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Essential Kids Books

post #1 of 38
8/27/08 at 1:31pm
Thread Starter 
I see Bob has that Nerdspawn website so perhaps at least he'll get involved in this discussion: What books are musts for your kids? I have a 3 year old daughter and I'd say these are musts as far as stimulating them/provoking imagination/learning/laughing/fun, etc.

1. Where the Wild Things Are/In the Night Kitchen
2. The Monster at the End of this Book
3. I Wish I Had Duck Feet
4. Bedtime for Frances
5. No, David!
6. Harold and the Purple Crayon
7. Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever
8. Little Pea
9. Polar Bear, Polar Beat, What Do You Hear?
10. Goodnight Moon

Honorable mention goes to the My Neighbor Totoro book I have in Japanese.
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post #2 of 38
8/27/08 at 1:51pm
From an European perspective you can´t really do anything wrong with the output of Astrid Lindgren and Michael Ende. Mandatory for childhood in my humble eyes.
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post #3 of 38
8/27/08 at 1:55pm
You've got the top two Sendak books there. Harold is a winner. You can't have Goodnight Moon without The Big Red Barn.
The only one I'm unfamiliar with is Francis. I'll check it out.

A few other good classics-
A Fish Out Of Water by PD Eastman (especially if you like Duck Feet)
Cat In The Hat
The Snowy Day
My 3 year old also digs the simpler Beatrix Potter stories like Jeremy Fisher.

And some good modern lit-
Olivia
Scattercat
Oh No! Not Ghosts!
Poppleton (especially good for bedtime)
And for when she gets a few years older, I'm always eager to pimp Frankenstein Makes A Sandwich.

I don't care much for No, David! It feels like one of those kids books that are actually written for adults. Oh, and fuck The Rainbow Fish and Guess How Much I Love You.
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post #4 of 38
8/27/08 at 2:08pm
Are You My Mother? & Go, Dog, Go
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post #5 of 38
8/27/08 at 2:29pm
Where the Deep Ones Are

and Coraline by Neil Gaiman
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post #6 of 38
8/27/08 at 2:43pm
George Selden's, Cricket In Times Square. Also, Judy Blume's A Tale Of A 4th Grade Nothing, and Superfudge.
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post #7 of 38
8/27/08 at 3:04pm
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
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post #8 of 38
8/27/08 at 3:13pm
junglebook
treasure island

for little kids I would also go with
Rikki Tikki Tavi
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post #9 of 38
8/27/08 at 3:19pm
Shel Silverstein:
Where the Sidewalk Ends
A Light in the Attic
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post #10 of 38
8/27/08 at 3:33pm
One of my favorites was always Caps for Sale.

And Who Needs Donuts by Mark Alan Stamaty is insane and awesome.
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post #11 of 38
8/27/08 at 3:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
A good recent example of the talking mouse subgenre- The Tale of Despereaux, soon to be a CGI bastardization.
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post #12 of 38
8/27/08 at 4:00pm
Margaret Wise Brown is way overrated. Her terrible, terrible The Sailor Dog is the only book in my 20-month-old daughter's library that I will refuse to read.

Books and authors my daughter's into this week: Maysie, Sandra Boynton, P.D. Eastman, Elmo/Cookie Monster-related, Winnie the Pooh-related

It's amazing how early they figure out they can stall bedtime by picking the longest book.

Anything by Dr. Seuss is a joy to read.

</self-indulgent parenting post>
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post #13 of 38
8/27/08 at 4:19pm
Oh and, Give a Mouse a Cookie and Give a Moose a Muffin (I think those were the names anyhow, its been a long time)
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post #14 of 38
8/27/08 at 4:54pm
Thread Starter 
No, David is probably my least favorite on that list but I like the idea behind the book. It's obviously something kids understand and I think it makes some hay out of it.

Bedtime for Frances is great. Great art and story. It's a long one though for bedtime. There's more books in the series but that's the only one I have.

Richard Scarry's book is invaluable. I had it as a kid and I think it's part of the reason why I read at an early age. It's such a good teacher and reference book.

I can't find the third Sendak book of that trilogy whenever I look. I'll have to order it online.
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post #15 of 38
8/27/08 at 5:01pm
I never read Scarry as a kid. We got one of his books for my first daughter but it was full of bullshit like kids getting spanked for being clumsy and kids who cry not getting ice cream (while their brother did and ate it RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM). We kept it awhile for laughs, but never got another Scarry book again.
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post #16 of 38
8/27/08 at 5:05pm
I give mine a one two punch of Poe and Lovecraft nightly.


Additions to what's already been mentioned:
The Poky Little Puppy
The Little Prince
Moon Plane
The Diggingest Dog (I went nuts for this as a kid)
War and Peas
For slightly older kids, The Rainbow Goblins
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post #17 of 38
8/27/08 at 6:42pm
Thread Starter 
Scarry is definitely a bit old school. The cover of the book in question has a lion smoking a pipe. Sort of like the dad smoking a pipe in Duck Feet. Check out the book I mention. There's none of the stuff you mention. Like I said, it's like a kid's reference books: food, cars, jobs, numbers, rooms in a house, etc.
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post #18 of 38
8/27/08 at 7:11pm
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I still love this book.
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post #19 of 38
8/27/08 at 7:55pm
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Bob may say fuck The Rainbow Fish, but I have a white hot blinding rage for The Giving Tree.

Good chapter books are the first three in the Redwall series (more talking animals) -- Redwall, Matteo, and Mossflower -- and EB White, although I prefer Stuart Little over Charlotte's Web.

Oh, and for later: The Great Brain.

There was a good thread started by Stormin a while back full of choices like these.
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post #20 of 38
8/27/08 at 10:47pm
If you want to raise an individual then go with The Big Orange Splot.

If you want a bleeding heart liberal then go with The Rainbow Fish.
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post #21 of 38
8/28/08 at 12:28am
Tikki Tikki Tembo - kids would probably dig hearing the repetitious sound of his name.

A Pocket for Courderoy
Paddington Bear
The Story Of Ferdinand the Bull
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
Madeline
Millions of Cats
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile
The House on East 88th Street
The Snowy Day is great as is all the other Ezra Jack Keats stuff.
The Velveteen Rabbit
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post #22 of 38
8/28/08 at 4:47pm
Hahaha. If you had "Essential Kids Books" in the pool of Most Unlikely Innocent X-created Threads, then step up to collect.

I like those Sendaks, but my favorite of his is an out-of-print retelling of an old Grimm Brothers tale, Dear Mili. You can get it through alibris.

There's a lot of other great retellings of old fairy tales out there. Paul Zelinsky has illustrated editions of Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and Rumpelstiltskin that we've read hundreds of times. Jan Brett has a fantastic version of Beauty and the Beast, plus The Trouble With Trolls.

Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant.

The Talking Eggs, by San Souci and Pinckney, is awesome.

William Steig's books are uniformly great-- Sylvester and the Wishing Pebble, the Doctor DeSoto books, Yellow and Pink.

Patricia Polacco's got a decent batting average. Her Baba Yaga books are worth your while.


Dare Wright's books from the '50s are back in print and are pretty great-- The Lonely Doll, Mr. Bear, something about Christmas. They've got a distinctive look, as the illustrations are photos of dolls from the era when the books were written.

More modern stuff we like includes Kate Lum's What, Cried Granny, which is probably my favorite bedtime story. Also, author names escaping me:
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub
The Napping House
The Seven Silly Eaters
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post #23 of 38
8/28/08 at 4:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rex Hudler View Post
Hahaha. If you had "Essential Kids Books" in the pool of Most Unlikely Innocent X-created Threads, then step up to collect.
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post #24 of 38
8/28/08 at 6:25pm
This:



Some genuinely good lessons to be taken from this one.
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post #25 of 38
8/29/08 at 1:12am
Giving Tree
Missing Piece
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

To go a bit older:

The Phantom Tollbooth
Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing
Sideways Stories From Wayside School
Wayside School is Falling Down
Someday, Angeline
There's A Boy in the Girl's Bathroom

Basically anything by Louis Sacher = Gold.
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post #26 of 38
8/29/08 at 1:18am
Speaking of Jon Scieszka - THE STINKY CHEESE MAN AND OTHER FRACTURED FAIRY TALES. I loved that book. And still do.
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post #27 of 38
8/29/08 at 1:45am
Everybody Poops.

So many good recommendations in this thread. Holy nostalgia.
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post #28 of 38
8/29/08 at 1:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Witzel View Post
Oh and, Give a Mouse a Cookie and Give a Moose a Muffin (I think those were the names anyhow, its been a long time)
There's also If You Give A Pig A Pancake and If You Give A Sheep Syphilis.

My son loved Mo Willems' pigeon books: Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus, Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late and The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog.
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post #29 of 38
9/1/08 at 3:59pm
The Magic School Bus, people. THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS.
Also, Goodnight, Opus, by Berkely Breathed.
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post #30 of 38
9/1/08 at 4:59pm
Lots of great suggestions so far. I was looking to buy a book for my infant nephew last Christmas and I was having a hard time finding something that he or his older sisters didn't already have. I ended up buying Patrick McDonnell's The Gift of Nothing. It involves the characters from McDonnell's Mutts comic strip and I thought it had great illustrations and was very sweet. He also has two other children's books, Hug Time and Just Like Heaven. They are good, but Gift of Nothing is the best of the bunch.

http://www.giftofnothing.com/
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post #31 of 38
9/1/08 at 9:48pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rex Hudler View Post
Hahaha. If you had "Essential Kids Books" in the pool of Most Unlikely Innocent X-created Threads, then step up to collect.
Good stuff. I'm sure that is quite a shocker.

And thanks for the suggestions.
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post #32 of 38
9/1/08 at 9:54pm
To get away from the well-known stuff, there are two books that are always a hit with the kids in my class:

Go Away Big Green Monster and Mouse Mess. Also, on the more recent front, Bob McLeod came out with a book called Superhero ABC's that these kids are in love with.
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post #33 of 38
9/1/08 at 10:19pm
I know when my daughter is a bit older, I can't wait to pass on A Wrinkle in Time. That was MY book when I was a kid. Still read it every decade or so.
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post #34 of 38
9/2/08 at 2:17pm
I enthusiastically gave it to my daughter. She was not impressed. Children are born to break your heart.
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post #35 of 38
10/1/08 at 12:34pm
My daughter loves Neil Gaiman's childrens books "The Wolves in the Wall," and "The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish."
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post #36 of 38
10/1/08 at 12:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake View Post
Everybody Poops.
Good for Potty Training.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe LeFors View Post
One of my favorites was always Caps for Sale.
Fun book for the kids.

The Dick and Jane books are helpful for new readers, and the parents can giggle at the Sexual Innuendo. Win - Win!

For when they get old enough for Chapter Books, the Magic Tree House books were a big hit in our house.
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post #37 of 38
10/1/08 at 1:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TzuDohNihm View Post
If you want to raise an individual then go with The Big Orange Splot.
Thanks for the reminder. I had it when I was in elementary school.
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post #38 of 38
10/1/08 at 7:32pm
Lil Miss K loves Terry Pratchett's "Where's My Cow?"
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