Tuesday Tip! Books that Sing

"Books that Sing" are picture books based on familiar songs, like Old Macdonald's Farm, Five Little Ducks, or The Itsy Bitsy Spider, to name a few. There are hundreds of them, and new ones being added all the time. The styles of illustrations are quite varied, which makes them appropriate for a variety of ages. Below are a few of my favorites, but the best thing to do is visit your local library and ask your children's librarian to help you find some of his or her favorites.

Why do they work? Children already know the melody, and will immediately sing along! They LOVE to look at the illustrations, and these books work magic on a restless child or group of children. I always have at least a half a dozen newer ones from the library as well as my own collection, which I use at school visits.

Here are just a few of my favorites:

Old MacDonald’s Farm, by Jessica Souhami (out of print, but can be found)

A Hunting We Will Go, by John Langstaff

If You’re Happy and You Know It, by David A. Carter

What Shall We Do When We All Go Out? illustrated by Shari Halpern

The Itsy Bitsy Spider, by Iza Trapani (many other story song books by this author)

The Farmer In the Dell, illustrated by Kathy Parkinson

Go Tell Aunt Rhody, illustrated by Aliki (many others by this illustrator)

There are also a lot of original songs in this format, and they either have the melody in the back, or include a CD of the song. My new favorite of these (which means the children's favorite!), is We All Go Travellin' By, a sing-along with Fred Penner, by Sheena Roberts and Siobhan Bell. You can find it on Amazon.com.

If you have some favorite titles, please share them on this blog!