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