Disclosure: Thanks to Scholastic for encouraging my little ones to read more. Even though this is a sponsored post, all opinions are mine.
 Educators and experts have long recognized the importance of developing literacy skills very early in children. They have encouraged parents to read to their children beginning in infancy. The soothing sound of the language is comforting to infants. Children acquire emergent language skills by listening to stories. More than this, reading to babies helps develop a bond between the parent and child. Exposure to beautiful books and stories fosters a life-long love of reading and learning.
Scholastic The Story Starts Here Assets
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Scholastic Books, also recognizing this, has published, distributed and sold books and educational materials for children, parents and teachers for over 90 years. They promote highly appealing children’s picture books and board books written by the most talented children’s writers and artists through book clubs, book fairs, and a variety of campaigns. Scholastic Books’ latest campaign, The Story Starts Here has teachers and parents everywhere excited about their new interactive website.

The Story Starts Here website features a long list of beautifully written and illustrated children’s books to explore. Their goal is to “inspire a lifelong love of reading in children from day one.”

Books can be explored in age categories from 0-2 years to 4-8 years. The books can be ordered directly from the website with one click from several of your favorite online shopping sites. Teachers can use these appealing stories to help teach reading skills from word decoding to comprehension with excellently designed free activities that can be printed. Links are provided to a wealth of information for parents and teachers. Learn what skills to expect at different age levels. Find tips for school success, downloadables, and printables. The website also features a collection of adorable videos children will enjoy.

Here are a few favorite picks for books featured on The Story Starts Here campaign website.

Friendshape

Friendshape

This cute story introduces shapes with a story about how friends shape who we are. It is written by the bestselling creators of Exclamation Mark! Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld.

Giraffes Can’t Dance

This board book and plush set tell the story of Gerald the giraffe who, with his crooked knees and thin legs wants to learn to dance. The creator, Giles Andreae is an award-winning children’s author.

Elephants in the Dark

This creative rendition of The Three Blind Men and the Elephant is written by Mina Javaherbin, an Iran immigrant and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin, creator of numerous award-winning picture books.

 

Peek-A-BooFarm

Peek-a-boo Farm 

From the adorable world of Joyce Wan comes a sweet animal board book filled with large lift-the-flaps! Join in on the classic game of peek-a-boo with a rooster, a cow, and more farm animals by lifting the flaps to reveal each cute creature’s joyful face.

The Princess and the Pony

This story, written by NEW YORK TIMES best-selling author Kate Beaton is the story of Princess Pinecone who wants a pony for her birthday. But she is shocked when she gets a very different kind of pony from what she expected.

Pepper and Poe

This is and endearing story of an old cat set in his ways. He is very good at manipulating the house dog until a new kitty named Poe comes along. It is created by Frann Preston-Gannon, a South London-based illustrator, and designer

StoryStartsHerePrizingImage

The Story Starts Here Giveaway

One (1) winner will receive a collection of Scholastic picture books, including:

The Story Starts Here Giveaway

Giveaway open to US addresses only. Prizing and samples provided by Scholastic.