I love reading.
Always have, always will.
My kids seem to love it to, with my son requesting multiple bed time books and my daughter now starting to read some to us. It’s incredible what books introduce into our lives – a more extensive vocabulary, new worlds, new ideas.
In our play area I’ve added a book nook so that books are always accessible.
If you don’t know this about me, I am hopelessly addicted to rearranging items in my house. I like to change it up to find the best flow in the house. I’ve also decided that it works well to switch out the books every so often for this very reason …but also because the kids forget about certain books so rotating them in and out of the nook makes it feel like we’ve just gotten a haul of brand new stories.
I put the Halloween books away but couldn’t think of a good theme to go with for the next rotation, since it’s still a little too early to bust out the Christmas books (they’re in the basement just biding their time…).
But then we got the first snowfall of the season and the ol’ lightbulb over the head went BING and I started scouring our shelves for winter themed books.
We don’t have as many as I thought we would (most are very Christmas oriented. I like Christmas a lot a lot a lot) but I did find some that I thought I would share, in case you were looking for winter-themed book ideas.
The Mitten (Jan Brett)
This one is wonderful. It’s a fun story that is also geared towards early readers. I think I may let my daughter try reading this one to us next. The illustrations tell the story and the pictures on the side also give you a glimpse of what will happen on the next page. It’s a great way to have the kids guess what’s to come.
The Gruffalo’s Child (Julia Donaldson)
I am a fan of every single book this author/illustrator duo publishes. The Gruffalo’s Child is another one of our favourites and I’ve already quoted the book this season (“aha, oho tracks in the snow. Whose are these foot prints and where do they go?”). The rhyming makes this such an entertaining read.
The Magic Hockey Skates (Allen Morgan)
This one is a longer book (so settle in for a cozy read) but it’s a classic story that I remember from my own childhood. We introduced our daughter to skating lessons last year and she enjoyed reading this book as she learned to skate. We’re going to do lessons for both kids this year so you can bet this book will get more than a few requests at bedtime.
Cross Country Cat (Mary Calhoun)
This one is probably not well known but it’s from my childhood. We had Siamese cats growing up so I have a strong suspicion that’s what drew my mom to this book. It’s about a cat who accidentally gets left behind and sets himself up on skis to get back to his family on an adventure through the snow. Full disclosure: I’ve cried reading this book, but it may have been when I was pregnant and a boiling pot of emotions.
What books remind you of winter?
Leave me your recommendations to add to our winter-themed book nook!
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