Children’s Books
I love children’s books. Especially antique children’s books. And so does my husband. We know better than to venture to the children’s section of a vintage bookstore, unless we have lots of time and money!
The lone bookshelf in our children’s bedroom doesn’t even contain all their books any more. The ones meant for older grades have overflowed out here to the living room bookshelves, challenging my love of library-like categorized shelves!
Thus, I was glad to see Tsh Oxenreider dedicate ample portions of her chapters in Organized Simplicity to talking about books — it’s an area that’s sometimes hard to simplify! I loved the suggestion of keeping a basket near the children’s bookshelf, so that the kids could put the books back in the basket and mom or dad could put the books back on the shelf so that they could actually be found once again! But her quote about children’s books that have stood the test of time (see graphic above)? Priceless advice to remember — especially when caught in the children’s book aisle!
I must admit, I do love a bit of silliness on occasion. And “twaddle” or no, we have a special affection for Dr. Seuss books in this household, because my husband’s grandfather built bookshelves for Dr. Seuss himself. But our affinity for vintage children’s books has as much to do with their quality as it does with their cuteness. After all, even wordless picture books have authors. The right picture book can transcend both age and language!
If you could only pick “five brilliantly written and illustrated children’s books” to keep on your bookshelf, what would you choose? We’d love to have you share your ideas in the comments — and all of your children’s book reviews in the link-up! Each comment and link will be entered in the giveaway for a $10 Amazon gift card — to support that habit of collecting children’s books, of course. Congratulations to Bethany for winning the $10 gift card!
More Children’s Book Lists:
- beautiful books for your favourite girls – from Danielle on YLCF
- Favorite Classic Children’s Books – from Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking
- 15 Must-Read Children’s Books – from MoneySaving Mom Crystal Paine
- 10 Great Authors in Children’s Literature – from Simple Mom editor Tsh Oxenreider
- Twaddle Free Books for Preschoolers: My Top 10 Favorites – from Simple Mom editor Tsh Oxenreider
- 10 Picture Books That Teach Important Life Lessons – from Simple Homeschool editor Jamie Martin
- 1000 Good Books List – from the Classical Christian Education Support Loop
Leah’s Pony – one of my absolute favorite children’s books ever!
Ox-Cart Man
Winnie the Pooh
James Harriot’s “Treasury for Children”
I am a Bunny – mostly for sentimental value, this is the first storybook I read when I was little. 🙂
1. Winnie The Pooh by A.A.Milne
2.Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
3.Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
4. Martha Speaks by Susan Meddaugh
5. A children’s picture Bible.
SO many good children’s books out there, but also a lot of poor ones. Love all the suggestions!
You’ll get to check out some of the suggestions, Bethany! You’ve won a gift card to Amazon or the Book Depository–your choice. 🙂
1. The Prince’s Poison Cup
2. Little House in the Big Woods
3. Curious George
4. Amelia Bedelia
5. (some book of fairy tales)
In no particular order:
1. The Beginner’s Bible OR Read with Me Bible
2. Amelia Bedelia
3. Green Eggs and Ham
4. Anything by Rosemary Wells
5. Little House Picture books
And of course…I will smack my head when I hit “submit” because I’ve missed something really important!
There are too many favorites! Buzz, buzz, buzz is fun. Ms Suzie (the squirrel). Mike Mulligan & MaryAnne!
1. Love You Forever
2. Just Me and My Mom
3. Just go to bed!
4. Go Dog Go! (My boy’s favorite)
5. Hop On Pop( Boy’s second favorite!)
We currently love:
“The Princess & the Kiss”
“Green Eggs & Ham”
“Make Way for Duckling”
“The Princess & The Three Knights”
& “The Foot Book”
Many, many more too! 😉
We love children’s books at our house!! If I had to pick only five….I would keep a Beatrix Potter collection in one book, Richard Scarry’s “Best Storybook Ever” (we *love* this one!), Richard Scarry’s “What Do People Do All Day?” (the old edition that is so hard to find–includes a chapter on a stay-at-home mommy, which I think is so neat), “Good-Night Moon”, and “Poems for the Very Young”.
The first children book that came to my mind was “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”by Laura Numeroff. I also love “Are You My Mother” and most of the common fairy tales growing up. Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Snow White…I still love em!!
Oh … I love children’s books too! I think my favourites (because the stories and pictures are SO beautiful!) are:
“The Candle Family Bible”
“Humphrey’s Corner”
“When Jessie Came Across the Sea”
“Three Young Pilgrims”
“Marguerite makes a Book”
I also like the “My Little House” books that my little sisters loved – the illustrations and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s text are beautiful. And Shirley Hughs’ books for children are lovely too.
In terms of picture books, these five come to mind:
“How My Parents Learned to Eat”, by Ina Friedman
“When Jessie Came Across the Sea”, by Amy Hest
The James Herriot picture books based off his original series
“All the Places to Love”, by Patricia McLachlan
“What Could Be Better than This”, by Linda Ashman
These are more sentimental titles, though, and my daughter is still a bit young for some of them at 2.5 yrs. But we have simpler, fun books like Biscuit or the earlier Henry and Mudge books. 🙂
First of all, limiting it to 5 only would take too many hours of deliberation. I’ll pick the 5 favorites that first came to mind, books I would try to find for my own children if I had any. A few of these titles I’ve looked for just because I’d love to have them for myself and to share with the children I sometimes get to “borrow”. The first Tulips in Holland, Phyllis Krasilovsky; Andrew Henry’s Meadow, Doris Burn; A King for Brass Cobweb, Dawn Watkins; Sylvester the Three-Spined Stickleback, Ethel Barret; Angus and the Ducks or No Roses for Harry or Cranberry Thanksgiving, or Katy and the Big Snow or numerous others. 🙂
When I think of children’s books, I think of Dr. Seuss, the Berenstein Bears, Amelia Bedelia, and Sweet Pickles.These would definitely be my favorites. Anything Veggie Tales is definitely great, too. Older children?…I loved Christy, Anne of Green Gables, and Grandma’s Attic. The Trailblazers series is excellent as well. Too many to name!
Just five? Oh my, I don’t know if I can do that! Definitely Winnie-the-Pooh……can I cheat and put our big ‘Complete Tales and Poems’ on there? Something by Beatrix Potter…..if I could only pick one, it would probably be The Tale of Two Bad Mice. Miss Fannie’s Hat by Jan Karon, a wonderfully sweet book about an elderly lady who has lots of hats! Okay, just two more……hmmmmmm……..the ones that come to mind right now are Eric Carle’s The Grouchy Ladybug and The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.
I LOVE children’s books! My problem is: which is favorite? I have too many favorites! This is going to be fun.