Winter Friends by Mary Quattlebaum and illustrated by Hiroe Nakata is a book of linked poems that tell the story of a little girl who lives in a city and goes out to play in the snow. In the snow she finds a lone blue mitten and eventually finds the little boy who has misplaced it. The poems are just the right length to share with preschoolers and have subjects that any child will relate to from jumping into clean laundry to my favorite poem in the book about seeing your breath on cold days.
Accessible, filled with lovely language, and paired with lovely illustrations, this is a great book to introduce young children to poetry.

Lights Out by Arthur Geisert once again features his wonderfully original pigs. In this almost wordless book, a piglet is scared of going to sleep unless the light is on, but his parents make him turn it out at 8:00. They tell him that he can figure something out, so he does. And what follows is an amazing tour through a Rube Goldberg-like contraption that eventually turns out the piglet’s light after he has drifted off to sleep.
This is not a book to be shared with a group, but one to savor with a child on your lap. The little details are what make any contraption like this work. This is perfect to share with children who are not quite reading yet, since they will get to tell the story of the contraption to you. Share this one and savor it!