Sometimes when I’m reading a book to one of my girls, a line will pop out at me that sort of blows my mind. It’s so honest and so to the point and something adults so desperately need to hear and to remember—and yet it’s tucked away quietly in the pages of a kid’s book, where no one is likely to go out in search of it.

But children’s books are often little treasure troves of truth. Everything is broken down so simply, which is something adults generally have a hard time doing. We think and rethink and then overthink some more. But sometimes—most of the time?—it’s much easier than that.

I collected five of my favorite quotes from children’s literature that can serve as reminders to grown-ups and kids alike. If you like them, you can sign up to have them sent directly to your inbox where you can print them out to hang around the house. Otherwise, pin them for later when you can use a pick me up. 

Poetry gets a really bad rap. Parents often shudder while remembering painstakingly combing through each line to dissect the meaning of a poem in high school. And kids? They just think of it as being boooooo-ring—which is pretty much the worst thing something could be for a kid.

But it doesn’t have to be!

Poetry can be really, really awesome and absolutely hilarious! Brightly (a great online resource to help moms and dads raise lifelong readers) recently published a post called Poetry Is Actually Kinda Cool: Great Poetry Books for Reluctant Poetry Readers. The list is fabulous and includes hilarious, well-loved poets like Shel Silverstein, Dr. Seuss, and Roald Dahl. Since I loved their list so much, I thought I’d expand on it and offer you guys a few more funny poetry books for kids that you and your family will love—mostly because they’re laugh-out-loud funny and utterly ridiculous.

These poetry books for kids are great for reading together when you have little spurts of down time (like when you’re waiting at a doctor’s office), to giggle through on long car rides or to pull out when everyone is starting to meltdown. A little time out to read something super silly is the perfect medicine for moodiness (yours included!).

A couple of months ago, one of the moms in our virtual book club was asking when I started reading chapter books to the girls. The answer was much easier for Ellie than it was for Samantha since I just started dipping my toes into chapter books at bedtime with her (she turned five last month).

Now, I’m not a stick hard and fast to the rules kind of girl. Not every four year old will be able to sit and listen to you read them a chapter. And there might be three year olds who will. You know your kid best. If the little booger will sit through three stories at a time and eats it all up, why not give it a try?

I put together a list of five of our favorite read aloud chapter books for young kids. These aren’t terribly long and there are pictures sprinkled in to help keep your kids’ attention. Plus, each one on this list includes a main character (or two) that your kids can’t help but get attached to.

(And yes, Ellie is wearing a cat costume while looking through books because this is real life and that is what fabulous people do.)

One of my favorite things to do when it comes to reading books to the girls is finding variations of the same tale and reading (or watching) them together. Ellie (who is four) is at a particularly fun age for this. I love to watch her eyes get wide when she notices connections and I love watching her knit her eyebrows together and scrunch up her nose when she doesn’t like a particular deviation from the story she holds as “true.”

Ellie is never more of a stickler than when it comes to the story of Rapunzel. To her, the movie Tangled is gospel and thou shalt not mess with that shit. After a few failed attempts at looking at different versions of the story that just left her annoyed, I decided it was time to move on to another fairy tale.

Looking for something screen-free to hold your kids’ interest for a little while? Whether you’re spending some quiet time at home or on a long car ride, these audiobooks for kids are sure to capture their imaginations and foster their love of reading.

We were at the library a few months ago when my older daughter noticed a wall lined with audiobooks. “What are those?” she asked, wondering why the DVDs were in weird cases and not with the rest of the movies. When I explained them to her, she was immediately intrigued and picked out one to listen to in the car.

Believe it or not, I had never listened to a book on tape before that. Lots of the ladies in our virtual book club are borderline obsessed with them (sort of like me with podcasts), but I was still an audio virgin.

At first, I wasn’t so sure how Ellie would feel about audiobooks. She’s still in preschool and the books we began picking were all chapter books (I only had one rule: nothing that would scare her. Sorry, Harry Potter). I wasn’t sure how she would feel about the lack of pictures or if they would hold her interest at all.

But let me tell you. Girlfriend is hooked.

We drove down to Long Island this weekend and the hour and a half long car ride was almost completely silent because the girls were so into the story (if you know us, this is no small feat). In fact, Ellie was exhausted but didn’t want to miss anything so she stayed awake. I had to ban the book for the ride home to make sure she slept.