babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
5 Essential Picture Books for a Perfect Childhood
Picture books make lasting memories
Picture books are for babies. Or so you’d think looking at children’s reading programs. Parents and teachers are pushing kids into chapter books at younger ages, while picture books languish on bookstore shelves.
Educational experts and bookstore owners are wringing their hands about this in the pages of the New York Times. The kids need their picture books, it stimulates a certain type of brain activity, etc.
Picture books also make the best memories. I can open up the beloved picture books from my childhood, many of which I still have, and bedtime comes flooding back. The same is true now with my daughters: I pick up a copy of Goodnight, Moon, and it’s like I’m holding my baby again.
Here are five picture books I wouldn’t want my kids to be without. What are your top 5 must-reads? Leave them in the comments.
- The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, by Paul Goble. I grew up with this book, and I still feel the power of playing make-believe wild horses with my best friend from kindergarten every time I open it up.
- Goodnight, Moon. The classic bedtime book to end all bedtime books. I actually did not grow up with this, but read it every night to my daughter’s as their first bedtime story.
- Many Moons, James Thurber. This is a great picture book for a slightly older kid. The story is rich and complex, the illustrations beautiful.
- Knuffle Bunny. The story of a little girl who loses her bunny and her heroic Daddy who gets it back cracks up adults as much as kids.
- The Peace Book, Todd Parr. Everything Todd Parr writes is touched with magic. His color-drenched pictures and big playful words fill you up with love, whether you’re 2, 12 or 102.
What are your must-read books? Let’s get our kids reading more of these charming stories, and making more memories. They’ll thank us when they’re grown ups and Junie B. Jones is a distant, mushy memory next to the vivid images of their favorite picture book.
Photo: Grace and Viv
Go Back To Strollerderby
0 Comments
BlackOrchid commented on Oct 12 10 at 2:10 pmThe Neil Gaiman/Charles Vess ones – “Instructions” and “Blueberry Girl” are favorites here, despite the chapter books. “Wolves in the Walls” and “The Day I Swapped My Dad” are also beloved!
alison commented on Oct 12 10 at 2:23 pmMiss Spider’s Tea Party and Miss Spider’s Wedding by David Kirk, Silly Fred by Karen Wagner, And What Comes After A Thousand by Anette Bley, Oh The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss.
Seonaid commented on Oct 13 10 at 10:43 amI was going to recommend the same ones as BlackOrchid, so allow me to reiterate “Wolves in the Walls” and “The Day I swapped my dad for two goldfish”. Every time I read these two I find myself saying, “See? there’s no excuse for bad kids’ books.” Also, the art is AMAZING!
Also would like to add “Giraffes Can’t Dance” by Giles Andreae, “My Hippie Grandmother” by Reeve Lindbergh, and The Hoppameleon by Paul Geraghty (I once did a Unitarian church service on the last one. For the adults.)
BlackOrchid commented on Oct 13 10 at 11:34 amI will look those up, Seonaid, thanks! I have to laugh about chapter books – my daughter sometimes reads them but she finds them kind of boring. The *other* kind of picture book does exist for kids too – long-form comics or graphic novels. She’s currently in love with Kean Soo’s “Jellaby: series, and last summer was all about new Oz-related comics by Eric Shanower.
JeninCanada commented on Oct 13 10 at 12:41 pmAt our house we LOVE The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Where the Wild Things Are and have a handful of Bearenstein Bear books my son picks over and over. It’s hard to get away from the ones they really love and try something new, isn’t it?
wohm commented on Oct 13 10 at 1:50 pmBerenstain Bears, Mercer Mayer, the Frances books,Frog and Toad, and Shel Silverstein are all series I remember from my childhood and I am enjoying with my toddler. We also like Quick as a Cricket and P.D. Eastman among others
BlackOrchid commented on Oct 13 10 at 2:02 pmSara Fanelli’s children’s picture books – My Map Book, Dear Diary, Wolf! – are incredible. Many are sadly out of print. Am glad our library has them.
Maggie commented on Oct 15 10 at 10:16 pmMaurice Sendak’s Night Kitchen was a major favorite of my kids, though it’s too recent to have been in my own childhood. Now when I look at it I’m captivated back to the little house we shared when they were little.
In my own childhood it was a book called “Fairies”, a very thin book in a huge format, maybe 20 inches high and more than 12 inches wide. I used to wish for this book when my kids were small. I remember turning the pages with my younger sibs. Each of us had a favorite among the fairies, who were slender, wispy little girls with ultra-long legs and huge almond eyes. Each one was dressed in gauzy veils of a different color. The fire-colored redhead was my favorite, one of my brothers liked the green one best, and so on. When that book turned up in my mother’s estate in 2001 I couldn’t bear to part with it, and now it sits in my office and reminds me of the 1950s.
Voice of Reason commented on Oct 16 10 at 1:29 am‘The Gruffalo,’ ‘The Snail & The Whale’ and ‘Sharing A Shell’ all by Julia Donaldson, ‘The Chimpanzees of Happytown’ by Giles Andreae, ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’ by Judith Kerr and, for older children, ‘Danny, Champion of the World,’ by Roald Dahl. I can’t come up with many more without sneaking into the children’s rooms with a flashlight!
Voice of Reason commented on Oct 16 10 at 1:31 amOh! And ‘One’ by Kathryn Otoshi should be on every family’s bookshelf.
DCMama commented on Oct 18 10 at 12:16 pm“I took the moon for a walk” is also a great bedtime book, perhaps even better than Good Night Moon. “Library Lion” is a great book to read to kids or for little ones starting to read longer text. “Green Eggs and Ham”, “One Ted Fell Out of Bed”
Read Aloud Dad commented on Oct 21 10 at 11:12 amI’m sharing the best read aloud books based on the response of my three-year old twins – at our blog. Feel free to check them out.
Read Aloud Dad
http://readalouddad.blogspot.com@readalouddad (on Twitter)
Kimberly commented on Nov 06 10 at 10:58 pmComments In addition to some of the books already mentioned, my kids love “Miss Suzy,” “Sir Kevin of Devon,” “The Escape of Marvin the Ape,” Never Tease a Weasel” (1964 version w/ original illustrations), “If I Built a Car,” “The Circus Ship,” “Falling for Rapunzel,” “Eli,” “How I Became a Pirate” (and its sequel), and “Wild About Books.”
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
0