Children's Book Reccs Needed : Gratefulness, Respect , Empathy, Playing Nice

The Frog and Toad series is a classic, many lessons in friendship, kindness, compassion and appreciation.

"Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul" books are fabulous, touching, short, usually 2 or 3 page stories, that you can read together and discuss. Loved this book!!!

Usually the Berenstain Bear books teach a lesson.
For gratitude, The Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings comes to mind.

Here's a whole list of the books and the lessons involved:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Berenstain_Bears_b...

1) the Berenstain Bears series is good. The whole series covers many topics of niceness and getting along etc.
2) and the "Little Bear" book series and cartoon series by Else Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak is really great too. I even love it. My kids loved that series. Still do.
And it is both age appropriate for your child's age.

Not sure of any books that specifically do all the above but you might enjoy these:

This item: What Do You Say, Dear? by Sesyle Joslin
What Do You Do, Dear? by Sesyle Joslin
Nutshell Library (Caldecott Collection) by Maurice Sendak
How Do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends? by Jane Yolen
(and all the other How Do Dinosaurs books - there's a lot more of them now than when we were reading them)

Brian Wildsmith has an old book "The Little Wood Duck" which teaches respect for differences and empathy. Many of his other books have good little moral lessons in them.

William Steig is another author whose stories teach positive values. "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" is a good one (when Sylvester finds a magic pebble which turns him into a rock, he realizes how much he values his parents and his parents value him). "Brave Irene" teaches bravery and tenacity.

There are more, however~

I found this for you: an article called "Character Counts" and a comprehensive list of titles/authors that offer what you are looking for. I recognized many of the titles-- good stuff.

http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain...

A really good one is the children's book, Have You Filled A Bucket Today? It covers thinking of other people and their feelings...and how this makes them AND you feel good.

Take a look at A Mighty Girl's book recommendations. Although many of the books are geared towards empowering girls there are also many of them that are just good books for all kids. This link will take you to their books that address values for 3-5 year olds. Along the left side you can filter the list to be narrowed down or broadened.

http://www.amightygirl.com/books?age_range_filter=8&c...

I like the Jamie Lee Curtis books for age 5 (yes, she writes books), she has a whole trove of character education titles. You might also look into some Kevin Henkes stories, his usually have some sort of subtle message.

...there is a word for "gratefulness"...gratitude. ;)
For that one, what about starting a "gratitude" journal - a small little book you take a few minutes to write in each night. Each night you write three things you (your child) are thankful for. Simple as can be, or reflecting something g good that happened that day. The habit can really help turn a kids attitude around and help them recognize the good things in their life more readily.

I like the "Learning to Get Along" series by Cheri J Meiners. Lots of pictures and simple advice on what to do in different situations.

the berenstain bears. my kids loved them and they all have a message. about sharing, caring, respect, empathy etc. my kids still talk about the too much tv book and the vacation one

I always like the Little Miss/Mr. books ("Little Miss Helpful", etc), by Roger Hargreaves.

When my daughter was a toddler (she is now almost 19) I had a series of books called "Help Me Be Good". Each short illustrated book had a specific topic such as lying, tattletale, stealing, being grateful, obeying, etc. I have about 8 of them that I purchased in a group.

The library had these books as well. I loved them and they were good at getting the message across in a good way.