7 favorite books as chosen by a preschool class

As a preschool teacher, nothing pleases me more than seeing 17 little faces completely absorbed in quality literature. It still amazes me that all it takes is the raise of one eyebrow and the suggestion of story time to have all of my little ones sitting "crisscross applesauce," eagerly anticipating whatever adventure awaits us behind the title page. We read everything from Shel Silverstein to Eric Carle to Lois Ehlert, in addition to a seemingly endless supply of new stories. The kids and I agree, however, that the following books have earned a particularly special place on our bookshelf.

1. 'The Peace Book,' by Todd Parr

“I chose this book as my favorite because they are peacemakers and they love everybody. I’m a peacemaker, too.” –Amelia, 3

Peace is a very important, but very abstract, concept for three- and four-year-olds, so in “The Peace Book,” Parr uses concrete illustrations of peace that are simple for preschoolers to understand. Each page has a different example of peace, and the book had my kids convinced that acting like a peacemaker was of utmost importance by the page that reads “Peace is having enough pizza in the world for everyone.” The illustrations are simple, bright, bold, and pretty silly. This was one of many Parr books we grew to love last year.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

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The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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