Potty Training Books!

We are in the long process of potty training Ricky. I keep a few books in there to entertain him while he goes to the bathroom. I've been trying to buy books rather than borrow them because of the whole sanitary issue - with these books probably being in bathrooms. So far, I have run across these storybooks that have been just great:

Ricky likes Once Upon A Potty a lot and asks me to read it multiple times while he sits on the potty. He is particularly fascinated with the pictures of the poo poo.

I liked the way the author pointed out a toddler's anatomical parts in the way they know and understand them. I think Ricky finds this book really inspiring and encouraging.

The story is told from the perspective of Joshua's mother - and she tells the story of how she has been changing Joshua's diapers and how he slowly makes the transition to the potty. Although nobody uses chamber pots anymore, it was really cute!

Ricky really likes No More Diapers for Ducky! too. This is a story about a Ducky who wears diapers and goes to his friend's house. His friend is busy on the potty, so Ducky is playing alone with his friend's toys in his friend's room - wondering what is *so* important that his friend isn't playing with him.

His friend explains that he is on the potty, but Ducky wears diapers so Ducky won't be interested. Ducky takes off his diaper and starts using the potty while his friend plays inthe room alone.

This is especially cute considering that Ricky thinks he is Little Quack these days!

When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach, Illustrated By David Small

Whenever we go to our local Trader Joe's market, Ricky always gets a balloon - his reward for putting up with boring grocery shopping. Now if I imagine if Trader Joe's gave out dinosaurs instead of balloons.....well that would be something to see!

This is the story of a boy who does errands with his mother all day - they go to the bakery, the barber - and instead of giving away balloons as usual, businesses are giving out dinosaurs. As a result, they avoid going to the shoestore (buy 2 pairs get 1 dinosaur free), the movies, etc. Ricky and I really enjoyed this story and it has lots of funny parts.

Published 2007 by Simon & Schuster

Must Have Books for Toddlers - If You Give Books by Laura Numeroff, Illustrated by Felicia Bond

These books are an absolute must for toddlers because they are so darn cute. When Ricky was just a baby, I took my bookstore gift card and bought all the Laura Numeroff books - If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, and If You Take a Mouse to School. We read them all the time - and he never gets tired of them.

All the books follow the same formula - one thing leads to another. Full of consequences and utter chaos but lots of fun. Felicia's Bond's illustrations are really cute and they trigger lots of vocabulary expansion since the illustrations are pretty detailed. There are lots of things to name.

ELMER by David McKee

Even though this book was published in 1968, I had never heard of it nor read it until I became a mother. Call me a deprived child. I wish I had read this book when I was young, in grammar school, and wanting to fit in.

This is the story of Elmer, the patchwork elephant. He is the only elephant in the herd who is not all gray-colored. He has a great sense of humor and always makes the other elephants laugh. They all love him. But Elmer wasn't happy - he wanted to be all gray-colored like the rest of the herd. So he found a bush with gray berries and smushed them all over himself until he looked all gray like the rest of the elephants. When he went back to the herd, nobody recognized him but they were looking for Elmer, the patchwork elephant.

This is a great book because it discusses how special and unique you are - and why fitting in and looking like everyone else isn't all that great. This book would be good to re-visit during the ugly stages of puberty!!

Published 1968 by HarperCollins

Timothy and the Strong Pajamas by Viviane Schwarz

This book reads like a comic book - which is why I was drawn to it in the first place. The only problem is since it does read in this fashion, it may be suitable for older kids - closer to 4 years old and up. Ricky has a pretty good attention span, and there were a few instances while we were reading this book where I lost him.

This is the story of Timothy and his strong pajamas. The pajamas give him strength so he rushes to aid those in need - he catches an elephant falling off a cliff, carries 5 grocery bags for an old lady, saves a ship from sinking, etc.

This book is really cute. Your typical superhero story wrapped in great illustrations. I am curious to read Viviane Schwarz's other books - The Adventures of a Nose and Shark and Lobster's Amazing Underseas Adventure.

Published 2007 by Scholastic Books

Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow and Lenny Lipton, With Paintings by Eric Puybaret

I bought this book for Ricky's birthday. I remembered it as a child and it comes with a CD of the song. The story itself is sad - it tells of a dragon named Puff who befriends Little Jack Paper and they have lots of adventures together. But "a dragon lives forever, but not so little girls and boys....One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more.." so of course Puff mourns the loss of his friend. It is a sad story but you can't help liking it.

The CD has 4 songs on it and you can listen to the CD while you flip the pages for your child. The songs are written by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary and they flow nicely for a child. I was a tot in the 1970s so maybe that's why I kind of like the CD, I don't know. Shhh!

Little Ricky liked it and didn't ask why Jackie Paper stopped visiting Puff. But at three years old, I wasn't in a rush to point out the whole death thing quite yet. I would suggest this book as a good gift for a child.

Published 2007 by Sterling

SMASH! CRASH! by Jon Scieszka, Illustrations by David Shannon, Loren Long, David Gordon, & Dan Potash

Finally! This is what I've been looking for in books - Trucktown!! Nothing like a bunch of creative people making all kinds of truck and vehicle characters! There are several interesting names attached to this book.

You may recognize the name of David Gordon whose books The Three Little Rigs and The Ugly Truckling appeared on my blog last year. I am a big fan of his - as well as Loren Long - whose illustrations for The Little Engine That Could were just classic. A review on that is soon to come. Jon Scieszka's Stinky Cheese book is really funny - and I plan on reading it to Ricky soon.

But back to the book! Best friend trucks Jack and Dan run around smashing and crashing throughout the book. Tons of visual fun for those kids in love with all kinds of trucks. I can't wait to see what other books these guys come up with!! Check out their Trucktown website - there is a section for kids, parents, and librarians (cool).

Published 2008 by Simon and Schuster