Children's Books

[jarm]

As a teacher and a mother, I love reading children's books. What are some of your favorites?

[mom_to_zoe]

I am absolutely passionate about children's books. I am so excited to read some of my favorites to my DD.

For babies, I like:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other Eric Carle books
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you Hear?
Goodnight Moon
Boynton books
Freight Train
Time for Bed

Picture books:
The Snowy Day
Harry the Dirty Dog
The Frances books by Russell Hoban
Anything by Rosemary Wells, especially Noisy Nora, Timothy Goes to School,
Morris's Disappering Bag and Stanley and Rhoda
May I Bring a Friend?
Where the Wild Things Are and Mickey in the Night Kitchen
Curious George

Older Kids:
Little House series
Winnie-the-Pooh
The Secret Garden and The Little Princess
Bridge to Terabethia
The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler
Island of the Blue Dolphins

[jarm]

One of my favorite books from when I was little. I can't find it anywhere (I have it in a box somewhere). The Day Daddy Stayed Home...it's not in print anywhere, and I keep checking ebay from time to time.

Tumble Bumble is a cute book! DD loves it! I teach it to my first graders, and they love it as well.

I love Dr. Seuss books...most of them.

I have so many that I love that I can't think of them right now.

[ButterflyJen]

Subscribing for Christmas/birthday ideas. :)

DD loves to look at Happy Baby Colors and What Makes a Rainbow?

I love Where the Wild Things Are - one of my favorites - and Guess How Much I Love You.

[jimmysgirl424]

Beverly Cleary wrote some of my favorites when I was growing up!

Fudge
Super Fudge
The Mouse and the Motorcycle


Lots, lots more! :D

[Vegastrtle]

For older children (3rd grade +) I recently discovered Sammy Keyes...she's like a little Kinsey Milhone (from the Sue Grafton series). My 4th graders LOVE her.

Like someone posted earlier, I have so many, I can't list them all.

[nordey]

Beverly Cleary wrote some of my favorites when I was growing up!

Fudge
Super Fudge
The Mouse and the Motorcycle


Lots, lots more! :D

I think Fudge and Super Fudge are actually Judy Blume books (another great children's author!). These are among my many favs along with the Ramona books (Beverly Cleary).

I could never really get into the Little House books, it was too easy to watch the TV show :rolleyes:

More recent books that I've enjoyed with my own children include the Lemony Snicket's series of unfortunate events, Harry Potter, The Narnia books (which I never liked as a kid but now find them amazing).

As for picture books my favorites include:
The Great Gracie Escape
Goodnight Moon
Guess How Much I Love You
Runaway Bunny
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Rufferina
Any Eric Carle Book!
Where the Wild things Are (this was my sister's favorite book for like 20 years!)
Dinner at the Panda Palace

there are so many more, this list would be pages long if I included them all!

[jarm]

The authors of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom came out with Chicka Chicka 123.

The Alphabet Mystery is really, really cute!

[JBB]

My all time favorite is:

Good Night Moon!

[bookworm]

I love, love, love Eloise.

And for a bad mood, nothing beats Alexandar and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

[Asha]

For younger children -

"Harry, The Dirty Dog"
"The Little Engine that Could"
"Koala Lou"
"Lily's Purple Plastic Purse"

For Older Children

"Where the Red Fern Grows"
"The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe"
"James and the Giant Peach"
"Ramona the Pest"

[jarm]

Elbert's Bad Word is cute
Polar Express is one of my favorite books
For a funny book about Hanukkah, The Flying Latkes

[sapphire]

My childhood favorite was The Velveteen Rabbit Now I think I Love You Forever is very sweet. DS seems to like the Spanish version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?

[amew]

To read aloud to young kids:

Solomon the Rusty Nail and Dr. DeSoto by William Steig
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Dubose Heyward
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Make Way for Ducklings and One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

For older kids:

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engel
The Anastasia series by Lois Lowry
The Ramona books (especially Ramond the Brave and Ramona the Pest) by Beverly Cleary

[LynzeyAHL]

My DH and I decided we can't have kids until we can read I'll love you forever from cover to cover out loud without bawling. I LOVE THAT BOOK!

[lml41981]

I've got Hooray For Me!, Goodnight Moon, and Guess How Much I Love You so far. I'm planning on getting a bunch more...Stella Luna is on my list, as are the Walter the Farting Dog books (my 6 year old cousin rolls in laughter at them...he's not allowed to say "fart," though so the rules just have to be made clear that he can laugh at the book, but he can't repeat that word).

Really, I just go to Barnes and Noble and browse the children's section. I look for brightly illustrated books or classics that I liked when I was a kid. I'll probably get Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs for later on...and also The Giving Tree. I also loved the Shel Silverstein books... Fudge and Superfudge were great. I remember reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, too...but don't remember if it was part of the Fudge series... I remember in 4th grade we read Sideways Stories from Wayside School and its sequel...I liked them.

[LynzeyAHL]

3-6th grade I read every Judy bloom book too.

[ButterflyJen]

I beyond love Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - I read that when I was a kid, and for years I remembered this book about food raining from the sky but could not remember the name of the book! People thought I was nuts when I mentioned it. :rolleyes: Then last year, I saw it in a bookstore and was a happy, happy camper. :)

Another set of books I'm discovering are by Laura Numeroff - If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, etc. Excellent, cute books. Another set that are pretty cute are Click Clack Moo, Giggle Giggle Quack, and Duck for President.

[sublime311]

I also love "Lily's Purple Plastic Purse" by Kevin Henkes. We're doing an author study of him in our 2nd grade class and have found all of his books wonderful so far!

For a little bit older kids I LOVE "Because of Winn-Dixie". So sweet!

[Amuse Bouche]

I love young adult fiction and read it regularly. Some of my favorites -- Anything by Madeleine L'Engle, but her fiction as well as the Wrinkle in Time series -- I particularly like A House like a Lotus.

Diana Wynne Jones is a British author who writes amazing fantasy -- she actually reminds me a lot of JK Rowling. All the Chrestomanci books are excellent, but I also recommend Archer's Goon, Howl's Moving Castle, A Tale of Time City and The Dark Lord of Derkholm.


Susan Cooper's the Dark is Rising Series are really amazing epic fantasy.

I adored L.M. Montgomery as a kid.

[daydreamer]

Wow, I was going to join in, but you covered all of mine. I'm not a mom but an aunt of 5 (ages 7 to 5) so I appreciate those books listed that I'm not familiar with. I just purchased 2 Judy Blume books for my nephew who has just started 1st grade. So of course he loves Junie B. goes to First Grade. I read them to him when he spends the night with me.
As far as Good Night Moon , I know I read that one at least a million times. I try to buy books for birthdays and holidays.
My neice Lela enjoys the Bernstein Bears. They deal with morals and are quite nice.

[Rosebud]

I beyond love Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - I read that when I was a kid, and for years I remembered this book about food raining from the sky but could not remember the name of the book! People thought I was nuts when I mentioned it. Then last year, I saw it in a bookstore and was a happy, happy camper.

All of you Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs fans are going to love this.... I'm working on the film version of this book right now! It's going to be an animated film (Sony is the studio), estimated release date 2009 (animated films take sooooo long to make and "Cloudy" is in the earliest phase).


I was a HUGE reader as a kid (still am). Most of my favorites have already been mentioned. I loved The Mouse & the Motorcycle and the Narnia books. Amelia Bedelia, the Madeline books, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle... all that good stuff. More books that I read over and over:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0142400580.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0440431808.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsberg

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060278919.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett


Also, have you seen these books? I stumbled across them while looking for a gift for a friend and thought they were both really charming:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0374399689.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
The Cat Who Walked Across France by Kate Banks

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0823417204.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
A Spree in Paree by Catherine Stock

[ButterflyJen]

All of you Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs fans are going to love this.... I'm working on the film version of this book right now! It's going to be an animated film (Sony is the studio), estimated release date 2009 (animated films take sooooo long to make and "Cloudy" is in the earliest phase).
OMG. No way! I'm so excited....and DD will be around 5 when it's released! Perfect! :D

[KGif]

When I was little my favorite books were:
http://www.forbesbookclub.com/bookimages/ingram/039/480/0394800478.gif

http://www.kidsreads.com/art/covers/0394800184.jpg

http://www.edutainingkids.com/reviews/bkthegivingtree.jpg

posting

[KGif]

Now I have a 3 month old and I like to read him:

http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/bimgdata/FC0152023127.JPG

http://members.aol.com/HippoPage/images/butnot.jpg

http://images.bestwebbuys.com/muze/books/62/0808593862.jpg


Hey does the "quiet old lady whispering 'hush'" in Goodnight Moon freak anyone else out? If it were a quiet old mommy, or a quiet old grandma or something - fine. But just some random quiet old lady? And she's just sitting there staring at the kid whispering hush? If I were little that would freak me right out of my little pjs!

[Rosebud]

Just wanted to bump this up for any more recommended children's books. My best friend is pregnant and when the baby is born I'd like to put together a collection of books for her to read to her baby as he/she gets a little older. This is a great list to work from. Any other favorites?

My DH says his favorites as young child were "Goodnight Moon" and "Runaway Bunny" and I remember liking "Go Dog Go" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" when I was small. We'll probably get those ones for her plus a couple others.

[vancouvergirl]

Kiss Good Night Sam, by Amy Hest is one of our favorites.

[jarm]

Brown Bear, Brown Bear (and a whole series following that theme)
I'll Love You Forever- Munsch

For when the baby is older, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom -- great for learning about the alphabet. My daughter loves that book!

[Ummm]

books by Paul Jennings - he's an Australian author and his books are very funny, and well liked by both boys and girls :)

[Natrat80]

I was going to suggest the Junie B Jones series for kids 4+. I used to teach Kindergarten and my kids LOVED Junie B! I loved them too.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom We have a CD with the song on it and if I start singing it DD (6 months) cracks up every time! She loves it.

DD loves these:
Priddy picture books
Sandra Boyton books
Goodnight Moon
Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Book of Nursery Rhymes illustrated by Tomie dePaola

I'm brain dead right now--I used to be such a children's book expert too! I quit teaching in May so I guess I haven't thought to much about the topic since then!

[cr8zyforaf]

My Mommy by Susan Paradis - my 5 year old niece read this to me the other day and I couldn't stop crying.

Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton

I loved you before I was born - Anne Bowen - given to me by my mom - again I cried all the way through it.

Oh the Places you will go by Dr. Suess

I love the Carl the Dog books by Alexandra Day...we have a labrador and I can see when my DD gets older the great adventures they will share together in this book (not that I would let my dog babysit).

[cr8zyforaf]

Oh - and I forgot - For older kids:

Amelia Bedelia series - LOVED HER

James and the Giant Peach

Where the Red Fern Grows

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - I am so excited to see this movie!!