Sunday, April 6, 2008

Our favorite picture books

I'm always on the lookout for good stories to the read to the kids, so I thought I'd share some of our favorites:
  • "Miss Rumphius," by Barbara Cooney
  • "A House is a House for Me," by Mary Ann Hoberman
  • "Stellaluna," by Janell Cannon
  • "Make Way for Ducklings," by Robert McCloskey
  • "Blueberries for Sal," by Robert McCloskey
  • "Flotsam," by David Wiesner
  • "Whistle for Willie," by Ezra Jack Keats
  • "The Story of Ferdinand," by Munro Leaf
  • "The Little Engine that Could," by Watty Piper
  • "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," by Eric Carle
  • "Time for Bed," by Mem Fox and Jane Dyer
  • "The Adventures of Peter Rabbit," by Beatrix Potter
  • "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel," by Virginia Lee Burton
  • "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," by Bill Martin, Jr., and John Archambault
  • "Stone Soup," by Marcia Brown
  • "Bread and Jam for Frances," by Russell Hoban
  • "You are Special," by Max Lucado
  • "Where the Wild Things Are," by Maurice Sendak
  • "Frog and Toad Are Friends," by Arnold Lobel
  • "Winnie-the-Pooh," by A.A. Milne (the original, not the Disney version) Although I wouldn't classify this a picture book, it's a great introduction to chapter books and my 3-year-old listens well to these stories.

Of course, these are the highlights. I only listed our absolute favorites by one author (with the exception of McCloskey--I couldn't decide which of those two were our favorites). Once you find an author you like, look for other books by them to find other potential jewels.

A few years ago when I felt that I had exhausted all the pictures books we had or that I remembered as treasures from my childhood, I asked our local librarian for a book listing great books to read to my kids. She gave me a blank look and said to just look at all the books in the children's section. Hmmmm, not what I expected to hear.

Since then, I've found what I was asking for. They are:

  • "Honey for a Child's Heart," by Gladys Hunt
  • "Books Children Love," by Elizabeth Wilson
  • "The Read Aloud Handbook," by Jim Trelease

2 comments:

momawake said...

Don't you just love those books! That's probably the thing I liked the best about AO, the great stories!

Jenni said...

This is a great list. Many that my 5 year old and I have enjoyed also. We have read so many wonderful picture books, and I recently started a blog to keep track of them. I'm trying to organize them by subject, which I hope will be helpful for anyone interested. Please take a look if you would like.

http://pbwithj.blogspot.com/