One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Written by: Dr. Seuss

First line: One fish two fish red fish blue fish.

Why you should read this book: "Funny things are everywhere," and in this classic beginning beginner book, Dr. Seuss attempts to catalog a vast number of them, including made-up animals, real animals engaging in unusual behaviors, and Seussian characters with Seussian problems. Good introduction to discovering rhyming words, finding contextual meaning in pictures, and cloaking learning with humor and a sense of the ridiculous. Can be read aloud all at once or broken down, page by page, for an examination of related series of words.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Find no humor in learning to read.

Green Eggs and Ham

Written by: Dr. Seuss

First line: I am Sam.

Why you should read this book: Another children's classic that lends itself equally to being read out loud by adults to children or by children to themselves (or adults, or other children, or dogs, or anyone who is willing to listen). The rhyming and repetition make it a good book for beginning reader, with the rhythm and structure switching up just often enough to ensure listeners that the young child is actually reading, rather than reciting the text through memorization. At the end, there is a moral that encourages readers to try new foods, with delightful reward.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Dietary restrictions prevent you from accepting ham or eggs as food, regardless of their color. Also: suspicion of green animal-based proteins.

Go, Dog. Go!

Written by: PD Eastman

First line: Dog.

Why you should read this book: Although this is a beginning-beginner book, and often one of the first books that children find they can read all by themselves, there is an interesting structure and sense of dynamic tension and irony in the narrative, in which a series of activities, all perpetrated by anthropomorphic dogs, culminates in one of the most memorable party scenes of western literature, arguably surpassing anything Gatsby was able to throw together with limited resources that did not, sadly, include acrobatic dogs. With repetition and an emphasis on prepositions, color words, and easily understandable concepts, this book begs to be read over and over again.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Do not believe in judging others by their hats.

Don't Bet on the Prince: Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and New England.

Edited by: Jack Zipes

First line: A long time ago in a kingdom by the sea there lived a Princess tall and bright as a sunflower.

Why you should read this book: There is extensive scholarly material included in the introduction and in part three, but most readers can glean the full force of the message by reading the tales, in which the girls and women take center stage, doing the questing, fighting, adventuring and thinking, wherever they need to be done. These princesses find that they can rescue their own princes, or that sometimes the princes aren't worth the bother and they should go off with some other man who appreciates them more, or that men in general aren't what they need at the moment, and they can find perfect happiness on their own. Some of the tales are better for younger readers, and others are more appropriate for a more mature audience, but they all envision a world where women take action, rather than waiting passively to become a prize for someone else.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Still waiting for your prince to come.

Number the Stars

Written by: Lois Lowry

First line: "I'll race you to the corner, Ellen!"

Why you should read this book: Really timeless, elegant, and unpretentious story that brings to life the experience of the Danes under Nazi rule in World War II. With faith in their king and their way of life, the people of Denmark are prepared to suffer through the German invasion, but when the Nazis make known their intention of rounding up all Jewish citizens, ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen begins to realize the true meaning of friendship and citizenship, and what her people are willing to go through for their country. A rewarding and engaging read for all ages: very smart, very sweet, with alternating moments of dynamic suspect and rewarding resolution.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You'd have to be a Nazi to not like this story.

Oh, the THINKS You Can Think!

Written by: Dr. Seuss

First line: You can think up some birds.

Why you should read this book: Nice book for early readers working on phonics, as this book contains quite a number of made-up words that can be decoded with humorous results. Reads like a catalog of ideas that Seuss couldn't flesh out into a full-length store. Also nice for reading aloud to kids with a sense of the bizarre.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Demand a sense of unrepentant reality in children's literature.

The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice

Written by: TKV Desikachar

First line: To begin, I should like to share some thoughts that might help us understand the many different meanings of the word yoga.

Why you should read this book: The asanas, or mat practice, commonly understood in western culture to be "yoga" are only one of eight branches of yoga, which is a system that unites the body, mind, and spirit and affect all aspects of human life. The author, inspired by the life of his father, Krishnamacharya, explains many of the physical and sublime details of a full yogic practice, the result of which can be a lightening of the heart and a process that sets the individual free from the world. This book includes several appendices, along with Krishnamacharya's Yoganjalisaram and Patanjali's Yoga Sutra.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Just want to fold yourself into a pretzel. Or, threatened by spiritual systems beyond those into which you were indoctrinated as a small child.

The Tale of Despereaux

Written by: Kate DiCamillo

First line: This story begins within the walls of a castle, with the birth of a mouse.

Why you should read this book: A fairy tale with an implicit discussion of dark versus light and dogma versus inspiration, not to mention examinations of bravery, cowardice, class structure, dreams rational and irrational, and effective ways to handle grief. An unusual mouse, an unusual rat, an unusual scullery maid, and an almost run-of-the-mill princess find their lives converge as each seeks to realize dreams that the world tells them they should not have. Clever without being overly complex, this book creates a believable world with sympathetic characters whose flaws and strengths are lovingly illustrated to turn stereotypical portraits of good and evil on their head and instead inject a dose of reality in characterization into what is otherwise a world of pure fantasy.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't talk to bugs. Or mice. Or your enemy's distant cousin, even if the cousins are enemies of each other.

Drawing from Memory

Written by: Alan Say

Why you should read this book: Celebrated Caldecott winning illustrator Alan Say turns his focus inward, relating his earliest memories in text and illustration, along with reproductions of a few historical artifacts. Having learned to read at a very young age, Say fell in love with comic books, decided to become an artist, and spent his entire childhood honing his craft, screwing up the courage at age twelve to approach his favorite cartoonist and draw his way into an apprenticeship with Noro Shinpei, who became his sensei and served as father figure (his own father claimed that artists were lazy, scruffy, and not respectable) while giving him the tools he needed to succeed in his chosen path. The story follows him until he leaves Japan, at age sixteen, to travel in America, and includes an author's note, which details his life-long relationship with the sensei, who passed away in 2002.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You believe artists are lazy, scruffy, and not respectable.

Dragonology: Tracking and Taming Dragons A Deluxe Book and Model Set Volume 1 European Edition

Written by: Ernest Drake

First line: "Where can I find dragons?" is such a common refrain these days that it seems to crop up almost every time our favourite flying beasts are mentioned.

Why you should read this book: In truth, I purchased it in careless error, thinking I was buying a souped-up edition of the original Dragonology book, but alas, this "Tracking and Taming" "Guide for Beginnings" is a sort of small and silly pamphlet with brief overviews of the fictional world of Dragonology, along with some very basic notes about tracking and training animals, which might be applied to a dragon if one were to be found. The illustrations are amusing but, for the most part, not particularly clever or interesting. The book itself is basically a companion for the actual meat of this product, which is a really lovely dragon model, comprised of twelve pieces that can be easily assembled by the youngest model makers and hung from the ceiling; purchase it if you or your child want to assemble a beautiful but very simple three-dimensional dragon, not if you want to read an engaging book (and not if you're into really complex models, which this is not).

Why you shouldn't read this book: You want to read the original Dragonology book.