Some of My Favorite Children’s Books
There are so very many wonderful books for kids out there, but there is also a great deal of really appalling dreck. How to choose? Well, first of all, remember that what appeals to me and my kids may not appeal to you and yours. Second, choose books that have good art work and a good plot line. If they can teach important character lessons, so much the better. But not too preachy. Kids pick up on that and get impatient with it, especially those over age six. Third, pick books that appeal to your kids’ interests. My older son isn’t interested in fiction, but will happily read non-fiction and anything about animals. My younger son wants adventure, and is most engaged by the Bobbsey Twins and Enid Blyton’s “Adventure” books.
Here are some authors whose works I have found to be universally enjoyable. (Although some of them do get a little old after the 400th reading-aloud.)
Authors (anything by these is good)
- Beatrix Potter
- Syd Hoff
- Roald Dahl
- Jean Fritz (great beginning history books!)
- HA Rey
- Eric Carle
- Virginia Burton
- Richard Scarry
- Bill Peet
- Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSeig, Theodore Giesel (all the same person)
- PD Eastman or Al Perkins
- Robert McCloskey
- Louisa May Alcott
- Enid Blyton
- GA Henty
There are a number of book series that are also very good. Many of them are books that you can read aloud to your children and then find them reading on their own in a few years.
Series
- The Cottage at Bantry Bay, Francie on the Run, and Pegeen, by Hilda van Stockum
- The Bobbsey Twins books by Laura Lee Hope
- The Elsie Dinsmore and Mildred Keith books, by Martha Finley
- The Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, by Betty MacDonald
- The “Encyclopedia Brown” books and Two Minute Mysteries, by Donald J. Sobol
- The Little House on the Prairie books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The Brambly Hedge books
- The Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis
- “If You Give” books, by Laura J. Numeroff
- The Dr. Doolittle books, by Hugh Lofting
- The Babar books, by Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff
- The Amelia Bedelia books, by Peggy Parish
- The Frances books, by Russell Hoban
- Frog and Toad books, by Arnold Lobel
And then there are specific books that have just become family favourites, or that we have special memories of reading.
Specific Titles
- The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norman Juster
- A Fly Went By, by Mike McClintock
- A Fish Out of Water, by Helen Palmer
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins, by Richard and Florence Atwater
- Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey
- The Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte’s Web, and Stuart Little, by E.B. White
- The Trellis and the Vine, by Jan Karon
- Dangerous Island, by Helen Mather-Smith Mindlin
- A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Winnie the Pooh and the other Pooh books by A. A. Milne
- James Herriot’s Treasury for Children by James Herriot
- Mistress Masham’s Repose, by T. H. White
- Miss Hickory, by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
- The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams
- The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf