10 Picture Books to be Thankful For

Please welcome my guest author today, Mary Lyn Ray with her list of gratitude picture books. I always like to highlight thankfulness as we turn the corner towards November.

We are giving away 3 copies of her book, The Thank You Book. Please fill out the Rafflecopter at the bottom to enter.

The Thank You Book by Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin

Thank you isn’t just for learning manners.
It’s also for when something wakes a
little hum—a little happy hum—inside you
and you want to answer back.

This is the perfect picture book for mindfulness and gratitude … which is to say to take the time to be grateful for the little things and big things in life that come our way. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

—————-

Sometimes a title isn’t explained until the end of a story. Not this one: The Thank You Book is about saying thank you. But it’s not a book of manners or even the kind of “thank you” we’re taught to say in our first lessons in manners. Twined around celebration of a child’s day and year and occasions, it’s about giving place to what we feel when “something wakes a happy little hum inside us and we want to answer back.” Thank you becomes a way to name gratitude and to notice all the ways and times we feel it. It’s, in part, for glue and glitter, for laps and books, for zippers when warm days turn cold, for this earth we ride on, for family and home, for “what we give a name to, and for what we can’t” and “all we feel inside us that makes us glad that we are us.” And to that I add another thank you for Stephanie Graegin’s enchanting art, full of additional story, that creates on every page a kind and caring world where everyone is equal and part of the hum.

I’ve chosen books that match lines here and there in The Thank You Book. If you start looking for others, you’ll find many excellent ones that (sometimes half-hidden) reveal gratitude.

10 Picture Books to be Thankful For

1. A Birthday for Frances by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban

Because “thank you is for having birthdays and for birthday cake,” even when it’s someone else’s and they get the presents. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

2. Before Morning by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes

For “the year’s surprises before green days come back.” In this mesmerizing book to honor a hoped-for snow day and its quiet and its white and the suspension of routine, the art wraps a reader in a winter world and words fall like snow. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

3. Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino

A thank you for special times shared by a parent and child–and a reminder that the ordinary can become something more. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

4. Gaston by Kelly diPucchio, illustrated by Christian Robinson

Here, G is for Gaston and also for gratitude–for family, for both alikeness and difference, and for being, each of us, who we are. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

5. Inside by Lizi Boyd

This wordless book offers a delightful and different way of inviting conversation and story making about what we each feel grateful for throughout a day and the circle of seasons a year brings. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

6. School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex, illustrated by Christian Robinson.

Another, slantwise look at being glad that we are us. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

7. Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson, illustrated by Sydney Smith

No text is necessary to tell this story of noticing (and sharing) what blooms around us to be thankful for. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

8. The Scraps Book by Lois Ehlert

Because “thank you is for glue and glitter.” Lois Ehlert’s biography in “scraps” will inspire almost anyone to start a project. [picture book, ages 5 and up]

9. The Tree Lady by H. Joseph Hopkins, illustrated by Jill McElmurry

A thank you for trees–and a story that grew from someone knowing we need them. [picture book, ages 5 and up]

10. Windows by Julia Denos, illustrated by E. B. Goodale

An especially evocative thank you for neighborhood and home and those who love us. [picture book, ages 3 and up]

The Thank You Book 3 Book GIVEAWAY!

We are giving away 3 copies of her book, The Thank You Book. Please fill out the Rafflecopter at the bottom to enter. We can only mail to U.S. addresses.

The Thank You Book by Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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To examine any book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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