BOOKS
Fiction collections cover the board book and picture book years, through beginning readers, to chapter books. Brand new books, old favorites, and popular characters are all included.

Information books range in the same reading levels and are available in appealing formats for browsers as well as those working on homework.

MAGAZINES
A great selection of magazines for children on a range of topics from nature to space and sports.

AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS
Audio-visual materials are very popular and include CDs and cassettes in many musical styles, as well as popular characters for children. Cassettes with books are hot items, and include picture books as well as titles that teach songs or foreign languages. Some branches carry recorded books for children; a great way to hear a classic.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Puppets
Puppets are ready and waiting for check-out at Sage and Wirt Branches.

Interactive Multi-Media ( CD-ROM ) titles
Multimedia Titles are available at Auburn, Sage, Pinconning, and Wirt Branch and may be requested through any branch or the bookmobile. Titles include "living books" and educational games and activities for a wide age-range of children.

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"The single most important activity for building the knowledge
required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children."

Helpful Hints For Parents

• Read out loud to children of all ages. Start when they’re infants and don’t stop when they learn to read!
• Visit the library regularly.
• Keep plenty of reading material handy for children to easily grab.
• Let children play with toys or color while you read aloud.
• Find ways to involve young children in the story. Substitute their names for the characters or ask them to join in on a repeated phrase.
• Have older children read aloud to you while you cook or do laundry.
• Read often for short periods of time.
• Let your children see you reading. Talk to them about what you’re reading, or read bits from newspaper and magazine articles to them.
• Bring books with you when you travel or if you’re going to have a long wait somewhere. Books on tape or CD are available from the library for long trips.
• Ask distant relatives to tape stories for your children to listen to.

• Butler. BABIES NEED BOOKS
• Birckmayer. BOOKSTART: Selected Activities for babies, toddlers and young children
• Kimmel. FOR READING OUT LOUD!
• Leonhardt. 99 WAYS TO GET KIDS TO LOVE READING AND 100 BOOKS THEY’LL LOVE
• Lewis. VALERIE AND WALTER’S BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
• Odean. GREAT BOOKS FOR BOYS
• Odean. GREAT BOOKS FOR GIRLS
• Trelease. HEY! LISTEN TO THIS: STORIES TO READ ALOUD
• Trelease. THE NEW READ-ALOUD HANDBOOK

Books To Read To Your 3 To 5-Year OldThe following list contains books from our Picture Book section. Picture books are designed to be read by an adult to a child, and therefore can have any length of text. They are often brightly or lavishly illustrated. Some picture books do, in fact, rely on picture to tell the story, and have no or very little text. These are known as "Wordless Picture Books" and provide a great opportunity for your child to use her imagination and tell you a story.

Allard. MISS NELSON IS MISSING Asch. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOON Bemelmans. MADELINE Berenstain. BERENSTAIN BEARS AND THE BIG ROAD RACE Brown. ARTHUR BABYSITS Brown. BIG RED BARN Christelow. FIVE LITTLE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED Day. "CARL" books - various titles. Wordless DePaola. STREGA NONA Ernst. UP TO TEN AND DOWN AGAIN. Wordless Freeman. CORDUROY Gag. MILLIONS OF CATS Galdone. THE GINGERBREAD BOY Henkes. LILLY’S PURPLE PLASTIC PURSE Hest. BABY DUCK AND THE BAD EYEGLASSES Hutchins. THE DOORBELL RANG Keats. THE SNOWY DAY Lionni. LITTLE BLUE AND LITTLE YELLOW

London. FROGGY GETS DRESSED McCloskey. MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS McPhail. PIGS APLENTY, PIGS GALORE Noble. THE DAY JIMMY’S BOA ATE THE WASH Numeroff. IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE Piper. THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD Rathmann. OFFICER BUCKLE AND GLORIA Rey. CURIOUS GEORGE Sendak. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE Seuss. HORTON HATCHES THE EGG Steig. SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE Tafuri. I LOVE YOU, LITTLE ONE Tafuri. JUNGLEWALK. Wordless Van Allsburg. THE POLAR EXPRESS Viorst. ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY Waber. IRA SLEEPS OVER Wells. NOISY NORA Wyllie. A FLEA IN THE EAR

Books To Read To Your 2-Year Old & Younger

Board Books Board books are the small sturdy books specifically designed for babies and toddlers. They are appealing for their bright colorful pictures or photographs rather than the story. Many board books simply relate concepts, such as colors, or use only one word to describe the corresponding picture. Others are retelling of classic picture books. Board books are great first books to use so babies can become familiar with books and language. When visiting the library, pull out a handful of board books and let your baby or toddler grab the ones that catch her eye!

Easy Readers Although Easy Reader books are specifically designed for beginning readers, the easiest ones are often good choices for little ones who are just beginning to sit still for stories. The books have easy sentences and often including rhyming words or repetitive phrases that appeal to young children.

Berenstain. THE BERENSTAINS’ B BOOK Capucilli. BISCUIT Cohen. DIGGER PIG AND THE TURNIP Cox. TED IN A RED BED Edwards. PEEK-A-BOO AT THE ZOO

Hall. MY TRUCKS Packard. SLEEP-OVER MOUSE Seuss. GREEN EGGS AND HAM Seuss. HOP ON POP

Picture Books "Picture book" is the term given to the illustrated stories for children. Because they are designed for parents and teachers to read to children, they can have any length of text. The books listed below are some of the easiest picture books, and the ones children two and under are most likely to enjoy.

Brown. GOODNIGHT MOON Carle. THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR Carlstrom. JESSE BEAR, WHAT WILL YOU WEAR? Crews. FREIGHT TRAIN Davis. WHO HOPS? Fleming. IN THE TALL, TALL GRASS Fox. TIME FOR BED Hill. "SPOT" books - various titles. Krause. WHOSE MOUSE ARE YOU? McMillan. BECCA BACKWARD, BECCA FRONTWARD

Martin. BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR, WHAT DO YOU SEE? Martin. CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM Miranda. TO MARKET, TO MARKET Most. COCK-A-DOODLE MOO Riley. MOUSE MESS Shaw. SHEEP IN A JEEP Sturgis. I LOVE TRUCKS Wood. THE NAPPING HOUSE

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HOMEWORK
It is necessary for school-age children to have access to good, current information sources for their homework. The Bay County Library System is ready to help in a number of ways:

Our branches have books to help with a wide range of homework topics; from reports to specific questions. Whether it's a science fair project, a report on pandas, or a book report on a current sports figure, we have materials to help.