Full disclosure: Shana Corey is a college friend of mine, but that's not what makes this book awesome. The illustrations are incredible and very unique. The story (which is true!) about an inventor who creates a pneumatic tunnel for a passenger train to help alleviate New York's traffic problems -- 40 years before the modern subway system was built -- is both interesting and entertaining. There's a kind of fun, steampunk feel to this book that I loved, and my sons (3 and 5) loved "The Secret Subway" because they love trains and inventions. 

This gorgeously illustrated little gem was an instant hit with my boys, who are 4 and 2. It's about four creatures who go out into the woods trying to catch a bird with hand nets, and their adventures and misadventures as their attempts go awry. The text is simple and repetitive enough that after one reading, my four year old can "read" it to himself, and moms and dads will appreciate the story's subtle humor.

My four-year-old son and I love this re-telling of the old classic, The Little Engine That Could. Everyone knows the story of the little engine that used perseverance and positivity to find the strength to pull the train over the mountain--I'm sure I'm not the only one who recites "I think I can, I think I can" while hiking steep trails or running uphill--and Loren Long's new version keeps all that is timeless and magical about the old tale, and dresses it up with more beautiful and vibrant illustrations. 

My wife bought herself this book back in college, having fallen in love with the illustrations and the story, and then she waited twenty years until she had a kid who could appreciate the book as much as she did. Well, that's finally happened: our about-to-be-4-year-old son, Henry, has picked this as his bedtime story four nights running.

Who's in Rabbit's House is a story within a story, or rather, a play within a story. Masai actors wear whimsical, colorful animal masks and act out the story of what happens when Rabbit comes home to find a monster in her house. "I am the Long One! I eat trees and trample on elephants!" says the monster. Pretty fierce, right? Rabbit enlists Leopard, Elephant, and Rhino to help get rid of The Long One, but it is the little green Frog that saves the day, with the obvious moral that intelligence is often more important than size or brute strength (and also, when the  monster's identity is revealed, the folly of making assumptions based on too little information).

Locomotive tells the story of the building of the first transcontinental rail line in the 1860s, and of the steam engines that traveled the line, as told from the point of view of a family journeying from Omaha to Sacramento. My brother and sister-in-law gave this to my boys, and my almost-four-year-old loves it, but it's too long to read cover-to-cover and sustain his (limited) attention. He brings it to me and sits enthralled, asking questions, while I read 10-15 pages, and then he's off to the next adventure. I heartily recommend this book anyway, though, because even in small doses, my train-crazy son enjoys it, and older readers (including Moms and Dads) will really enjoy it. The history is fantastic and the illustrations are great -- both beautiful and informative.