Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

By Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Illustrated by Lois Ehlert

This is available in a board book version too, but go for the full version instead. This charming, bouncing, almost bluesy swing through the alphabet can't help but enchant young readers. Lois Ehlert's simple shapes make reading it even that much more fun, but it's the rhythm of the text that make this book come alive.

A Hole is to Dig

Written by Ruth Krauss and illustrated by the venerable Maurice Sendak.

This elegant and tiny little book goes through a series of items and explains them from a child's point of view. "Mashed potatoes," for example, "are to give everyone enough."

The Napping House
By Audrey Wood
Illustrated by Don Wood

Piling on the word play the same way that the people, animals, and insects get piled on the bed, this story is fun to read.

No one gets all that much napping time in towards the end, but if there's a good dramatic reader in your house, you're in for a good time.

Painter Don Wood does a great job with the light in the room, slowly easing the viewer from a dark blue rainy day into a bright and gracious yellow bath of sunshine.

Tyrannosaurus Was A Beast

Dinosaur Poems by Jack Prelutsky

Illustrated by Arnold Lobel

Who else but Prelutsky could get away with describing stegasaurus as "uncontentious and benign?" And still thrill the four-year-olds? This book is packed with great poems, powerful words, and fun pronunciations for boys and girls.

Try it especially on a kid who thinks he hates poems, but loves dinosaurs.