we like: beatrix potter, tasha tudor, janet and allen ahlberg, elsa beskow, gerda muller, maurice sendak, tomie depaola, arnold lobel we do not like: contrived woke books, computer artwork, rhyme schemes without a clear metrical structure, commercially owned intellectual property, condescending shit
Do you have the Frances books
actually oddly no, we've read them at the library but do not own copies and that seems like an oversight
The boys might be a little young still but my son LOVED the magic treehouse books. There's a ton of them, they've been heavily reprinted, and I think you can usually find them pretty cheap.
Tomi Ungerer.
Ezra Jack Keats.
David Weisner is amazing. Just incredible mind blowing paintings.
We got all the Beverly Cleary hits as audiobooks and they were just the background driving noise for years. Extra special as you’re in Portland.
How do you feel about Richard Scarry? Mr. Frimble in particular was my youngesr’s favorite character.
David Weisner was going to be my recommendation. Tuesday was a favorite around here for *awhile*
The piggy and elephant series is really cute!
We are also into Richard Scarry (the thicker anthology fairytale book), Robert Munsch (not the creepy love you forever one), the fairy tales illustrated by Arthur Rackham, the Beverly Clearly Ramona series and the Nate the Great books!
it's probably just mombrain but *i* get a kick out of reading amelia bedelia books. make me laugh
This is a "funny" book, sorry, but an enduring fave in our house was "Stuck" by Oliver Jeffers. Kiddo also enjoyed listening to Tove Jansson's Moomin story "The Invisible Child" around age 3
Esther Averill’s Cat Club books of the kids are ready for some longer stuff, Elisa Kleven’s Paper Princess (as well as her others), the Night Eater, Molly Goes Shopping, the Toot and Puddle books (I’m being serious here), maybe the Tim books about the sailor kid (Tim to the Lighthouse)
Depending on your approach some of these may require light on the fly editing or discussion like lots of older books. 🤷🏻♀️ I could honestly talk about kids books forever now that my kids are grown and I’m about to be a grandma at the tender age of 43.
oh i can do creative reading on the fly yeah, i read them a lot of edward eager, e. nesbit and roald dahl and boy did people use to have a colorful vocabulary, that's all i'll say lol
Yep, I did all of those with my kids and my ability to read ahead while still speaking out loud (developed perhaps because reading was my main activity for so long as a kid and no one respected my occupied status;) really came in handy
If you can find them, Bill Peet wrote and illustrated some fabulous kids' books (in the 60s through 80s - still good stories.). He was a Disney animator (Sword In The Stone, 101 Dalmatians). Another Disney person who did kids' books is Gyo Fujikawa. Her Mother Goose book is 💚💚💚
Oliver Jeffers' books are beautifully illustrated pieces of art (for kids and adults). Not all are specifically little kids' books tho.
oh man I loved every Bill Peet book.
I love the Gyo Fujikawa books. Her illustrations are top notch.
Woke that isn't too too contrived (maybe): The Enemy by Davide Cali and Serge Bloch (might be a bit older than toddler) I like "My Museum" by Joanne Liu -- light on words but its a cute "let's think about art" book that I like for selfish reasons. Look up books illustrated..
..by Christian Robinson, a lot of those titles feel very Sesame Street to me in an old school way. Will repeat the rec of M.Sasek -- check them first, older ones might be racist, but they're such nice "baby's first travel" type books. I like Jill Barklem for little mice in little cottages in...
...a realistic British wood. Cicely Mary Barker I only like for the pictures (beautiful botanically accurate fairy children), the poems are so so, the pictures are the kind you'll imprint on. (Sorry all of these are from an illustration perspective, this was my prior occupation)
Growing up I liked some of the books by Bernard Warber (Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile; House on E 88th St, Ira sleeps over). Also books by William Steig (tho Sylvester and the Magic Pebble kinda broke me becuase it is sorta sad (ends happily))
Another modern one: recently came across "Bog Myrtle" by Sid Sharp and was pleasantly surprised by it. It's long for a picture book, might be a little old for the lads (just in terms of length?) it's more like a comic-chapter book that looks like a pic book. But it's cute.
Oh I'm not seeing Leo Lionni on your list, that's another classic. Swimmy is near and dear to me, but there's a bajillion
Anyway I'll stop. I have a lot more like "beautiful one-off" books in my dragon hoard (i mean..."work ref") I could recommend, but here I was more interested in makers who had Made Many, because I feel like that will get you and the lads further. lmk if you want the list of randos, happy to share
books.google.com/books/about/... This one cracks me up
Not seen on shelf or list: Rosemary Wells' Bunny Planet books (First Tomato, Island Light) and the Gaspard and Lisa books by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben. Big favorite for me, White is For Blueberry, by George Shannon. When they're old enough, The Wee Free Men is a great read-aloud.
to be clear i like books that are organically woke, i hate contrived ones like "activist baby!" designed to be given as gifts at baby showers
bonus points if thriftbooks has included it in their summer reading kids books sale, i need to max this discounted cart out
shel silverstein wrote some bangers
when you haven’t seen a kid’s book since you were a kid
i've read a zillion childrens books since having my child, actually! pretty weird thing to say!
oh i was just kidding because shel silverstein was also from when i was a kid lol
I think I'm too late but I always thought Bear Day by Cynthia Rylant was very cute
i don't think we like "funny" books as much as other families do
We really liked the "Ordinary People Change the World" books by Brad Meltzer (maybe a little old yet for The Lads), everything by Sandra Boynton, Hug Machine by Scott Campbell, and I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
OMG Julia's House for Lost Creatures!
okay i'm getting bread and jam for frances, outside over there, the seven silly eaters, the ox-cart man, abiyoyo, jamberry, emmett otter's jugband christmas, mouse soup, and the cricket in times square, and another copy of the jolly postman for a birthday present for their little friend
Emmett Otter!! 🧡
if you recommended a really good one and it's not in this list it's because we already have it!
here look it's not because i don't like your suggestion unless i didn't lol bsky.app/profile/spin...
I think you'd like the 70s books that were lent us while our daughter was small: a bunch by John Vernon Lord (I mostly remember The Giant Jam Sandwich), as well as My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes by Eve Sutton. (Newer-ish book rec: the rhythm in The Gruffalo is satisfying to read aloud.)
I can't tell if you have Struwwelpeter on your shelf, which I enjoyed as a boy. www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12116
Or Max & Moritz, which has English translations that preserve the verse and meter. I like the 19th century illustrations that go with the stories. www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17161
Charlie & Mouse series, Frog & Toad, Elephant & Piggie (I could write a treatise about the subtle and kind way "I Like Slop" addresses culinary racism). As bedtime books, Wish Tree by Kyo Maclear and Goodnight Everyone by Chris Haughton may both be a bit young-skewing for your kids, but the cadence!
"The Hike" by Alison Farrell makes hikes with kids in Oregon more interesting - so many plants and animals they will see! I see you already have an Usborne lift-the-flap, but I suggest all of them - great car reading. Circling back: Elephant & Piggie has a resurgence in Kinder. Low cost-per-read.
In terms of pure toddler boy joy, Buddy & the Bunnies "Don't Play with your Food" was a HUGE laugh hit, as were "Stop Following Me, Moon!" and "Pine & Boof: the lucky leaf"
Hmm, Florence Sakade's (the anniversary reprint of the 1952? edition) Favorite Japanese Children's Stories and More Favorite Japanese Children's Stories might be a good fit in there; beautiful watercolor and ink paintings for illustrations
Any Kate Beaton books? Ask her stuff is a treasure
*All, curses.
Miss Suzy
you don’t have the sandra boynton books?! dang, those were in heavy rotation with us for YEARS
i just don't really love them! i know everybody else does. more for everybody else!
I get it. It’s about what the kids latch on to *and* what you can read 500 times in a row without wishing for death’s sweet release
Not to be all up in your thread, but agreed! Sandra was great for the very first moments of reading to my kid - at 8 mo-1.5 years, buts they age out quickly.
my 21 month old has about 40 words and one of them is “jamb” because he loves the book “jamberry” so much and always wants us to read it
Outside Over There TERRIFIED me as a child. Like genuine fear.
i know it's scary as shit!!! scared the hell out of me too. but in a good way. that one might go on a high shelf for later
EXCELLENT picks!
HELL YEAH CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE. GOOD CALL, WHOEVER THAT WAS.
A book I loved, but it was a funny book: www.macbarnett.com/triangle
Birdsong is really beautiful
And I met a penguin is cute
Thank you omu and Saturday by the same author are nice. Saturday helped us teach taking deep breaths
James Herriot had a collection of children's books. I'm not totally sure of the age range for them, but I loved Only One Woof when I was a kid.
Caleb Brown poetry books. Zimmerman, “fire fire hurry hurry” is really fun to read out loud.
the Nora series of books by Satomi Ichikawa (not sponsored)
These or anything else from Hazy Dell Press www.thriftbooks.com/w/klyde-the-... www.thriftbooks.com/w/dont-eat-m...
Peter Spier in general is great, his "People " is worth spending time checking out the pictures. A more modern cat book is David Wiesner's "Mr. Wuffles". Both books focus on illustrations.
Let me tell you. I used Harry At (By?) The Sea with my students and they L O V E D
idk if they are in print anymore but I adored the garth pig books as a kid and I think you'd find them fun
Actual woke, not Politician's Kid Had Book Printed
exactly yeah. beautiful stories about people acting bravely and with great love, yes. "the smash the patriarchy ABCs" i can take or fucking leave
Any of Shel Silversteins poem books.
One of my sons loved Runny Babbit, too.
They're a little young for this, but you should buy it and put it on a shelf they'll only see when they're ten.
Do you have the Brambly Hedge books in the states? I feel like those would be up your alley. The Hairy Maclary books are also stone cold classics
Have you tried Bill Peet books? They were my favorite
Ratsmagic and The Magic Circus by Wayne Anderson archive.org/details/rats... www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-magic-...
my favorites are the jenny and the cat club books
i believe the lads are somewhat too young for this book, but say when they are five or six, this is a fantastic little adventure (didn’t read the thread for duplicate so sorry in advance): en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_th...
more age appropriate, this pop up book is incredible: a.co/d/an4cxRb
I'm sorry I can't make any recommendations. I had the ladybird books with the golden spines as a kid, and some Beatrix Potter, but no memory of them having been read to me My dad used to tell me Greek myths as bedtime stories for some reason, which I loved. He ... adapted them some.
But I knew about Medusa and the Trojan Horse and the Sirens and Sisyphus and Pandora's Box and the dude who tried to escape the labyrinth with the minotaur in it but failed(his flying machine was held together with wax and he went too close to the sun) and Prometheus because my dad told me stories.
He also told me the story of three cats who went to space in their cat spaceship and space suits (adapted for cat tails) and it was super exciting because there was a count down and lift off! They went because they'd heard the moon was made of green cheese, so they thought there'd be mice there.
Same cats also went to the bottom of the sea in special dry suits, where they met and made friends with cat fish. I am not making this up but I am pretty sure my dad was.
I think I had some Dr Seuss at my grandparents house. I remember The Lorax, and Stars Upon Thars, and The Pale Green Pants With No-one Inside 'Em.
Icarus! Icarus was the failed labyrinth escape guy.
I guess what I am saying in this rather long tangential aside that doesn't actually answer your question (sorry) is that anything can be a children's story if you are not sure what to say so you just tell a decent story that you happen to know. But these weren't books.
I liked it at the time because I got to spend time with my dad and I am grateful now because I know all these stories that are still kindof cultural references, at least a little bit, despite not having studied them in school and not having gone on a sortof autodidact Classics study spree.
Alice Provensen's Maple Hill Farm series?
“condescending shit” Welp, there go all MY recommendation. 😂
We are working our way through the Caldecott list libraryaware.com/547/Posts/Vi...
this is a great idea! i think we'll do this too
My library also has a bunch of lists by topic and age group so when I don't know what we should read I look at those. cbcpubliclibrary.net/kids/books/
Might I recommend www.simonandschuster.com/books/Lumber...
Recommending my wife’s book because I’m a Wife Guy and also kids love it
Donald Crews does incredible and beautifully designed books about vehicles (try “Freight Train”, “Truck”, “Parade”, “Harbor”). Byron Barton has striking illustrations and great story sense (“My Car” has a great twist, we also love “Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones” and “Machines at Work”)
👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻
everyone knows and loves “The Snowy Day” but Ezra Jack Keats also did a fun series about a kid named Peter (“Whistle for Willie”, “Peter’s Chair”, “Hi, Cat”). Similarly everyone knows Carl the dog but Alexandra Day also did a series called Frank and Ernest where an elephant and bear have jobs
Gail Gibbons has a million well illustrated and very informative nonfiction books about scientific and natural history topics (fruits, veggies, spiders, frogs…) Lois Elhert does lovely collage and paper cut illustrations (try “Planting a Rainbow”, “Eating the Alphabet”, or “Feathers for Lunch”)
A friend of ours introduced us to the Sato the Rabbit series, translated from Japanese, very soothing and quirky. Don and Audrey Wood are GOATs for silly books (King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, Silly Sally, the Napping House)
I could literally do this all day, if you ever want any more please hit me up. There are plenty of dreadful children’s books but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how many great ones are still out there kicking around. I tend to be suspicious of newer books but I’ve found great new ones too!
Robert Munch?
He has a website where he reads a lot of his stories aloud! We used to listen to his stories on tape on long car rides (they were his dramatic readings to audiences of children, much of the website is just him reading aloud iirc - still good) robertmunsch.com
I was a child in Ontario in the 80s. He did those readings at a lot of schools. I saw him at least once.
Yes! He came to my school! We also had a tape of him reading his books.
And therefore I know how to sing "clang clang rattle bing bang, gonna make my noise all day"
Not "I'll Love You Forever" though. The fun ones instead. Usually I try to recommend newer books for kids, but turns out I didn't really like many read aloud picture books type books.
probably because most of them are terrible!
Probably. Though I also found a lot of old books for kids to be terrible.
Llama Llama Red Pajamas is big in our house (and some of the related ones). I feel like you might like Bill Peet. The one woke book I *love* is Dream Big Little Scientists (I agree most of them are garbage).
A lot of Candlewick Press books are beautiful, especially Goodnight Everyone
A.A. Milne Emily Gravett Kes Gray/Jim Field Oi Frog! series
Barbara Cooney, Shirley Hughes, Patricia Polacco, Cynthia Rylant
Russell and Lillian Hoban
These are great answers
It helps when most of the original list is stuff you grew up with so you can just be like "this person has the exact same taste as me and my mom, right"
Yep! Unrelated: did you ever read Russell Hoban’s Turtle Diary (not a kids book)? I feel called to give it a plug if you haven’t.
No, thanks for the tip!
I am very fond of the Never Touch A (monster, dinosaur, dragon) books. And of course the Sandra Boynton ones. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom? I Want My Hat Back?
Oh! Little Owl’s Night! That one is beautiful. Jamberry is also sweet. Sheep in a Jeep, Sheep in a Shop…
