Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Children's Books

I am a reader. If you know me at all, you know that it isn't an exaggeration. I LOVE books. In our house we have two bookshelves for children's books. On the shelf in my kids' bedroom are the books that the can play with (paperbacks, board books, baby books... etc). Then downstairs are the hardcover picture books (we call these mommy's "special books"). Before nap time each day I let my daughter choose one book off the special bookshelf to read. I have a good number of books, but hardly any of them are my "favorites." I've been thinking of adding those favorite books to my shelf (gradually....) and wanted to make sure I remember them all. Here are 5 of my favorites:

First off is one that I actually DO have, and it isn't hardcover, but it is a MUST! My mother used to read this book to us and cry and I always thought "how sappy." But now that I am a mother, there are times when I find it hard to read the book without tearing up. You need to have I'll Love You Forever by Robert Munsch.



The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein will always be one of my favorite books. What a sweet message and a fun read. Somehow it always tugs at my heart strings.


The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau is a new find for me. My sister pointed the book out to me a few years ago and told me how much she loved it. What is great about this book? The illustrations are FABULOUS and the story's message is perfect for children. It is about a very greedy king who has all the possessions anyone could ever want, but is unhappy. One day he meets an old woman who makes beautiful quilts and of course he wants one to add to his collection (thinking it will finally make him happy). But the old woman refuses to give him one unless he is truly in need. She promises that if he will give away all his possessions that she will give him a quilt.


The next two are authors that I would like to own ALL their books if possible. :) Chris VanAllsburg is best known for The Polar Express, but I have loved EVERY one of his books that I have read. This one is a fun read if you've never heard of it - The Widow's Broom.


To finish off is Don and Audrey Wood. I just love their fairytales and other stories like Heggety Peg and The Napping House. King Bidgood is possibly my favorite of theirs.


So what books and authors can you think of that I've left out? There are so many that I am certain I can't think of them on my own. So leave a comment and tell me your favorite picture books and picture book authors.



11 comments:

Jared and Delia said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I needed some book recommendations today!

I like the Quiltmaker's gift also.

On my top list are:

Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown
Runaway Bunny - same MWB
Brown, Brown Bear (and all the variations. My son loves them)-Brown and Carle (I think)
The David books (a good book to learn to read with and the kids relate to it well I think)- David Shannon
You Are Special - Max Lucado

I love Daniel Kirk books. They are very appealing to young boys and the illustrations are phenomenal. The are done as oil paintings first I think. My favorite on eis bigger. It is about them growing from an embryo to a big kid. You can just see my son's chest puffing out with more pride in being a bigger boy and growing up the more we get through the book. It is awesome. I am terribly sorry our Library lost it.

That is all I can think of now. I CAN'T wait to hear from others!

Harmony’s House said...

One of my personal favorites is "You are My I Love You." I have this book but I can't remember the author. I love it! Anyone with toddlers can relate to the "wild" baby bear.

Britta said...

I love Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox. Its about a boy who lives next door to an old folks home and discovers that his favorite old woman is loosing her memories. So he decides to figure out what a memory is and collects a bunch of his own to give her. Way way cute story.

Papa, please get the moon for me by Eric Carle. Awesome fold out pictures kids love!

How Big is a Million? by Anna Milbourne and Serena Riglietti. A penguin tries to figure out how big a million is by discovering 10, 100, 1000 etc. Really cool poster at the end.

I have to add that Love You Forever is one of my favorites but I seriously refuse to read it. Ever. I start bawling pretty much from page one knowing what the end is going to be and my daughter just gets incredibly puzzled and doesn't understand (she's 2). So until I can control my emotions (yeah right) or she's old enough to understand (she'll be crying too) I won't read it. But I highly recomend it!

Heather said...

I cannot read "I'll Love You Forever" aloud without having my voice crack. I have tried and tried. Yes, it's sappy, but it's just the way a parent-child relationship should be.

Other "special" books (meaning those I've spent around $15 on) for me include "The Sneetches and other stories" (so many good lessons in that book to talk about) as well as "Jumanji," "Fannie's Dream," and "My Rotten Red-Headed Older Brother."

Jessie said...

I love The Velveteen Rabbit, it is probably my very favorite.

I also like Love You Forever, but my hubby makes fun of it every time I read it (he calls it the creepy children's book, as the mom sneaks into her son's house to rock him... what about his wife? he always asks...), so it has lost some of its luster for me. Instead, though, there's a book called I Promise I'll Find You, by Patricia McGraw. It is a beautiful book about the lengths a mom would go to to find her child. I can't imagine losing either of my children, and this book tugs at my heart every time I read it.

Another favorite of mine is Loop-the-Loop by Barbara Dugan, about a child's experience with an elderly woman with Alzheimer's, it is very touching.

Other favorites include Guess How Much I Love You, Goodnight Moon, the Little Bear series by Martin Waddell... I could go on and on and on. My husband has taken over the bedtime routine, which I love, but it means I don't read to my girls as much as I used to. There are just so many good books out there.

Alyssa Harper said...

My FAVORITE memories of when I was young was my dad reading to me. I LOVED "The Dragons are Singing Tonight" by Jack Prelutsky. It's a book full of fun illustrations and poems about dragons.

Also liked "The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear" by Don Wood. It's got a lot of suspense in the story (about a mouse hiding a strawberry from a big, hungry bear) and is super fun for a parent to read to a child, especially if you're into animated readings. :)

Oh, there's so many good books...I'll keep thinking back...

"Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. Very imaginative, and the porridge at the end ALWAYS looks so good...not sure why.

"Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst. This one's just cute...and very funny.

"Each Peach Pear Plum" by Allan Ahlberg. Also a very fun read with parent and child. The illustrations make the book amazing. I always got a kick out of finding the nursery rhyme characters hidden in the illustrations.

Really, I could go on forever. I think I'll stop before there's no turning back!

Trish and Matt said...

What a great topic. I am on our library web site looking up these titles right now!

We LOVE to read -- both our kids have a full bookshelf in their room and we've got baskets of books in the play room and family room.

We like: The Prince Who Won't Go to Bed, Waking Beauty, Book Book Book, Blueberries for Sal, You're All My Favorites and The Kissing Hand.

I've got a whole other list of favorite Christmas books, but that could be a new post entirely.

Tannie Datwyler said...

Thank you so much for your ideas!! I love these books and I'm so glad to hear some new titles too. I am going to make a big "want" list of books. :)

I might add also that I think I'll add most all of the Dr. Suess books to my collection - I just love them. I also love Serendipity books, but I can't seem to find them very often. Anyone have any ideas on how to find Serendipity books?

Thanks again!!

Diane Bohn said...

First to come to mind are a lot of the Max Lucado books. You are Special is probably his most famous, but his others are definitely worth checking out too! There is one that I got at Deseret Book and I can't remember the name, something like God Loves You, or Letters from God, I don't know. But it is SOOOOO cute!!

I also love Dr. Suess of course! They are so fun to read!

My sister gave me a couple books that Hunter has LOVED from day 1, and we could read them 10 times a day. Two of them are This Baby's Morning and This Baby Goes Out by Lynn Breeze (I think). I don't know what it is about them, but Hunter loves them. My sister said that they were by far her children's favorites too. Another is Farmer Cat (it's a large board book with a stuffed cat face that pokes through all the pages.) I think one thing that Hunter likes about that book is that we can play peek-a-boo through the holes where the head sticks through, and he loves to give the cat kisses. It is a cute book though my husband thinks it's dumb.

I know there are more, but I think those are tops in our house.

Megan said...

I love this topic as I am a reader as well! I love Max Lucado books, and I love Dr. Seuss. Another author my family really likes is Sandra Boynton. She writes a lot of fun board books.

The Fisher's said...

I've picked up Serendipity books at the DI, crazy people who give away books! And also at a recent book fair! The DI is great for books, and you can even get them for $.25 sometimes, that's how I built up my classroom library when I was teaching. The Mr. and Mrs. books are also fun ones (Little Miss Sunshine, etc...) I don't think I can even come close to naming favorites, but a fun idea: My mom knows just how much books mean to me, so when she and my sister threw me a baby shower before my first was born the invite asked for everyone to add their favorite book to their gift or as their gift. I got some AWESOME books! And there were only a couple of repeats, that I could use for gifts later on, or keep in my bookshelf nice and safe :) It's fun to open a book and see who it was given by - the kids like that even now ;)