Meet ELSIE (Early Literacy Storytime Ideas Exchange), a wonderful online resource to help you find picture books show-casing early literacy skills. Created by librarians in Minneapolis, ELSIE recently moved to its new Web home on the Hennepin County Library Birth to Six website. ELSIE displays over 400 titles, each with ideas about how to use books in fun, interactive story sharing.
NOTE: All titles link to suburban and Minneapolis catalogs.
Babies love books with photos and high contrast images. Books with texture on the pages are also wonderful for babies to touch. Babies also love books that invite them to play with the reader. more favorites for babies
Toddlers have fun with lift-the-flap books. They love books with rhyming words and repeated words. Simple text works best this this age. more favorites for toddlers
Preschoolers are ready for longer stories, and love to point to special words on the page. Silly stories are a big hit at this age! more favorites for preschoolers
This is a choo-choo train (Hold up your hands, palms parallel to each other)
Puffing down the track. (Move arms back and forth as if going down a track)
Now it's going forward, (Move arms forward)
Now it's going back. (Move arms backward)
Now the bell is ringing, (Pull on a bell rope)
Now the whistle blows. (Whistle or make a whoo-whoo sound)
What a lot of noise it makes (Cover your ears)
Everywhere it goes!
(Variation: Have kids move in place or in a circle as if they were a human train.)
STARS
At night I see the twinkling stars, (fist up and open hands over your head)
And a great big smiling moon. (circle arms overhead)
My Mommy tucks me into bed (Lay pointer of one hand across the palm of the other hand)
And sings a good-night tune. (Rock your hands back and forth)
more 
