We all know that children learn by imitating adults, especially their parents. We also know that it’s important for children to establish a regular reading habit and foster a positive relationship with reading while they are young for future education achievement and life success. Research has found that shared reading in particular, when adults such as parents, teachers, or babysitters read aloud to children, is highly beneficial to children. Not only does it foster the development of spelling, reading comprehension and vocabulary, listening skills, and literacy skills, but it also fosters positive attitudes towards reading and is an opportunity to create social bonds between parents and their children. In addition, as children return back to school in September and family members become increasingly busy with their own schedules, bedtime shared reading can become a valuable opportunity to reconnect and spend quality time with your children.

Here are five new picture books to add to your collection of bedtime reading books:

She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed History 
Written by Chelsea Clinton, illustrated by Alexandra Boiger

Chelsea Clinton introduces tiny feminists, mini activists and little kids who are ready to take on the world to thirteen inspirational women who never took no for an answer, and who always, inevitably and without fail, persisted.

Wolf in the Snow
Illustrated and written by Matthew Cordell

A girl is lost in a snowstorm. A wolf cub is lost, too. How will they find their way home?

Winner of multiple awards including the prestigious 2018 Caldecott Medal, this book takes you on a brave girl’s frantic, frightful journey.

Big Cat, Little Cat
Illustrated and written by Elisha Cooper

There was a cat

who lived alone.

Until the day

a new cat came . . .

And so a story of friendship begins, following the two cats through their days, months, and years until one day, the older cat has to go. And he doesn’t come back.

A 2018 Caldecott Honor book, this book illustrates the reassuringly circular nature of life in beautiful and simplistic black and white line art.

The Digger and the Flower
Illustrated and written by Joseph Kuefler

Each day, the big trucks go to work. They scoop and hoist and push.

But when Digger discovers something growing in the rubble, he sets in motion a series of events that will change him, and the city, forever.

This is a book with a powerful message about the environment conveyed through beautiful and bold illustrations.

A Different Pond
Written by Bao Phi, Illustrated by Thi Bui

As a young boy, Bao Phi awoke early, hours before his father's long workday began, to fish on the shores of a small pond in Minneapolis. Unlike many other anglers, Bao and his father fished for food, not recreation. Between hope-filled casts, Bao's father told him about a different pond in their homeland of Vietnam…

Another 2018 Caldecott Honor Book, based on the experiences of both the Vietnamese American illustrator and author, this book depicts the immigrant experience as well as universal themes of family, love, and survival.  

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