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Category: Reading Lists: Picture Books

Best picture books for kids including Caldecott and other award winning books for children.

Favorite Picture Books with Ducks

15 Favorite Duck Picture Books

Posted on March 3, 2011June 10, 2024 by Pragmatic Mom

What is it about ducks in picture books that always seems so appealing? Are ducks really so unusually clever as portrayed in these books? Or charismatic? Or just sweet and fluffy? I think all of the above is true! I found myself reading a pile of duck featured picture books to my son one night when he randomly brought me a small pile that included Duck for President and Duck on a Bike. And then I started the list in earnest. Turns out that it’s quite hard to find 10 excellent duck picture books so I had to add Little Bear, technically an easy reader to get 10. I hope that is OK with you! I guess what is stranger is that I happen to own most of these books and yet, no one in my family enjoys eating duck. Maybe that is what happens when you attach to an anthropomorphic character as appealing as a duck. My family also does not like to eat chicken. I wonder if we have 10 excellent picture books featuring chickens … stay tuned! How about you? What animal picture books are you reading over and over? Dogs, cats, mice, ducks, chickens?… Please share your favorites!

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best seek and find books, Look! A Book!

10 Amazing Seek and Find Picture Books

Posted on February 14, 2011June 11, 2024 by Pragmatic Mom

Are Search and Find books the precursor to video/DSi/Wii/xBox/Nintendo games for little boys? Maybe … but I’ll take that any day over the screens! I have to say that I have never logged in so many hours searching for stuff in books until I had my third child and my only son. Coincidence? I think not. There is a gaming feature that never seems to bore my son from searching and finding stuff in books. This, however, does not seem to translate into searching and finding [lost] stuff in his room or in the house.

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SAT Vocabulary for Kindergarten from Picture Book Cuddly Dudley

Posted on February 8, 2011June 11, 2024 by Pragmatic Mom

This is the list for Week 5:

adorable: The baby was so adorable that everyone wanted to hug him.

enormous: An elephant is an enormous animal.

resist: I could not resist eating the cookies because they smelled so good.

lonely: The little girl sitting by herself on the swings seemed very lonely.

annoyed: I was annoyed when my brother talked to me while I was in the middle of playing a memory game.

gregarious: Tonya was very gregarious and was always inviting friends over to play.

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Caught in the Act … of READING

Posted on January 17, 2011June 11, 2024 by Pragmatic Mom

Thank you to everyone who sent in photos of kids Caught in the Act … of READING. If you would like go send me a photo, please email me at pragmaticmom.com (at) gmail (dot) com. I definitely need more photos. This week, it’s been fun to see some of these kids caught in the act of reading again and again! In other photos, older siblings are reading with their younger siblings which is so nice and rarely happens in my house but when it does, it’s a moment in time that I want to freeze and keep forever. What are your kids reading and can you catch them in the act of reading?!

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Best Children's Books on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

15 Great Children’s Books on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted on January 16, 2011February 9, 2025 by Pragmatic Mom

So it’s only now, as I learn alongside my children that I start to get a sense of the what exactly happened during the civil rights movement and truly, what a great man of historic proportions Martin Luther King, Jr. is. And, like a puzzle coming together, I am only just now able to connect the dots to see how Dr. Martin Luther King inspired every day people to do extraordinary things.

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Art and Max, best picture book of 2010, Caldecott potential winner, David Weisner, Pragmatic Mom, best books of 2010

Top 10 Best Children’s Books: My Kids’ Favorites of 2010

Posted on January 12, 2011June 11, 2024 by Pragmatic Mom

As I look back on the year and think about all the books my kids and I read together, it brings back warm, fuzzy memories of snuggling, laughing, and just enjoying a shared experience that loving the same book brings. So I asked my kids to each give me their three favorite books from last year and then I added a few more of my own, though I have to say that I loved their picks as much as they did. I hope you enjoy these books, should you need book recs, as much as we did!

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Science books for kids, Your Fantastic Elastic Brain, Pragmatic Mom

Your Fantastic Elastic Brain is Fantastic

Posted on January 11, 2011June 11, 2024 by Pragmatic Mom

Your Fantastic Elastic Brain: Stretch It, Shape It by Dr. Joann Deak [non fiction picture book, ages 4-8] is gently encouraging kids to try new things after taking time to point out how the brain works. The message to the kids is that you are one sculpting and shaping your brain so be the driver not the passenger in this amazing journey called life!

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I’m Mia Wenjen!

Mia Wenjen by Jerry Russo
Mia Wenjen
(photo by Jerry Russo)

Hi, I’m Mia Wenjen. Nice to meet you!

I blog about diverse children’s books, co-founded Read Your World on Jan 29, 2026, and write children’s books.

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Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlDdwUZpcNI

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Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Robert Sae-Heng

Food for the Future Song created by Daria – World Music for Children

https://youtu.be/uTw6y3EjeOA

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Recent Posts

  • History of Auburndale in Newton MA by Newton Historical Society January 19, 2026
  • WE SING FROM THE HEART at the 2025 NCTE Book Awards Luncheon January 12, 2026
  • 2026 Read Your World Virtual Party! January 9, 2026
  • Tracy Slater’s Together in Manzanar Book Launch January 7, 2026
  • BARBED WIRED BETWEEN US: Kirkus The Most Anticipated Children’s Books of Spring 2026 January 5, 2026
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