When I was younger my favorite book to have read to me was Papa, please get the moon for me by Eric Carle. My mom used to read me this book almost every night and I think my favorite part were the beautiful and unique illustrations. I also really liked that the pages folded out when Papa was bringing out his “very long ladder” and putting it on top of a “very tall mountain” so that he could reach up to the moon. In the story the main character, Monica, asks her Papa to go up and get the moon for her, because she wants to play it. So Papa takes out a big ladder, and puts it on top of a tall mountain, and climbs up to go get the moon. When Papa does make it up to the moon, he decides that the moon is far too big for Monica to play with. The moon tells Papa, “Every night I get a little bit smaller and when I am just the right size you can take me with you.” So Monica and Papa wait for the moon to get small enough, and then Papa goes to get it for Monica. Monica plays with the moon every night, and every night the moon gets smaller and smaller, until it disappears. Monica is sad to have lost the moon, until a few nights later she sees the moon up in the sky, a tiny little sliver, and then over the time the moon grows bigger and bigger until it is round again. This is an adorable story, and like I said I still love the illustrations in this book, which is why I think it was always my first choice to read when I was younger.


As I got older and started to read my own I really started to like all of Shell Silverstein’s poetry and illustrations, especially Falling Up. I remember collecting his entire collection with my friends, and reading them during silent reading or out loud together during recess. The good thing about Silverstein’s poetry is that it is humorous and to the point, so I didn’t have to analyze the meaning of each poem, I could just read it how it was and then have a laugh when I was done. I also really like that a poetry book is something that you don’t need to read page by page, and that you can skip around to whatever poem you are the most interested in and understand it without reading all of the other poems before it first. When I was in third and fourth grade it was hard for me to sit down and pay attention for long periods of time so I didn’t read many books, but with Shell Silverstein’s poetry I could read one poem and then if I got bored with that one I could move on to a different one on a completely different topic.