Books with good messages for 4 year olds

[Jessy1019]

My daughter loves to be read to, and I am always looking for new stories to add to her collection. I really like things like Yertle the Turtle (that has a subtle message about oppression) and others that teach important social lessons. . . books about the environment, different ethnicities, etc would be excellent.

I know I want to get her King and King sometime soon, but I'd love some suggestions from you all about your favorites. My daughter picks things up very easily, so even books designed for slightly older kids would be fine.

[RedWine]

:

[**guest**]

leo lionni is full of social messages. i find i can't take more than 1 book in a row , but he is good.

[familylove]

I've got a couple of suggestions:

1. "We All Went on Safari" (sorry, can't remember the author). It's a counting book set in the Serengeti. They provide the numbers in Swahili as well as a description of the animals in the book and a map of Tanzania.

2. "Mama Do You Love Me?" by Barbara M. Joosse

3. "The Star People: A Lakota Story" by S.D. Nelson

I'm sure I can come with more by looking at our past library checkouts.

I'm interested to see what other mamas suggest as we're always looking for books about other cultures, too

[kdmama33]

We have many such books, but the first one that came to mind is "I'm a Manatee" by John Lithgow. It has a subtle environmental message, a more overt message that being different is okay and that others want to be you sometimes, too, and a real message that using your imagination is fantastic!

[sphinx]

Just about any book written by Tomie de Paola
Stone Soup and The Three Questions, both by Jon Muth
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters
The Rough Faced Girl by Rafe Martin
People by Peter Spier
Ruby Sings the Blues by Niki Daly
Peppe the Lamplighter by Elisa Bartone
Alejandro's Gift by Richard E. Albert
Faithful Friend by Robert SanSouci
Mirette on The High Wire Emily Arnold McGully (others by her too)
You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer! by Shana Corey
Amber on the Mountain by Tony Johnston
Miss Rumphius and Roxaboxen, both by Barbara Cooney
Jazzy Miz Mozetta by Brenda Roberts
Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson (fascinating!)
Elizabeti's Doll by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen
Not So Fast, Songololo by Niki Daly

uh - i could go on forever... there's a start.