like to read picture books (they're totally underrated!) these are some good ones. I have a board book list too, I'll probably post that next week.

• Chickerella by Mary Jane Auch and Herm Auch. Cool art, and at the end the heroine goes into business with the prince!
  
• Maxwell’s Mountain by Shari Becker and Nicole E. Wong. Excellent for discussing projects and planning and reaching past your boundaries.
  
• The great kapok tree: A tale of the Amazon rain forest by Lynne Cherry
• Mixed Beasts by Kenyon Cox and Wallace Edwards. Beautiful, witty illustrations, full of little jokes.
  
• Ruby Sings the Blues by Niki Daly. Gotta be ready to holler along with Ruby if you're gonna read this one aloud.
  
• The Yellow Balloon by Charlotte Desmatons. Fun for all ages. A bottomless source of story and detail, with no words at all!
  
• Charlie Cook’s favorite book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Clever and fun celebration of reading.
  
• Gakky Two-Feet by Micky Dolenz. The guy from the Monkees writes a book about pre-humans!
  
• The Extinct Files: My Science Project by Wallace Edwards
• Josias, hold the book by Jennifer Riesmeyer Elvgren and Nicole Tadgell. A little boy in Haiti learns the value of education. Sweet.
  
• Ellsworth's Extraordinary Electric Ears and Other Amazing Alphabet Anecdotes by Valorie Fisher. Cool-looking and full of vocabulary-building detail.
  
• Eddie's Garden and How to Make Things Grow by Sarah Garland. A really nice gardening story, with good science mixed in.
  
• In the woods: Who’s been here? by Lindsay Barrett George. All of the Lindsay Barrett George picture books are so amazing. This one shows you how to draw conclusions from details of your surroundings.
  
• The Monster Show: Everything You Never Knew About Monsters by Charise Mericle Harper. Monsters in underpants, heh heh.
  
• Prehistoric Actual Size by Steve Jenkins. The best use of Steve Jenkins' collage illustration style I've seen yet.
  
• The Worm family by Tony Johnston and Stacy Innerst. Say it loud! We're worms and we're proud!
  
• Superhero ABC by Bob McLeod. Faithful to old-style comic book illustration and concept.
  
• If you decide to go to the moon by Faith Mcnulty and Steven Kellogg. Facts about space travel and the moon, with an environmental message.
  
• Harvey Potter’s balloon farm by Jerdine Nolen. Trippy.
  
• Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser. Celebrating individuality and the concept of more is more.
  
• Captain Raptor and the Moon Mystery by Kevin O’Malley & Patrick O’Brien. Gorgeous paintings and a real page-turner to boot.
  
• The world that loved books by Stephen Parlato. Kaleidescopic illustrations, easy-to-grasp concept.
  
• Seen Art? by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. Kid goes to MoMA.
  
• Mommy? by Maurice Sendak. Totally indulgent pop-up book. Spin the mummy!
  
• The Ravenous Beast by Niamh Sharkey. One of the first books a pre-reader can narrate himself, taking cues from the rhythm of the text and the pictures on the page.
  
• Wild About Books by Judy Sierra. What's not to love about a ponytailed librarian in hot pink pants parking her bookmobile at the zoo? The insect haiku is a crackup.
  
• Henny Penny by Jane Wattenberg. Shake, rattle, and roll! Use a whole lot of crazy hepcat voices to read this crack-a-lackin' version out loud.
  
• Dear Mr. Rosenwald by Carole Boston Weatherford. Did you know that the Sears, Roebuck founder funded hundreds of black schools across the South? I didn't.
  
• Flotsam by David Wiesner. Another wordless, mind-expanding book from David Wiesner, maybe his best so far.
  
• Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus! by Mo Willems. Great role-reversal for kids - they're the ones saying "No!" and you the reader get to have a tantrum in the middle of the book.
  
• Leonardo, the terrible monster by Mo Willems. Leonardo is a terrible monster because he's bad at it. Sweet without being gross.
  
• Nothing to do by Douglas Wood and Wendy Halperin. Celebrating the kind of things kids get up to when their minds are allowed to wander.
  
• Ruby’s Wish by Shirin Yim and Sophie Blackall. Inspiring true story about a Chinese girl who wants more than her traditional role dictates.