Picture Books for September..Beyond Chyrsanthemum

I LOVE Kevin Henkes and I LOVE his book Chrysanthemum.   I used to read Chrysanthemum every year during the first week of school when I had my own 4th grade classroom.  But kids know Chrysanthemum as they hear it every year, in every class, in every grade.  And kids want something other than Chrysanthemum as a way to talk about meeting new friends and building a community in those first few weeks of the school year.  

And just as much as I LOVE Chrysanthemum, I also LOVE finding NEW books that get me excited about September and meeting new friends and building a community that stands for tolerance, respect and working together. 

I saw Ann Marie Corgill last spring at a conference on Long Island and was inspired by her enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge of all things literacy. The day of the conference she talked about great books that she used at the start of the school year to get to know her students, make them feel comfortable and build a community of learners who valued reading, writing and each other.  In this recent blogpost from her site, she lists, "10 Picture Books That Help Us Face Life's Challenges". After seeing her I went out and bought Cynthia Rylant's All in a Day.  Below are my NEW favorites for September...

Nasreen's Secret School

Mr. George Baker

All the World

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

The Okay Book

Pezzettino

The Little Yellow Leaf

The Paperboy

The Peace Book