Hi !
I try to use english books to teach english in my class. I teach animals with an Eric Carle's book, The Very Busy Spider.
Do you even teach with books? How do you do?
It's very useful to have many books to have new ideas. thank you

I read books in class as a part of 'Reading Time.' Reading Time is just a small segment of the class where I read to the students. I start by introducing the book. I show the book and read the title. We look at the cover and I explain as much as I can about the setting, characters, and story as I can. I might ask some questions or verify understanding with yes/no questions. Then, I read the story to the students one time all the way through. I read it a second time, pointing out things in the pictures as I read. Finally, I ask some questions about the story. I ask whether they liked the story and if they want me to read it again some other time. This style is called the preview-review method.

I do this with students up to the age of 8-9. I don't use reading as a tool to introduce or teach structure. I just read to students to expose them to more language. In this way, I can read just about any book that is at their level.

There have been many articles published on the benefits of reading in language classrooms. I recently wrote an article review of 4 studies from 1999-2004. If you'd like I could send my review to you. It might have some helpful info in there.

I also did a show over at eslTeacherTalk about reading in class and my ideas. There might be something there for you as well.
http://www.eslteachertalk.com/2006/10/reading-in-class/

I have found it useful to read books to younger students, as Mark said, as a way to introduce them to more of the language. I find it settles them down, gets them sitting still on the mat and keeps their attention. They look forward to reading time.

I have sometimes read them books that Australian kids like reading and they find this interesting. I've also used some Australian books like Koala Lou and then this could lead into learning about Oz animals, singing an Austalian bush song or talking about animals etc. I'm sure teachers from other countries could easily do similar things. I like to tie the books we read with the rest of the lessons for the week and get a kind of theme going.