What is your favorite child's book?

[AtlasEros]

I know there are others on here who have young children which means reading children's books, over, and over.  So I wondered what is your favorite; it can either be your favorite you read your child or your favorite from your childhood.

Mine is Socks for Supper, although, I enjoy reading Cat in the Hat too.

[ambrosial]

I have no children myself, but I have studied children's literature and love children's books.

I think my favorite picture book from my childhood was Aunt Isabella Tells a Good One - very cute illustrations and an imaginative tale about a bedtime story.

[LunarSage]

Oh, "Goodnight Moon" in a heartbeat.  That one has been around -forever-...

[Sweet Trouble]

My son love "A Dirty Little Boy"... he could go to it where it is shelved at the local library we go to.... we would laugh together reading it.

I believe we have also read all of the Dr. Seuss books.

[AtlasEros]

I believe we have also read all of the Dr. Seuss books.

Good deal, he wrote a lot of stories.  I believe we own at least 15 of them.

[Miss Lilly]

The Very Hungry Caterpilla!

I still love it.....*grins*

[Oniya]

How young a 'child' are we talking about?  My favorite book in fourth grade was 'The Phantom Tollbooth', and I read it to the little Oni when she was in 2nd or 3rd grade.

[Fae Brin]

Stuff I legitly fell in love with-- that I read as a child?

Greek myths. All of them.

The more mainstream idea of a children's book-- Nancy Drew? Do those count?

Robert Munsch. -nods-

[AtlasEros]

Stuff I legitly fell in love with-- that I read as a child?

Greek myths. All of them.

yeah, I first discovered Greek, Celtic and Norse myths when I was 3 or 4, at the local library.  From that point on, I've been a huge fan of mythology.

[KaiiVii]

"Crow and Weasel" Its illustrations are beautiful and I was always in love with native American culture. Dad used to read Harry Potter for bedtime stories before I could read (I read the last half of the first book by myself)

"Goodnight Moon"

"Cat, You Better Come Home"

Dr Seuss: "if I ran the Zoo" "The Lorax" "One Fish Two fish Red Fish Blue Fish" "To think that I saw it On Mulberry Street" and there was one with a kid and a bunch of hats... I can't find the name though

"Thunder Cake"

"Boxcar Children"

"The Berenstain Bears"

"The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear "

Mercer Mayer's "Little Critter" books

"The Mouse and the Motorcycle"

And others I'm sure

[Yorubi]

Green Eggs and Ham! XD

[Fae Brin]

Aren't they just epic?

[AtlasEros]

Aren't they just epic?

certainly

[Fae Brin]

My reading mostly centered on Greek and Roman myths-- I only read some Norse mythology. Almost no Celtic. >.>

[Oniya]

If you read the Lloyd Alexander books, you've gotten a fair piece of Celtic myth.

[Fae Brin]

He's atchally been on my 'To Read' list for several years. @.@

[AtlasEros]

My reading mostly centered on Greek and Roman myths-- I only read some Norse mythology. Almost no Celtic. >.>

Ah, with a name like Fae Brin, I would have figured you for a fan of the Celtic mythology. 

Norse is my favorite of the lot, I really suggest you take a look at it.  You may find it to your liking.

[DobbyDevotchka]

 I had a near complete collection of the hard back Dr. Seuss books, hand me downs with worn down spines.  I learned to read with those books, and I still find them to be excellent stories.  He was a great!  I was always so sad for the lorax.

[Fae Brin]

I know enough about Norse mythology to be familiar with some of the terms, but the actual legends escape me.

Mm-- I went through a small druid phase?

>.>

<.<

Kay-- so it was a big one alright. I might have poked around the Celtic lit a bit. But I don't remember almost all of it.

[stormkitten]

Cookies Week


If you give a mouse a cookie


The fire cat


Nanna Upstairs Nanna downstairs

[Shjade]

Where The Wild Things Are

[xanthian]

  My favorite children's book as a child was 'The Tale of Zachary Zween', a really obscure old book about a boy in a boy's school where everything was done in alphabetical order, so he was always last. It's a really sweet book.

  Also, I think the Madeline series is truly superb.

[Jag]

Along with Goosebumps, The Giver, The Outsiders, and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde...I adored the Sideways Stories from Wayside School. I always liked the story about Mr. Gorf who sucked up children's voices through his third nostril. And the one about Miss Wendy Nogard who uses her third ear to read the children's minds and make them miserable my humiliating them because no one loves her.

*needs to re-find these books*

[Oniya]

I saw one listed in the little Oni's Scholastic flyers earlier this year.  Contact your local elementary schools and find out when they're having Scholastic book fairs.  I know they're usually for students and their parents, but they might be amenable to others, since the schools get a portion of the proceeds.

[Torch]

"I Love You, Forever." by Robert Munsch

I defy anyone to read this without getting weepy at the end.

[consortium11]

The first book I distinctly remember is The Skylighters by Graeme Garden. My parents took me to story hour at the local library when I was young and this illustrated book... about a small group of people who paint the sky (thus giving us sunsets etc etc)... has stuck in the mind ever since; to the extent that when I do see a dramatic sky I'll inveriably mention that "the Skylighters have been out...". I can't recommend this enough for smaller children.

The first series I really got into was the Tim and Tobias (also known as Tim and the Hidden People). This was a series designed to help children read and aimed at 4-7 year olds (although with a few novellas aimed more at age 9-11) which I was exposed to at school. I starts at a very basic level with simple stories (a little boy comes across a magic cat that allows him to see a hidden race of magical creatures) but both the stories and writing became a lot deeper and more complex as the series progressed. Another high recommendation as a series to help children read.

The defining series of my childhood was the Redwall series by Brian Jacques (RIP). A series of books aimed at slightly older children they are essentially heroic/high fantasy with the "good" races (i.e Humans, elves, dwarfs) being replaced with cute British woodland creatures (mainly mice but also otters, hares and moles etc) while the "evil" races (Orcs, goblins, trolls etc) replaced with vermin (Stoats, rats, foxes etc) based around an abbey known as Redwall. The books are near perfectly written for the type and age aimed at and while the stories can get a little repetitive that's to be expected for such a long series. Two of the books (Salamandastron about a siege of a badger fortress and The Bellmaker about a group of Redwall residents going to free a land from an usurper) are still high on my list of the favourite novels I've ever read... although I haven't looked at them in years which may mean that they don't hold up. Despite that I literally cannot recommend any of this series highly enough.

[Oniya]

Redwall has the enviable distinction of being good for a wide variety of ages.  I read some of them to the little Oni, and never felt like I was reading a 'children's' book.

[Phoenixrisen]

My favorite would have to be a story called "Kitten's First Moon" it's really cute. The little kitten thinks it's a saucer of milk...

[Lady of the Snow]

When I was young, I remember reading this one story that was part of a collection. It really bothers me that I don't remember the title at all, but it was a story about a demon in Hell who wants to be good, and thus escapes to the real world. He's feared by everyone around him, since he's a demon, but he finally manages to ask people and go to a local church. The pastor tells him that the matter of making a demon into a good being is beyond his help, and refers him to the Pope (this story takes place in Europe btw). The demon goes to the Pope, who tells him that it's a matter that only God can handle. So the demon speaks to God, and angels come down and get him, and judge him to be a good person, and file off his horns and give him a halo. A bunch of kids in Heaven make fun of him, but then the angels are like "Everyone's different. STFU" (not quite like that, but you get the idea).
Even though I'm not religious at all, I remember really liking this story. I just wish I knew its name. All I know is that it was a French story.

[Major Major]

For me, there was only one series that cut the mustard. The charming works from a railway-mad English Vicar named the Reverand Wilbert Vere Awdry.

The series needs no further introduction, beyond one sentence:

The Railway Series, home of Thomas the Tank Engine.

[little princess]

green eggs and ham
little match girl

[Malefique]

Dr Xargle's Book of Earthlets - funny as hell.  The Narnia books.  Paul Berna's A Hundred Million Francs, best kid's thriller ever.  Asterix the Gaul.  The Earthsea trilogy.  Dr Seuss, naturally, but also Hairy Maclary and Eleanor Farjeon's Cats Sleep Anywhere.  And one of the Swallows and Amazons books, Winter Holiday.  Oh, and all LM Boston's Green Knowe stories.   

[Beguile's Mistress]

My favorite book as a child was The Velveteen Rabbit.  I read it at least once a month for three years until my mother took it away from me.

[Oreo]

I got down to the last one and, how cute. MissTressy likes my favorite too, 'The Velveteen Rabbit'. After that it had to be 'Green Eggs and Ham'.