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What I found as I was writing What to Read When was that parents and teachers have strong feelings about how they would like to convey values to their children and students but it's not always easy to figure out how to initiate those conversations. Books can help so much to raise and educate children who are healthy emotionally, spiritually and physically. Children's literature is an underutilized tool to convey a sense of connectedness to others and of care for humanity.

A book like Planting the Trees of Kenya by Claire Novola gives a child an image of how one person, a woman from humble beginnings can improve the lives of thousands of people.

The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting provides an opportunity to discuss with your child how many people the world over cannot read and what each and every one of us can do to help solve that problem.

Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco opens up conversation about prejudice and how we navigate difficult moments with humanity and grace.

My book What to Read When is, in addition to providing book titles I hope you will all love, also about those conversational spaces between the pages of the books we read to our children.

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I spend a lot of time doing my literacy work over at The Children's Village, a residential school for New York City's foster care children. The boys (over 300 of them) who live at The Village have been through terrible times. Their stories are marked by despair and loneliness, tragedy and isolation.

I discovered many years ago that books open up their trust, their hearts and their minds again, after what has sometimes been years of deprivation. Through some magical children's books, I have heard boys at The Village laugh, sometimes for the first time in a long time. They have wept over Charlotte the spider. They have cheered Harry on in a battle. Stories have released their own power to reclaim their stories, for told through the point of view of a tiny spider, each and every boy at The Village comes to see that he too has a story that matters.

One of the most favorite authors at The Children's Village is Dr. Seuss, even for the oldest boys there. I have often wondered why this is so. I love Dr. Seuss myself, but it has amazed me how intense the relationship is that some of our most wounded children have developed with this legendary author. I think it is because while Dr. Seuss was so bitingly funny, he also never talked down to children. His stories were always extraordinarily respectful of the child's complex experience. The boys at The Village so recognize this. And they love me to read those books to them. Whether a boy is eight or eighteen, his eyes light up when I reach for a Dr. Seuss.

The power of literature can help to recover childhood, not only to develop it, and that is the truth.

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As a literacy educator and director of an organization called LitLife, I have received calls and emails over the years from many moms, dads and grandparents asking me my advice about the best books to read aloud to their kids. Someone once said to me: "Pam, I had a baby and no one ever gave me a course on how to do any of this!" I think parenting is like this in so many ways: it is the one biggest thing you will do in your life that does not require any prerequisite, mandatory training of any kind, or a graduate degree! So you are in some ways on your own.

And yet, in another, beautiful way, you are not on your own at all. Your baby, your toddler, your school age child is right with you on this journey. Together, the reading experience is one of your first and possibly most important shared journeys of reward and discovery. Savor this together and join with your child on this most extraordinary exploration. Together you will have moments of transcendence, emotion and discovery through the pages of a beautiful book.

In writing my book, What to Read When, my dream was to offer you company along this profound journey, so that you feel less alone in searching for answers to your excellent questions. Libraries and bookstores are full of books, but there are millions of them and to match the right one with the right child at the right time is always a challenge, even for those of us in the field of education. I realized that many times when parents would call, they would preface their question with: "I just want to know what to read when..." And one day, I realized: "That's a great name for a book!" And so What to Read When was born.

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Pam Allyn is our guest blogger during the week of March 30th. If you have any questions for Pam Allyn, add a comment to any of her posts.

Here is more information about What to Read When - read an excerpt.

The books to read aloud to children at the important moments in their lives.

In What to Read When, award-winning educator Pam Allyn celebrates the power of reading aloud with children. In many ways, books provide the first opportunity for children to begin to reflectively engage with and understand the world around them. Not only can parents entertain their child and convey the beauty of language through books, they can also share their values and create lasting connections.

Here, Allyn offers parents and caregivers essential advice on choosing appropriate titles for their children-taking into account a child's age, attention ability, gender, and interests- along with techniques for reading aloud effectively. But what sets this book apart is the extraordinary, annotated list of more than three hundred titles suitable for the pivotal moments in a child's life. With category themes ranging from friendship and journeys to thankfulness, separations, silliness, and spirituality, What to Read When is a one-of-a-kind guide to how parents can best inspire children through reading together. In addition, Pam Allyn includes an indispensable "Reader's Ladder" section, with recommendations for children at every stage from birth to age ten. With the author's warm and engaging voice throughout, discussion questions to encourage in-depth conversations, as well as advice on helping kids make the transition to independent reading, this book will help shape thoughtful, creative, and curious children, imparting a love of reading that will last a lifetime.