What''s in your child''s library?

[KimberlyH]

One of my highest priorities for this kid is having a great childhood library (age range doesn''t matter, I want it to span the years). Just curious what must-have books are on your list, to help me add to mine!

 

[MustangGal]

So far, my 10 month old really likes books with textures. Fur, sand paper, velvet, etc. He likes to feel the pages as I read

. I haven''t gotten too many books above that, but the original Pooh is one we have, just waiting until I''m not worried about him tearing out the pages before I crack it open.

 

[TravelingGal]

Amelia LOVES books. I read to her for about an hour each day (30 minutes in the morning and usually 30 minutes sometime in the afternoon). Now she's "reading" them herself, which I am fine with because I was getting really sick of reading every book she handed to me over and over again.

We actually don't have a ton of books, and I do have to get more. A lot of them are Australian, so they may not be available here. I actually really want Walter the Farting Dog...hehehe.

The books we have are:

Australian
Possum Magic
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
A Cat Called Kitty
A Pig Called Pete
Hunwick's Egg
Koala Lou
One Wooly Wombat
Silly Gallah
Wombat Stew
Blossom Possum
Sebastian Lives in a Hat
Diary of a Wombat
Sun (not sure if these are Aussie, but we got them from TGuy's mum, same with the one below)
Star
Where is the Green Sheep
Kangaroo
Little Bush Babies
Talk to Me

Purchased in U.S.
Counting Kisses
Quiet, Loud
Peter Rabbit
Jemima Puddle Duck
Friends Series for Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Little Mermaid
Where is Baby's Belly Buttom
Goodnight Moon

 

[curlygirl]

We have a huge Dr. Seuss collection and the girls just love all of them. They are entertaining and educational. We have some of the Olivia books which my older daughter (2.5 years) is just getting into and we have Madeleine for when they are a bit older. We have a whole Curious George collection that they like as well. We have lots of board books in all different sizes and textures. They love these big Baby Einstein books of colors and the alphabet. We have Armenian, French and Italian nursery rhyme books. I''m not at home to go through and list all of them and I can''t remember off the top of my head but we have TONS of books. For us, they are the gift that keeps on giving. We prefer to buy books over toys and tell our friends and relatives the same thing. You can never have enough and you won''t go wrong! It''s great that you are starting her collection now.

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 12/22/2009 11:54:44 AM
Author: curlygirl
We have a huge Dr. Seuss collection and the girls just love all of them. They are entertaining and educational. We have some of the Olivia books which my older daughter (2.5 years) is just getting into and we have Madeleine for when they are a bit older. We have a whole Curious George collection that they like as well. We have lots of board books in all different sizes and textures. They love these big Baby Einstein books of colors and the alphabet. We have Armenian, French and Italian nursery rhyme books. I'm not at home to go through and list all of them and I can't remember off the top of my head but we have TONS of books. For us, they are the gift that keeps on giving. We prefer to buy books over toys and tell our friends and relatives the same thing. You can never have enough and you won't go wrong! It's great that you are starting her collection now.

Doh! That's what I need to buy...and some sesame street stuff.

ETA, and you're right Curly, it is the gift that keeps on giving. Amelia doesn't care for toys, but she wants her books every day, for long periods at a time. I heard somewhere that kids who love reading are the ones who are read to - simple as that.

 

[Aloros]

The Secret World of Og. My dad read it to us when we were very young, a few times. It remains one of my favorite books, and I have never forgotten it.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

The Hungry Catapillar
Goodnight Moon
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott Odell
As many Rold Dahl books as you can get your hands on
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shell Silverstein
Harry Potter
Aragon
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
The Bernstein Bears
Winnie the Pooh
Watership Down
The Terror of Prism Fading by K.E. Stapylton

 

[Aloros]

Oh, Where the Red Fern Grows. I think it''s a great book to read aloud to your kid.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (series - good to follow up Harry Potter)
Bill Peet books
Watership Down - great to read as a kid, and then later as an adult. Also, there is an animated movie
Lloyd Alexander''s Chronicles of Prydain (the 2nd book is a Disney movie)
a book of fairytales - Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books - she deals with children''s problem behaviors using unusual and magical means, very entertaining

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Amelia Bedelia
Pippy Longstockings
Bride to Tarabethia

 

[KimberlyH]

Thanks for all of the great suggestions so far! I''m so excited about accumulating books for this kiddo.

TGal, both my husband and I are avid readers, reading was a huge part of our childhood and I want to pass the love down to our kids.

We''ve purchased a few books so far and I can''t wait to keep adding!

 

[iluvcarats]

Dr. Seuss
Eric Carle
Shel Silverstein
Olivia series


Little House on the Prairie series
Junie B. Jones series
everything by Beverly Cleary
everything by Roald Dahl
they love Judy Blume (especially Fudge)
The Wind in the Willows
all of the books by Kate Dicamillo
We just finished The Mysterious Benedict Society and they loved it.
A Wrinkle in Time series by Madeline L'engle
Phantom Tollbooth
Number the Stars
Harriet the Spy
Anne of Green Gables

ETA: My son was not that interested in reading, but once he found Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, he was hooked.

 

[Mara]

oh, i LOVE to read and have always had books around me. greg''s mom sent all of his childhood books, he has a huge collection of dr seuss which i never liked but he loved, so it is perfect--he can read those to him.

i had mostly the classics growing up as my mom is a teacher and would always bring me home extra books from school that had that big gold seal sticker award, cannot remember for the life of me what it was called but most of my books were like that.

a few of my faves:
runaway bunny
hungry caterpillar
are you my mother?
mother goose fairy tales
hans christian anderson tales
grimms fairy tales (child friendly)
adventures of frog and toad

i also used to love ''lil critter'' ...i don''t remember the full name of the books, they are by Mayer, but i found a compilation of all the books i used to have in the series at B&N for $9.99. i was so excited.

also at B&N they have a huge kids bargain section so i got a bunch of touch and feel books for around age 1-2 for like $3.99 etc...my cousin''s daughter is 2 and she wants books that she can torture and tear so mostly cardboard for younger unless you plan to read to them and not let them play with the book til older.

oh and i found a few really cute little fun books like ''peggy the pig''s dirty day'' and ''thats not my puppy'' (which has a portia type dog on front which is why we got it) for cheap here and there. oh and target has a lot of $1.00 books for seasonal, i picked up 2 christmas/holiday this year, they are cardboard.

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

Date: 12/22/2009 11:57:23 AM
Author: TravelingGal

Date: 12/22/2009 11:54:44 AM
Author: curlygirl
We have a huge Dr. Seuss collection and the girls just love all of them. They are entertaining and educational. We have some of the Olivia books which my older daughter (2.5 years) is just getting into and we have Madeleine for when they are a bit older. We have a whole Curious George collection that they like as well. We have lots of board books in all different sizes and textures. They love these big Baby Einstein books of colors and the alphabet. We have Armenian, French and Italian nursery rhyme books. I''m not at home to go through and list all of them and I can''t remember off the top of my head but we have TONS of books. For us, they are the gift that keeps on giving. We prefer to buy books over toys and tell our friends and relatives the same thing. You can never have enough and you won''t go wrong! It''s great that you are starting her collection now.

Doh! That''s what I need to buy...and some sesame street stuff.

ETA, and you''re right Curly, it is the gift that keeps on giving. Amelia doesn''t care for toys, but she wants her books every day, for long periods at a time. I heard somewhere that kids who love reading are the ones who are read to - simple as that.

Same here. Amelia will choose a book over a toy every time. We read to her every day, but she''s getting to prefer just sitting with her book and going through it herself. She has a lot of books with textures and mirrors, which she loves.

 

[qtiekiki]

M''s absolute favorite right now is Where''s Spot?
It''s the only book that she''ll sit still and read. All other books, she just flips through them herself and refused to be read to.

We have:
Quiet Loud
Yes Yes No No
Big Little
Pat the Bunny
Goodnight Moon
Hippo Go Beserk
Dr Seuss Are You My Mother?
The Very Hungry Catepillar (I have two versions of this - the regular book and the 40th anniversary pop up book that M won''t get to touch until she is older.)
Where''s Baby''s Belly Button?
a couple animal books
a number book
a color book
Eight Silly Monkeys
a couple sing-along book sets that includes nursery rhymes such as Mary has a little lamb, Skip to lou, Yankee Doodle, etc

 

[lili]

Thanks for the lists...
I need to beef up DD''s collection too.

 

[Pandora II]

Roald Dahl books
Beatrix Potter books
Arthur Ransome books (he wrote Swallows & Amazons)
Noel Streatfield books - Ballet Shoes etc
Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales
Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales
Chronicles of Narnia
Harry Potter series
Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynn Jones (and all her other books)
Anything illustrated by Errol Le Cain
Anything illustrated by Quentin Blake

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Hendricka, The Cow That Fell Into The Canal
Where The Wild Things Are
Winnie The Pooh
Wind In The Willows
The Old Man of Lochnagar (by HRH Prince Charles - is a really good story for kids)

I already have a fairly packed bookcase for Daisy as I have all my old children''s books plus I''ve been buying others that I like for years. She already likes looking at books more than most toys so I hope she''ll enjoy them as much as I did. There are loads that I can hardly wait to be able to read to her!

 

[Blenheim]

In addition to a lot of the books already mentioned, we have the Velveteen Rabbit. For Christmas, I''ve been thinking of getting him Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, as well as Harold and the Purple Crayon.

 

[softly softly]

Date: 12/22/2009 11:53:10 AM
Author: TravelingGal
Amelia LOVES books. I read to her for about an hour each day (30 minutes in the morning and usually 30 minutes sometime in the afternoon). Now she's 'reading' them herself, which I am fine with because I was getting really sick of reading every book she handed to me over and over again.

We actually don't have a ton of books, and I do have to get more. A lot of them are Australian, so they may not be available here. I actually really want Walter the Farting Dog...hehehe.

The books we have are:

Australian
Possum Magic
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
A Cat Called Kitty
A Pig Called Pete
Hunwick's Egg
Koala Lou
One Wooly Wombat
Silly Gallah
Wombat Stew
Blossom Possum
Sebastian Lives in a Hat
Diary of a Wombat
Sun (not sure if these are Aussie, but we got them from TGuy's mum, same with the one below)
Star
Where is the Green Sheep
Kangaroo
Little Bush Babies
Talk to Me

Purchased in U.S.
Counting Kisses
Quiet, Loud
Peter Rabbit
Jemima Puddle Duck
Friends Series for Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Little Mermaid
Where is Baby's Belly Buttom
Goodnight Moon

TGal Amelia has a bigger collection of Australian-themed books than my kids. Although we do have Possum Magic, Green Sheep (used to be able to recite that one off by heart) and Diary of a Wombat always makes me smile. Ask TGuy if he remembers Grug books - vintage kids books from the late 70s that have now be re-released. Also if you are ever looking for an Australian christmas book, ask your MIL to hunt down 'Six White Boomers', it comes in book and CD form.

We also have an extensive collection of Dr Suess which my kids love - current fave 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'. Another early favourite were the Hairy McClary books. I also have all my dad's collection of children's books and my kids love reading vintage Noddy and Little Golden Books

 

[zoebartlett]

I seem to love all books in a series. I could go on and on, but here are a few:

Amelia Bedelia
Frog and Toad
Toot and Puddle
Joan Walsh Anglund books
Berenstain Bears
Olivia books
Curious George
Anything/everything by Kevin Henkes
Helen Lester/Lynn Munsinger books are fun
Robert McCloskey books (Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal)

Other classics:

Eric Carle books
Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel
Katy and the Big Snow
Beatrix Potter
Anne of Green Gables (I''ve seen versions of these books written for younger kids, which is great. They''re not for babies, but I still like them.)

 

[Haven]

I still own (and use) all of the Shel Silverstein books that my parents' friends gave to me as a child. They wrote beautiful inscriptions inside the front cover and dated them, I really cherish those.
In addition, I think anything Roald Dahl, Eric Carle, and Madelein L'Engle are fabulous for a child's library.

As a very small child, I LOVED Pat the Bunny. I wonder if that's still around.

We didn't own a ton of books when I was little, because we didn't have a ton of money, but we did go on weekly trips to the library and I absolutely cherished those.

ETA: I also loved The Velveteen Rabbit something strong when I was little.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Being a teacher my mom saved ALL of our childhood books. My sister and I split them so she has a huge collection. Because she is still go rough on books I don''t read those to her yet. We are still focused on board books. As a newborn she loved cloth books that had textures and made noises. Now she LOVES animal books. Books with textures. She is also really into animal noises so books where I saw the sounds are always a hit. She has all the basics. Off the top of my head she has

Counting Kisses
Goodnight Moon
Brown Bear
An Olivia book
A few Dora books
The Hungry Catapillar
The Very Busy Spider (same auther as The Hungry Catapillar and it is one of her favorites for sure)
Dr. Seuss
Some color books
I Love You Through and Through (another favorite)

 

[gailrmv]

I hope to instill a love of reading in my son, too. I have always loved to read. He is still very young and likes to eat books more than read them, but it's still fun. We're enjoying board books, especially the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goodnight Moon, and the many many Sandra Boynton books. If you have a Barnes and Noble near you, check out the kids' section - it's lots of fun!

I've also heard that if kids see you reading your own books, they'll be more interested in books. I do a lot of reading while nursing A so who knows, maybe it will set a good example

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

Date: 12/22/2009 11:53:05 PM
Author: TanDogMom
I hope to instill a love of reading in my son, too. I have always loved to read. He is still very young and likes to eat books more than read them, but it''s still fun. We''re enjoying board books, especially the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goodnight Moon, and the many many Sandra Boynton books. If you have a Barnes and Noble near you, check out the kids'' section - it''s lots of fun!

I''ve also heard that if kids see you reading your own books, they''ll be more interested in books. I do a lot of reading while nursing A so who knows, maybe it will set a good example

I believe it''s true! I''ve always been a voracious reader, so my kids have seen me reading since they were babies. They each went through stages where they weren''t as much into reading as I would have liked, but now it''s not unusual for any of them to turn down watching a DVD in favor of reading.

Will (3) has a LOAD of books because SO reads to him every night. This is one thing that I cannot do -- I start reading and next thing you know, I''m yawning too many times to be able to read well.

Some of Will''s books that I don''t think were mentioned:

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Corduroy
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

 

[monarch64]

In addition:

The Babar books
J.R.R. Tolkien (my brother is 4 yrs. older, but my mother still read us both the Hobbit, etc.)
Where the Wild Things Are (and there are other Maurice Sendak books)
Eloise series for girls (well, for boys too, if we are being PC, I suppose?)
L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz and other related stories
The Fledgling (can't remember the author)
The Bobbsy Twins series (super old, but fun reads for kids anyway)
The Great Brain series (geared more towards YA)

Hope I haven't been too redundant. I tried to add things I could think of from my collection growing up that I'm trying to add to my niece's library.

ETA: C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia)
Caps For Sale
Charlotte's Web
The Secret Garden
The Little Prince


Gah, there are so many great children's authors and books in general! I'm an avid reader, and developed my love for it due to my mom reading to us from the day we were born. She sits for my niece twice a week now but used to have her half days, 4 days a week since she was 4 months old, and that kid LOVES books as well. I can't wait to read her the Eloise series and the Wizard of Oz. I give her a hardcover edition of something classic every birthday and holiday. Love it.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

We have so many books. . .just wanted to mention one. . .Jan Brett''s Christmas Treasury. Cute stories and beautiful illustrations:

http://www.amazon.com/Jan-Bretts-Christmas-Treasury-Brett/dp/0399237410/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261555123&sr=8-1

 

[steph72276]

What a great thread....Andrew has a massive collection as I was a teacher and could buy things on the cheap. Also if we go in stores, I NEVER buy toys, but books are a different story. Some of my favorites:

If You Give A Mouse a Cookie (the entire series)
Dr. Seuss collection
Don''t Let the Pigeon Stay up Late/Drive the Bus
Goodnight Moon
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Are You My Mother?
The Giving Tree
I Love You Forever
The Velveteen Rabbit
A big book of classic fairy tales
Berenstain Bears
Franklin series
Winnie The Pooh
Corduroy
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

For the little ones, I would also just get board books...easy for them to handle and they also like to chew on them so they are cheap! Andrew liked anything with lots of colors and textures and flaps he could open.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I forgot to mention "Waddle." She also has "Gallop" and they are just the coolest books ever.

 

[packrat]

We have a lot of the ones mentioned. Several mentioned are ones I read when I was a little older and LOVE still-like Island of the Blue Dolphins. I think I still have that book at my moms-now I feel like reading it again. Our 3rd Grade teacher read that to us and I couldn''t get enough of it. L''s got a lot of the I Can Read type books..Princesses, Tinkerbell, Thomas etc. I got her a set of books thru Weekly Reader, that repeat certain words thru the story to help them recognize them.

Trapper likes books about trains and dinosaurs. When he was littler, I think I read Thomas and the Dinosaur to him 30 times a day.

I didn''t realize Olivia and Toot and Puddle were books too-London loves the cartoons-especially Olivia, (She changed her name the other day to Olivia, and spent the afternoon calling Trapper, Ian, her little "bother" haha) so I best be looking for the books!

Myself, I have some Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, the Little House series, A Wrinkle in Time, The Terror of Prism Fading and the Narnia books..I know I have others but can''t think of them. I know they''re "kids" books, but regardless, they''re comforting. Ohhh how I wanted to be Trixie Belden.

I''d like to find some of the Little Golden Books we had years ago. I remember a Sesame Street one w/Grover, called There''s a Monster at the End of this Book-that''s one of my favorites.

 

[redfaerythinker]

As a small child I had all of the Berenstein Bear books, Moo Moo Peak a boo, Wake Up Sun, and The Last Basselope. I also had a few of those classic story books, the ones with the gold spines?

As an older child, around 5 to 10 or so, I had Little House on the Prairie, Stuart Little, Charlotte''s Web, Where the sidewalk ends, all of the books by James Herriot (a English country vet), Winnie the Pooh, A big book of Fairy tales (the originals, not the dumbed down Disney ones), Anne of Green Gables, Nancy Drew, Amelia Bedelia, The Secret Garden

My mom hated the standards like Where the Wild Things Are, D. Seuss, Good Night Moon, and I''ll love you forever, so I never got into those.

I''m pretty sure no one but me ever had the Last Basselope but it''s about Opus the penguin and it''s my favorite children''s book to this day.

 

[purrfectpear]

Grimm''s and Hans Christian Anderson''s fairy tales. 1001 Arabian Nights. Fairy tales are cool.