What were your favorite books to read to your kids (or that they loved to hear)? (Or yours, for that matter.)
Skipping Winnie the Pooh and Dr. Suess, my kids loved:
Red Light Green Light (Margaret Brown of Good Night Moon fame) Green Bear Frank Asch books Tacky the Penguin (I actually still have a Tacky someplace they gave me!) Good Dog Carl McDuff books Officer Buckle & Gloria
The Egg Book! It was around in the 1950's, and can still be purchased. It has wonderful illustrations, and a very simple story about a lonely bunny that finds an egg. He pushes it, rolls it, sniffs it, taps it, etc. Finally, the egg opens, and a baby chicken comes out, becoming best friend to the bunny.
Later on, anything by Marguerite Henry, but particularly Brighty of the Grand Canyon.
If you have ever been to the lodge on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, there is a lifesized statue of Brighty. I have a lovely picture I took of it when we were there.
We loved anything from Robert Munsch. They were funny, didn't talk down (used big words sometimes) and every single one had a great tag line. My favorites were "Yellow, Green and Purple" (about a girl that loved markers), Murmel, "Alligator Baby", "Show and Tell", "We Share Everything" (about two kindergartener that trade clothes) and "Mud Puddle". Every family needs "Good Families Don't", "PaperBag Princess" and "Love You Forever".
Another favorite "Tell Me Something Happy".... Loved it
In our house, Curious George is a big hit, as are the Berenstain Bears. We also love "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom", an alphabet book, and "Z is for Zamboni", a hockey alphabet book. Story time is always such fun. It's the most relaxing part of the day.
The following applies to my experience as a parent with children. As a child, I basically only read biographies and science books along with Reader's Digest (which, ironically enough, my children also enjoyed at early ages).
We discovered many books that became our favorites when I got the anthology, "Hey! Listen to This!" compiled by Jim Trelease, and I can't recommend it, along with basically all the books mentioned in it, highly enough.
We also enjoyed historical fiction written by Clyde Robert Bulla (written at about a third-grade level so it's easy for beginning chapter-book readers), although they are so old that you will probably only find them in the library (such a SHAME!!!)
My oldest son ADORED the Frog and Toad easy reader books when he was that age.
Both kids loved Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. My son didn't mind hearing the Madeline books (having yet another senior moment and too sleepy to search for the author) because she did daring things.
One of the stupidest things I ever did was to stop reading bedtime stories to them simply because I wanted some 'me' time.
Not having kids myself, I'll have to draw upon my (fading) memory of what
*I* used to read (stepping into Sherman's & Mr. Peabody's Wayback machine for that :) )
I would read anything that didn't bore me to death that my parents would let me... some of my older sister's reading material was "not appropriate" for a kid my age.
I devoured the Nancy Drew books - *and* my brother's Hardy Boy books (surprising written by the same author), the old Bobbsey Twin stories (in
6th grad I was tested at a college level reading ability)..... then as I got older I got into Isaac Asimov....Stephen King..... things kid of exploded from there
I babysat the same kids every weekend all through college.
Jen loved "Green Eggs and Ham". Several times a night. Got to the point that I could recite it from memory.
When Brad got old enough for bedtime stories, I tried every other Seuss book in the house, hoping for a change. Nope. Now I was reading Sam I Am 6-8 times a night. Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhh
For me, the big thing was a series of biographies, something like Childhoods of Great Americans or something like that.
My kids were read a lot of books from my childhood; when very little we would read Beatrix Potter with the old-fashioned watercolors. then as they grew a bit Curious George was popular, and I forget what else. That was over 40 years ago.
I grew up with A.A. Milne (the REAL Winnie the Pooh) and a host of English authors; Enid Blyton, who wrote prodigiously, Arthur Ransome ( sailing books), and Moorland Mouse, Golden Gorse, all horsey books. I loved to read, and I remember hiding Little Women behind the toilet seat, and I would hang out in there reading, rather than do the dishes!Loved all of Louisa May Alcott. I was much surprised to realise she was from Concord, MA, and in the 19th century, when we were up there this summer.
Of course there was no TV...Lucille, being older than me, probably read of slates!!!! r,d,&h.
My mother loved books as much as I do and happily kept several of my very favorites. They now sit on top of my kitchen cabinets, artfully arranged. They were then and remain to this day my very favorites: Little Women, Little Men and Jo's Boys, The Blue, Red and Yellow Fairy Books and Black Beauty.
The pages are yellow and crisp, but they sit proudly gathering dust.
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