Books for Storytime

There are lots of wonderful books from which to select for storytimes! Suggestions can be found at many sites, often categorized by theme. What is most important is that you choose those that you like and with which you feel comfortable reading. Look at these sites for titles:

Babies Lap Time: Themes
Easy-to-find books are listed by both skills-based and subject-based themes. Though brief, the list includes some titles for common storytime themes.

Bookhive: Your Guide to Children’s Literature and Books
Information on read aloud books by various age categories can be accessed from this site. Each entry gives the publisher, number of pages, and a review. Some entries even give similar books.

Dreamhouse: Nursery: Bookcase: Rhymes
Rhyme collection books to read with children are presented. Publishing information, ISBNs and annotations are included.

Hummingbird’s Lotsa Lesson Plans Page
Suggested books are interspersed with theme-based activities, rhymes and craft suggestions. As with other theme-based sites, the books are listed within all the other activities, and therefore it requires a bit of scrolling through the page to find them. Frequent updates make this an extremely useful resource.

Kino’s Storytime Booklists
Kino’s Storytime is produced by PBS Television Station KCET. The books included are presented alphabetically and by show at this site.

Nuttin’But Kids Main Page
This site was designed for childcare providers to develop lesson plans. It is included in this pathfinder because each thematic lesson includes books, along with rhymes and songs, and other activities. The lessons are extensive resources applicable to the library storytime as well as the daycare.

OVAL Products: Reading & the Young Child Kit Content
The Ohio Valley Area Libraries circulates 59 kits among participating member libraries which in turn distribute the kits to child care centers or family day care homes. At this site, the themes of the kits are listed. Links to the individual kit contents provide the titles of books contained along with activity ideas and fingerplays related to the themes. The lists of book titles are quite lengthy.

Preschool Picture Books Listed by Themes
The preschoolrainbow.org site lists new and classic picture books according to 18 early childhood education themes. A useful feature is the notation given to newly added titles. Users may add books and/or themes to the list by email.

Spanish Story Time Ideas
Books in Spanish are suggested in subject themes. There are multiple titles for each of eleven categories.

Storytime Kits — Apr 99
The Provincial Public Library has developed seven storytime kits for use by groups who work with children. Among other items for developing storytelling skills, the kits feature collections of books related to specific themes. Titles of the collections can be found at this site.

Storytimes and Crafts!
Thebestbooksite.com site provides an alphabetical listing of over 200 storytime topics. Each topic includes related books. The site is extensive and well designed, and even includes a keyword search of the topics option.

Pathfinder prepared June 23, 2000 by Terry Rabideau

Please send suggestions and comments to rabideau@advinc.com