Favorite kid's books

[RabbitMage]

The 'Where the Wild Things Are' post got me thinking on this.

What were your favorite books as a wee one? If you have kids, what were/are your favorite books to read to them?

When I was little (4-6) my favorite favorite book ever was Tacky the Penguin. It's the story of Tacky, who doesn't fit in with the prim and proper penguins. He has a little song he sings, and my dad used to sing it just right: "Hoooooow many toOOooes does a FISH HAAAAAAAAAAAVE? And HooWOoOow many wiiiiiiiiings on a cOOOOooOoOOw? I WONder YEP I WONder."

When I got a little older, as a horse-obsessed kid, I loved all of Marguerite Henry's books, and I loved the Wesley Dennis illustrations just as much. Misty of Chincoteague, Justin Morgan Had A Horse, King of the Wind, Born to Trot, the Album of Horses, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, Black Gold...

I figure I'm about ten years away from parenthood myself, but I'm already stockpiling books I like as I find them, for the future Mage-lets.

[Zuul]

I've got a bit of a collection of kid's books, too, though I have no sprogs of my own. I really enjoy children's literature as a genre in and of itself and sometimes I fantasize about having a brood of my own, though other times I'm horrified at the thought.

I've got a bunch of Roald Dahl and Dr Seuss (Oh the Places You'll Go! is one of the greatest "kid's" books of all time), plus little bits here and there. The Widow's Broom is a great one I was talking about just last night. I need to get my hands on a copy of Where the Wild Things Are again, as I love that book.

There's another one, which I read and wrote about for a children's lit ESL class I took. It was about a beautiful little cucaracha. Yes, I'm serious. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me remember what it was called.

Oh, here we go. La Cucaracha Martina: A Caribbean Folktale. Amazon was actually useful for once! I'd strongly recommend that one.

[What Exit?]

I am still partial to Green Eggs and Ham. I enjoyed reading this to my kids when they were wee ones. Many of the Seuss books were great. There was the one about the critter that wanted to be in the Zoo. I think it was "Put me in the Zoo" and it was well done. Of course "The Grinch who stoled Christmas" was another fun one to read to the kids.

I am also partial to the "Oliphant". A beautiful little book illustrating one of Tolkien's better poems. I suspect it is out of print.

[OtakuLoki]

I really remember three books from my kid's books days. Where the Wild Things Are; Harold and the Purple Crayon (get rid of all those sequels, though.); and Drummer Hoff.

I was recently talking about Drummer Hoff, and thinking again, just how odd it is for a children's book. Basically, it describes in simple rhyme, with some really trippy pics, setting up an old style cannon for firing. Personally, I find it to be a very 60s book. Not simply for the art, but also for the messages in the text. The constant repetition of "But Drummer Hoff fired it off," sure implies that the low man on the totem pole is getting the blame for the disastrous result from the cooperative efforts of many levels of authority.

For anyone who doesn't know the book, here's a YouTube presentation of it.



A very 60s work.

[The Original An Gadaí]

Not a set of books with a significant narrative but the Where's Wally/Waldo? series are ever popular. I enjoy them myself as do many children of all ages.

[Zuul]

Oh, and for various gay penguin sentimental reasons, I really want to get my hands on a copy of And Tango Makes Three.

[Myrnalene]

The Bunnicula and Wayside School series are quirky and clever and were great favorites of mine.

[Marsilia]

Another one for the good Doctor (Seuss). To this day, I get obsessed with the Grinch around Christmas time. And, I must have heard Where the Wild Things Are once a week for a few years. I scared a friend of mine when he realized that I still knew some of the lines without reading them.

When I was old enough to read for myself, I read anything I could get my hands on, though the ones that stand out are Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time series. The first book still makes me cry in places.

[jali]

When I was in the second grade my Mother gave me the gift of a subscription for The Happy Hollisters Series. I'd be so excited opening my mail and deciding which of the 2 (yeah, 2!!) books I'd read first. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happy_Hollisters

They were a happy family with 5 kids, mom and dad, a dog, a cat and some kittens and the kids were detectives and solved mysteries all over the world.

I loved them.

Hop on Pop and Green Eggs and Ham were my Seuss favorites as a little one.

A Wrinkle in Time and From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler are the two books that made me a lifetime reader. Charlotte's Web sealed the deal for me.

[OneCentStamp]

Not exactly picture books, but not up to YA level, either; these are all elementary school library material. In no particular order:

The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
Fireweed, Jill Paton Walsh
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Dear Mr. Henshaw, Beverly Cleary
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Judy Blume
Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan
The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson

[Orual]

Richard Scarry books were awesome, like "What do People do All Day".

Shel Silverstein.

Fox in Socks.

A big favorite in our house was the terribly inappropriate The Five Chinese Brothers.

[Exy]

I'm not sure if you're looking for a particular age, this one's aimed for a little bit older audience than Where the Wild Things Are, but the one kids' book that has lasted for me is The Westing Game. It's probably at about a 10-year-old's level.

It's a murder mystery -- Sam Westing, a famous and wealthy paper products magnate, has died, and his sixteen "nieces and nephews" (a number of them are not of the same race) are assigned by his will with identifying the murderer, who is one of them. To that end they're each given four or five clue words (written on squares of Westing brand paper towel), and they have to use those, along with the cryptic instructions in the will, to find the killer.

It's this great story about several different families, most of whom are fairly screwed up, interacting as they try to puzzle out the will. Most of them hate Sam Westing for various reasons at the beginning of the story -- for instance, a black judge, whose mother was a maid in Sam Westing's house, interprets her clues "SKIES AM SHINING BROTHER" as a racist insult. A restaurateur is still angry because Westing stole his disposable paper diaper invention. A doorman still resents Westing for firing him years earlier.

From beyond the grave Westing ends up changing all these people's lives, particularly that of the main character, a total geek heroine, the 12-year-old "Turtle" Wexler, whose hobby is playing the stock market. Apologies for the way I'm running on -- but I just love this story. I must have read it two dozen times. It's still sitting on my bookshelf within arm's reach. It's awesome.

[The Original An Gadaí]

I loved, loved, loved Richard Scarry books when I was a kid. They seemed to be sorta trendy in the '80s for a while but you don't really see them as much nowadays. I used to copy the illustrations on big sheets of paper.



Another author and book I loved was Roald Dahl, Matilda was one of my favourites.

[Inner Stickler]

Books that I loved as a child included, When I Was Young in the Mountains, Where the Wild Things Are, Chicken Soup with Rice: A book of Months, Dr. Suess's The Sleep Book and despite all the hate it gets on the dope, Love You Forever.

My parents were actually quite lazy and so what they did was make a tape of them reading all my favorite stories and then at night they'd put me to bed and play the tape and I'd fall asleep thinking it was the coolest thing evar while they watched Mad About You and Murphy Brown. It wasn't until I was a teen that I realized I'd been cheated out of making them waste time every night reading to me.

[Myrnalene]

I'm not sure if you're looking for a particular age, this one's aimed for a little bit older audience than Where the Wild Things Are, but the one kids' book that has lasted for me is The Westing Game. It's probably at about a 10-year-old's level.

I want to note that I re-read this recently (I loved it as a kid and Exy reminded me of it) and I really can't praise it enough. It's stocked with fantastic characters and the mystery is very clever. It also manges to wrestle with some really thought-provoking themes (prejudice, duty etc) without being at all preachy or taking away from any of the fun of the story. It treats its audience of young readers with respect but can be enjoyed by adult readers, too. Love, love this book.

[Myglaren]

The one that stands out for me was given to me by my older cousin. I have searched for it for years and it has long been out of print although a couple of copies came to light they were horrendously expensive first editions - >£600 each.

The book is "Dragon Island", can't find a reference anymore

[AndrewRyan]

The Westing Game and Matilda rock, but the greatest children's books of all time are Danny the Champion of the World and The Big Friendly Giant. Classic.

[Fink-Nottle]

I also loved the Richard Scary books. My mom was a huge fan so she read all the books to us. I actually didn't even really know about Dr. Seuss until I was much older because my mom hated him and so never got us his books.

I LOVED the Paddington Bear books. I was obsessed with Paddington. My own stuffed Paddington bear still sits on my bed. I also loved all the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books and these Scott Corbett books that were about a kid who got a magical chemistry kit from a witch. And there was this book King of the Dollhouse that my brother and I just LOVED. We used to get it out from the library all the time and make Sarahfeena read it to us even after we could easily read it to ourselves; it was just better when she read it to us.

[ivan astikov]

Roald Dahl, Paddington, and the Dr Seuss books have already been mentioned, but I'll add...

The Silver Brumby - Elyne Mitchell

Any of the Famous Five, Secret Seven or Adventure series of Enid Blyton books.

And anything with Winnie The Pooh in it.