<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

ELMER<\/strong><\/a> by David McKee<\/p>\n

Perhaps my favorite book of all time, mostly because of the 1970s psychedelic illustrations. Elmer is an elephant who boasts a patchwork of colors. He\u2019s good at making the other elephants laugh, but he\u2019s tired of being different so he paints himself \u201celephant\u201d colored. But when he returns to the herd he notices that everyone looks sad, so in true Elmer fashion, he shakes them up to make them laugh just as the rain washes him off and they celebrate the return of their old Elmer. They decide that once a year they will paint themselves all different colors and will throw a parade in honor of Elmer. This book is the first in a series.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

ISH<\/a> by Peter H. Reynolds<\/strong><\/p>\n

A book about a kid who just can\u2019t get it right. All Ramon wants to do is draw the perfect picture, but the lines won\u2019t do what he asks. He crumples up drawing after drawing only to discover later that his little sister has taken them and taped them all to her wall. When he asks her why she would want a picture of a vase that doesn\u2019t look like a vase, she says, after deep kid-thought, \u201cIt\u2019s vase-ISH.\u201d So he let\u2019s go of the perfectionism and begins to get creative. The illustrations in this one are clean and beautiful and the message applies to kids and adults, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

EXTRAORDINARY JANE<\/strong><\/a> by Hannah E. Harrison<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jane\u2019s a dog in a family of dog circus performers, but she can\u2019t seem to do anything as well as the rest. She\u2019s on a mission to find her extraordinary talent but her efforts lead to disaster when she tries to balance on the balls, walk the tightrope, or jump through hoops. The ringmaster finally tells her that she is \u201cextraordinary\u201d at being herself and that is all the matters. I love this book in a world where competition and being the best seems to be the point of every pursuit.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

GIRAFFES CAN’T DANCE<\/a> by Giles Anderson and Guy Parker-Rees<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the annual Jungle Dance and Gerald wants to kick it on the dance floor. But because of his gangly legs and knock knees, he\u2019s hopeless. The jeers of the other animals get me a little teary. But then the message becomes clear: those who are different might just \u201cneed a different song\u201d and when Gerald finds his tune, he can waltz with the best of them. The watercolor illustrations in this book are dreamy and make you want to sway while you read.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A VERY SPECIAL CRITTER<\/a> by Gina and Mercer Mayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is nostalgia at its best. Critter books were my go-tos as a kid and this one brings back all the feels. It follows Little Critter when a kid in a wheelchair joins his class. This book would be great to read to your kids if they\u2019ve never been around another child with special needs before.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What was your favorite children’s book? Bring on the nostalgia. If you have kids, what’s their favorite?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Follow my blog with Bloglovin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  ELMER by David McKee Perhaps my favorite book of all time, mostly because of the 1970s psychedelic illustrations. Elmer is an elephant who boasts a patchwork of colors. He\u2019s good at making the other elephants laugh, but he\u2019s tired of being different so he paints himself \u201celephant\u201d colored. But when he returns to the herd he notices that everyone looks sad, so in true Elmer fashion, he shakes them up to make them laugh …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26],"tags":[39,40,15,41],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mom-gene.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/FullSizeRender-1-e1481986058286.jpg?fit=1079%2C841&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ca5p-4f","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}