1. Look at Me, I'm a Robot By Sebastien Braun - This was a very interactive book. In each page there were spots cut out for both eyes and one spot for the nose as well. As you read the book and it introduces the different kinds of robots, then you hold the book up to your face so that you can act like a robot. My son thought this was probably one of the best things ever and thought it was REALLY funny when Mommy was the robot. Such a great book to read and play with! This book is in the following categories: Fine-Motor Skills, Lift-the-Flap and Touch-and-Feel, Sound Exploration, and Hobbies and Sports.
2. Do Donkeys Dance? By Melanie Walsh - This is a very silly book that asks a question with each page and then answers it. Some of the questions include "Do pigs buzz around flowers?", "Do chickens swim underwater?", and "Can a ladybug stand on one leg?". As you turn the pages, you find out that "No [pigs don't buzz around flowers], bees buzz around flowers. This was a book that my son was able to help me read, being that one of his favorite words right now is "no." I could tell that he really enjoyed saying part of the book, even though he may not completely understand why he was saying his favorite word. There is a little surprise question at the end, which I have to admit did trick me initially. This book is in the following category: Animal Books.
3. The Fire Engine Book Illustrated by Tibor Gergely. This book does not have a specific author, but it is in the Little Golden Treasures series of books. This one focuses a lot on the sounds that are heard at a fire station and how the fire fighters get ready to put out a fire. The illustrations are really clear and colorful. This is in the category of: Sound Exploration.
4. Away We Go! By Chieu Anh Urban - This book covers a lot of material in about 20 pages. Each page has a shape cut-out that is the focus shape of that page. The use of combined shapes creates vehicles of all sorts and then the reader has to find the focus shape. My son's favorite page, of course, was the train page and he liked to stick his finger in the square shape cut-out on the page. This book is very colorful and could actually be used to teach or reinforce color learning. This is also great for shapes or counting. The other option, short of just reading it, is to focus on the vehicles and modes of transportation in the book. This book is in the following categories: Colors, Counting and Numbers Books, Hobbies and Sports, and Lift-the-Flap and Touch-and-Feel.
5. Stomp! By Jeanne Willis and Paul Howard - Sadly, this did not make the top 3 favorites for my son. I think that this was one of my favorites of the bunch we got this last time and I had a lot of fun reading it out loud to my son. This little blue monster knocks on the door and wanders throughout the different rooms of the house trying to find something. He bangs pans, squishes soap, boots footballs, and smashes plates. He finally ends up in the baby's room and sees exactly what he wants. Of course, the authors make you think he wants to eat the baby, but the baby and the monster come to an agreement about what each of them would really like. Such a fun book to read. This is in the following categories: Sound Exploration and Bedtime Stories.
6. Planes! By Charles Reasoner - This book is a board book and is definitely lacking a plot. It starts off and sounds like there will be at least a semi-interesting plot, but the pages don't really seem to connect with each other, as far as their literacy. This was picked by my son, probably because it had a picture of an airplane on the front and he is very into things that move right now, but he wasn't even all that interested throughout the four pages of the book. Not a very captivating read, although it does repeat the phrase, "big busy" at least once per page. This book in the category of: Hobbies and Sports. 
7. Time to Say "Please" by Mo Willems - This book is by the same author who wrote the "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" Series. This was a very cute book and a great way to teach children how to be polite. It might be a bit on the blatant side with the little mice holding up the signs saying please every 2 inches, but it was still very nice. My son has been signing the word please for quite some time now, but we are working on having him speak the words because not every person he meets is going to understand that patting his chest and sounding like Tarzan means "please" to him. We will probably be borrowing this book again as my son gets older. This book is in the category of: Independence/Growing-Up. 
Last and in my opinion, least:
8. Winter Snow By Liesbet Slegers - This book briefly talks about some of the things you might see at winter time, like a coat and hat or bare branches. I was really hoping this one had a natural rhythm to it and that it rhymed because it didn't really seem to have much more going for it. I started reading it out loud and quickly realized that it had literally no "rhyme or reason" to it. Because it doesn't snow where we live I was hoping it would go into more details about how snow feels and what it looks like to play in it, but most of the snow scenes were stand alone pictures that didn't seem that it would help young children connect to the idea of winter or snow. Sadly, there is a reason this one is at the bottom of the list for both myself and my son. Luckily, I do have still have some time before winter comes to talk with my son more about it. For now, I will have to see if we can focus on fall and find some books that have pictures of real people doing things in the fall season. This book is in the categories of: Seasons and Winter.
Again, sorry for the long entry this time! I do want to let you know though, that from the last post when my son and I had read Mr. Cookie Baker, we actually made some of the cookies from the given recipes. They were very good cookies and my son was very excited to stand on the stool and help Mommy in the kitchen. His favorite part was dumping things into the bowl and watching the mixer!
