Books for Letter I

Immi’s Gift, by Karin Littlewood

In the land of ice and snow lives a lonely girl named Immi.  Her only treasure is a wooden bear she wears around her neck.  One day, when fishing through a hole in the ice, she catches a brightly painted wooden bird.  In the following days she catches many more beautiful objects, which she uses to adorn her stark igloo.  Her loneliness disappears as many animals visit to share stories and be cheered by her brightly decorated home.  At the end of the story Immi drops the wooden bear from her necklace into the hole.  It washes up on a beach, and a little boy finds it — the same little boy who had sent her all the colorful treasures.

It’s A Good Thing There Are Insects, by Allan Fowler

Allan Fowler has written many books for the Rookie Read-About Science series.  These are truly excellent nonfiction books for young listeners and readers.  The books have just the right balance between text and photographs.  The words are large, easy to read, and simple — but not too simple.  Even the mom learns something new!  Fowler has the gift of making science concepts both interesting and accessible to young children.  I recommend seeing how many of his titles you can find in your library.

Inch by Inch, by Leo Lionni

Okay, confession.  My kids don’t exactly love this one. But it is a popular, award-winning book.  And it certainly showcases the letter I.  So I couldn’t leave it out.  The story is about a inchworm who escapes being eaten by various birds as he measures each bird’s tail, neck, beak, or legs.  When the nightingale asks him to measure his song or he’ll eat the worm for breakfast, the inchworm measures inch by inch… until he inches out of sight.

Building an Igloo, by Ulli Steltzer

Today the Inuit people live in houses.  But for centuries the people of the Arctic built their houses of snow.  Even today, some Inuit people build igloos as shelter when they go hunting.  This is a book of black and white photographs detailing how a father and son build an igloo.  My Four, who loves to take things apart to see how they work, was fascinated by this book and wanted to hear it again as soon as we finished.   My husband loved it too. 🙂

Inside, Outside, Upside Down, by Stan & Jan Berenstain

Do you remember this book from your childhood? It was one of my favorites.  It’s a very short story (just a phrase or two per page) about a bear who climbs into an empty box.  His father mistakenly loads it onto the back of a truck, and we see the trip the young bear takes “inside, outside, upside down.”

Inchworm and a Half, by Elinor Pincez

I assumed the math in this story would be a bit over my kids’ heads.  It probably was, but my Four and Five wanted to hear it over and over again.  The inchworm loves to measure everything in the garden — until she finds a cucumber that’s not quite long enough for another inch. Along comes a worm that’s a half-inch long, and together they measure, until they need another unit of measurement.  Along comes a 1/3 of an inch worm.  And so on.  The math lesson is appropriate for older students, but the basic concept of an inch as well as the rhymes and fun pictures make this a winner for preschoolers, too.

Imogene’s Antlers, by David Small

This is just a fun story about a girl named Imogene who wakes up one day excited to find that she has a full rack of antlers.  Her mother faints, her brother does research, and the doctor is puzzled.  Silliness continues throughout the book until Imogene wakes up one day — and the antlers are gone.  She does, however, have a full set of peacock feathers…

Itsy Bitsy Spider, by Iza Trapani

We love singing books at our house, so it was a treat it was to find this book with five additional verses for a favorite rhyme! Highly recommended.

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