Reading is a wonderful way to stimulate your children’s minds, teach them great lessons, open up new worlds, and give them a life-long interest in learning.
If your children are young, reading aloud also provides a great opportunity to spend quality time together — plus, if you get most of your books free, reading is an incredibly frugal pastime!
We love books at our house. We don’t have a lot of children’s toys, but oh do we enjoy books!
Our children never tire of being read to. And since I’m often asked for children’s book recommendations, I’ve compiled 15 of my all-time favorite read-alouds below. These are books that we’ve read over and over and over again. Many of them might already be on your own shelves, but I hope you’ll discover a few new ones, too.
1. Goodnight Moon
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This is one of family’s most-read books. In fact, I’m pretty sure every single one of us have this entire book memorized by heart. We can also can tell you every little detail on every square inch of every page. But that’s perfectly okay, because it’s such a great classic book. |
2. The Seven Silly Eaters
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This book was sent to our family by a blog reader and it has become one of the most-requested read-alouds by our girls. It’s a fun — and sometimes a bit over-the-top — book about life in a bustling household. |
3. Because I Love You
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If I had to pick a favorite book from all the children’s books we own, I’m pretty sure this book would be it. It’s a beautiful story of God’s love for us — even when we were yet sinners. It touches me every time I read it to the girls and opens up lots of opportunities for me to explain truths about God. |
4. The Bear That Heard Crying
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This is a true and fascinating story from 1783. A 3-year-old girl gets lost in the woods and is saved by a bear — yes, I said a bear. The girls are always in awe and ask dozens of questions when we read this one. |
5. The Story of Ferdinand
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The children never tire of this story and it always produces a plethora of questions on bull-fighting, bees, and everything in-between. |
6. Keep the Lights Burning Abbie
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Kathrynne loves this story and so do I. It’s a beautiful tale of a girl who shows great responsibility and determination to stick to her commitments — in spite of great difficulty. |
7. Caps for Sale
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Despite how many times we’ve read this book, it never ceases to capture the girls’ complete attention. They find it fascinating. Plus, it offers lots of opportunities for us to discuss entrepreneurialism and how “way back when” people really had to get creative when it came to earning a living. |
8. Bless the Lord: The 103rd Psalm
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With absolutely gorgeous and detailed artwork, this book contains the rich phrases of the Psalm 103. If your children are anything like mine, they will want to spend a great deal of time just studying the pictures. |
9. The Gingerbread Boy
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This story always captures the girl’s attention and keeps it the entire time. While it’s not a realistic story, it’s still a fun book to read — and the pictures are enjoyable, too. It’s also a great way to teach your children about the fact that some people can pretend to like you or have your best interests in mind, when really, they are out to hurt you. |
10. The Cow Who Fell in the Canal
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This book is such a fun read! The pictures are colorful, the story line is engaging and it also opens up opportunities to introduce your children to how different people in different countries live. |
11. Any and All Books By Lois Lenski
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Hand’s down, Lois Lenski is one of our very favorite children’s authors — it’s simply impossible for me to narrow down our favorites to just one or two of her books. I grew up on her books and have been delighted to share them with my children, as well. |
12. The Jesus Storybook Bible
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We’ve searched high and low for quality children’s Bible story books — ones that are accurate, doctrinally sound, and not filled with nonsense and fluff are hard to find. I apprehensively ordered The Jesus Storybook Bible based upon the strong recommendations of friends I trust. It has since become our most treasured read-aloud. The girls would pick this over any other book any day. |
13. Curious George Books
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No book list is complete without mentioning the Curious George books. I first introduced the girls to them when I was pregnant with Silas and very sick with morning-noon-and-night sickness. The girls would ask me to re-read the Curious George books again and again. And to this day, it’s not changed! Anytime I ask them to go pick out books to read, you can be sure there will be at least one Curious George title in the mix. |
14. Little House on the Prairie
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We’ve already read through The Complete Little House Nine-Book Set, but we also love the My First Little House books, as well. We’ve had so many great discussions on how blessed we are to live with so many modern conveniences and how important it is to have a strong work ethic — all thanks to the Little House books. |
15. Little Jewel Books
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I highly recommend the Little Jewel books, especially for younger children. They are fun to read and full of great character lessons that even very small children can understand and apply. |
A Few More Honorable Mentions
I had trouble narrowing our list of favorite books down to 15, so here are a few more we really enjoy:
- The Little Animal books by Judy Dunn
- Blueberries for Sal
- The Courage of Sarah Noble
- Make Way for Ducklings
- A is for Adam
One resource I’ve used extensively to find quality books to read-aloud to my children is the Hand That Rocks the Cradle: 400 Classic Books for Children. It has excellent reviews and book summaries, as well as dividing up all the books by three different reading levels.
What are your favorite children’s books?
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We love Goodnight Moon in our house. I have been reading to my daughter since I found out I was pregnant. We read every night and its such a great way to bond with your child. I have read so many parenting advise columns and they all say reading is the best free gift you can give your child.
That’s such a special tradition! -Jordan, MSM Team
Who is the author for The Little Jewel Books? I know this is an old post, but the link is not pulling up those books. Thanks!
Llama Llama Red Pajama is becoming one of my favorite read aloud books. I love the rhyming in it!
Hi! I have been reading with my 6 yr old grandson practically since birth, and he started reading at around 3 y.o. I just wanted to mention Mo Willems books about “Elephant & Piggie”, which he just loved/loves (still)! there are many in the series. I heard that the newest one, “The Thank You Book” is the last one he will write, which made my grandson kinda sad. He also liked Willems “Pigeon” books and “Snufflebunny” books.
Reading is a good thing. Throughout toddlerhood and preschool, your child is learning critical language and enunciation skills. Early reading for toddlers has been linked to a better grasp of the fundamentals of language as they approach school age. Thanks for sharing these 15 must read books.
I absolutely love anything by Patricia Polocko. Also, as a little girl, I had a book about a garden by Kate Greenaway. I remember how I loved the poems and the pictures. The dresses the girls wore were so pretty. I haven’t seen that book in years. I was also a fan of about any book in our school library that smelled musty. The mustier the smell, the better the story. I would also advise every mom read the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series.
Great List. I was looking for children books for the must reading book list for my students. And I go through your blog via Google. You have maintained your blog very well with the nice information in it. I really like your way of writing and list of children books. Thanks for this amazing blog.
Why people still use to read news papers when in this technological globe everything is
existing on net?
Click, Clack, Moo- Cows that Type was a favorite at our house. Also, quite a few of the Dr Seuss books- Mulberry Street, Cat in the Hat, ABC’s…..
“Just Like Mama” by Beverly Lewis is a beautiful picture book set on an Amish farm, where 10 year old Susie wants to be just like her mother. Her mother wisely points her to Jesus!.
Claire
I’m a children’s librarian, so I have too many favorites to list. Some of the books I like from the last decade or so are “Tough Chicks” by Cece Meng, “I Love You, Stinky Face” by Lisa McCourt, “Bringing Down the Moon” by Jonathan Emmett, and everything by Mo Willems and Sandra Boynton.
That is an awesome list! We are currently working our way through the little house books and I still have the books I read from when I was a kid! So fun to pass on those traditions.
I was so excited to see “Farming with Father” on your list! I happened to be Christmas shopping at a local Amish store here in Northern Indiana. We live on a farm, so my 3 kids relate to the book. I love the old-time, vintage look and wording of the book.
I was looking into the Jesus Storybook Bible on Amazon because our Pastor recommended it. I read the bad reviews and it did concern me a bit, then I read the pages that were available to read online and I was concerned about the Adam and Eve story where it basically implied that Eve sinned because she thought God didn’t love her and then it said all men would think that God didn’t love them, or something to that effect. First of all, not sure where the author came up with that, second of all, I am worried that would plant the thought in my daughter’s head that there is even a chance that God couldn’t love her. What is your experience with that portion of the book?
My dad went to school with the author of the bear book. 🙂
Three favorites of our is “You Are Special,” by Max Lucado and “I Love You, Stinky Face,” by Lisa McCourt and “The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything,” by Megan Llyod. My kids want to read them over and over.
We always loved “Watch out! Big Bro’s coming! ” by Jez Alborough. It’s hilarious!! My daughter is 9 and my son is almost 16, and we’ll still read this every once in a while and it never fails to crack us up! We also love “Bob”, a very cute and funny story about a rooster trying to find his “crow” by Tracey Campbell Pearson. And last, “Don’t Fidget a Feather!”, a hilarious story about a gander and a duck trying to avoid being a fox’s dinner.
Blueberries for Sal was one of those books I bought for my son because of my fond childhood memories of this book. Just as sweet as I remember. My son practically has book memorized.
Current favorites in our house:
Go to Sleep, My Love and On the Night You Were Born
Noah and the Mighty Ark published by Zonderkids
One of my favorite books for its encouraging message, awesome rhymes, and wonderful illustration is IGGY PECK ARCHITECT. Very different from standard children’s books but I read it over and over. I love that Iggy (the main character) learns that it is okay to be different and passionate about something!
thank you so much for posting this list and all the comments! i’ve ordered many from your list, so grateful because we love books here too. another one to add to the list is “My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God’s Word in Little Hearts” by susan hunt, we’ve been reading it daily at breakfast. it has a bible verse, a short story, and questions to ask at the end. we also like the “help me be good” series by joy berry – good moral value short stories on everything from lying, tattling, selfishness, etc. excellent to read to the preschool age.
I love the Llama Llama books! They’re so fun to read.
My son is also fascinated by the books by Ali Mitgutsch. They’re all about how things are made, like From Sand To Glass, From Cotton To Pants, or From Clay To Bricks. He’s 4 and really into trucks and factories and stuff.
He’s also all about Curious George. I think he can relate to that trouble making monkey!
My daughter really liked James Herriot’s Treasury for Children by James Herriot. It is a chapter book but I started reading it to her when she was 6 and we really enjoyed it. We also read most the books you mentioned and my son who is almost six really enjoys the little house books. I will have to include some of the books here for my son that we have not read yet. Also the Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne my son just loves these too.
I’m glad I am not the only mom who has read Little House to my little girls. My oldest just turned 5 years old, and we’ve read Through On The Banks of Plum Creek. I’ve put them down for a while, since by the time By The Shores of Silver Lake takes place, Laura is so much older and my 3 and 2 year old seemed really bored.
Love your list. A few recent favorites of our almost 3 year old and 18 month old. A Sick Day for Amos McGee. (We had to purchase this after checking it out from the library at least 12 times!) Polly Dunbar’s Tilly and Friends books. Stars (can’t think of the author) is a great evening alternative to Goodnight Moon or I Took the Moon for a Walk. And, let’s not forget the classics: Anything by Virginia Lee Burton-The Little House is an absolute favorite and Corduroy.
Favorites… the list is long but here are a few… The Giving Tree and any other Shel Silverstein book, Dr. Seuss books especially the Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight?, Charlotte’s Web, Frog and Toad books/stories. Books are my weakness and I generally have to stay away from retail book stores or I might go broke!!! The library, yard sales, hand me downs and used book stores save me/us!!!! 🙂
THe Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn was my oldest sons favorite book & my 5 year old loves it the most also.
Its especially a great book for kids entering school.
It is about the cutest racoon Chester and being afraid to start school and being away from his mother.
The illustrations are also beautiful.
There is a book called “I’ll love you forever” This is a great book
Any suggestions for beginning chapter books for my daughter? She/we don’t like the ones with witchcraft and spells or other scary themes. I’m just looking for a nice series on animals or something innocent like that. She’s at a level 2 probably… can handle 6-8 sentences per page. Thanks!
Has she read the Little Bear series or Frog and Toad? Those are both good for beginners. My son read through both when he was starting out. They are nice stories. We don’t do scary either.
No. We’re just getting into this stage so I’m not really familiar with what’s out there. Thanks for those suggestions! I’ll look into those.
My 6 year old daughter loves the Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park about a lively girl and her adventures in kindergarten and first grade. We’ve read them numerous times. She also loves The Littles series by John Peterson about a tiny family that lives in the walls of a normal family’s house. Although we usually read together, she can read them fine on her own.
Two of my very favorite children’s books are 11-year-old author Maddie Blank’s book “Running Free” (available at Amazon, a chapter book) and “God Gave Us You” by Lisa Tawn Bergren.
I love “A Mother for Choco.” It’s about a little bird who is adopted by a bear and has a great message about being a family even though you might not look alike. I read it to my daughter’s 2nd grade class after a boy told her that I wasn’t her “real” mom….
We’ve read almost all of the books on that list over the years. I would add Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, as it is a favorite right now, and Pete’s A Pizza for our four year old. We love books so much at our house that our shelves are overflowing. There is just nothing better than curling up and reading a good book! Enjoying books is the best gift we can give our children after teaching them about the Lord. Thanks for the list of wonderful stories! I think we need to reread a few of these today.
Adding to the list w/ some of our family favorites
Winnie the Pooh, Corduroy, anything by Beatrix Potter but especially Peter Rabbit, Dr. Seuss, the ‘classic’ Golden Books series (Saggy Baggy Elephant, Rolly Polly Puppy, Scuffy the Tugboat, etc)….and that’s only to name a few!
Max Lucado’s You Are Special. I love, love, love it. The Monster at the End of this Book was a favorite for both my husband and me. It’s so fun!
My children have never had one book that we had to read over and over again.
I think the Jesus Storybook is going to find its way here at Easter.
I see the Jesus Storybook Bible is a favorite of many. We love that here, too. A really neat thing we discovered this year is that if we start at the beginning of the book on the first day of Lent, we will be finishing Lent off with the Easter story, right on time!
I don’t know if anyone mentioned these beautiful book yet or not, but The Quiltmaker’s Gift and The Quiltmaker’s Journey are wonderful picture books. http://www.amazon.com/The-Quiltmakers-Gift-Jeff-Brumbeau/dp/0439309107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331788377&sr=8-1
With your heart for giving, Crystal, I think you and your family would appreciate the message of these books.
wooops, I meant to add a new comment, not reply to the one above. Sorry!
One of our favorites has become “I Must Have Bobo!” I randomly picked it up at a used book sale and we fell in love with it. (What’s not to love about a book featuring a cat named Earl?) I wrote a little review of the book here: http://www.the-homestyle.com/2011/09/15/i-must-have-bobo/
Charlottes Web!
LOVE that you included the Jesus Storybook Bible. I don’t think there is a single book we’ve read that has opened our eyes to the truth of the Gospel more than this one. Definitely a MUST have for any family!
We’ve read most of those books. It’s so fun hearing my preteens and teenagers read to my 2 year old books that I read to them and point out their favorite parts. They really do remember all the hours you spend reading to them. Such a great investment of your time.
For the last year or so we’ve listened to The 39 Clues series in the car. It’s such a fun (although not christian) series but I think the audio is better than the book.
Is the Jesus Storybook appropriate for a 6 year old?
My oldest is 6 years and requests listening to the CDs.
We read the Jesus Storybook Bible to our 2 and 3 yo. For full disclosure I should add that we have trained them to listen to stories since birth though, so it depends on the child’s attention span and taste for listening to stories. We have read some of the stories to our 2 and 3 yo Sunday school class and they can often follow along, though some of them don’t have the attention spans of our children.
Even if you simplify the wording though, children will love it bc the pictures are beautiful!
Honestly, I feel that children can handle a lot more than we give them credit for – so go ahead and try it out. You may be surprised!
We use it with my almost 6 year old for bedtime every night. Each of the stories is 3-4 pages long with colorful illustrations. I love the fact that it focuses on God loving us from the very beginning. It shows throughout the book that even though we sinned and there were natural consequences for that sin (pain, death, etc.) that God had a plan to rescue us.
Yes. We got it for my son at 3.5 years old and sometimes we have to read a story over 2 nights. But he comprehends fine.
Thank you all. I am ordering this for Easter for my Granddaughter today. She is 6, loves to read and lives 8 hours from me so I’ve been looking for a good story bible for her. Thanks again.
I am an elementary school librarian and although the ones mentioned here are wonderful and true classics, I wanted to mention a few of the newer ones. Just from 2011: A Ball For Daisy; Blackout; Me, Jane; Grandpa Green (all Caldecott winner or honor books); The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse; Blue Chicken; Perfect Square; Brother Sun, Sister Moon.
Also, not as new but just as good, the Bear books by Karma Wilson (and also The Cow Loves Cookies and Frog in the Bog), How Rocket Learned to Read, all the David Wiesner books; all the David Shannon books (especially No, David!) all the Cynthia Rylant books (I always cry at Silver Packages), all the Tomie De Paola books, all the “If you Give A …” books by Laura Numeroff, all the Rosemary Wells books. Too many to list!
We love Karma Wilson’s books!
Great books on your list! We also have loved the Frog and Toad series. Such sweet friends.
Here is my blog post on our top 20 favorite books! 🙂 I love Crystal Bowman, please check out her books if you haven’t ever seen or read them! 🙂
http://mylittlebitoflife.com/?page_id=152
The Giving Tree is one of my favorite books. 🙂 Goodnight Moon is a classic–love that one, too!
We love the Jesus Storybook Bible as well! My oldest loves being read the stories and often flips through it just to look at the great artwork and “read” the stories himself.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney is awesome for 3rd grade boys on up. For middle school boys, I recommend the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
Courdroy books are popular with my daughter. She is also in a smurf phase and we got her some books. I wouldn’t consider blue figures running from gargamel high quality learning books though.
That is a good list! I have read Keep the Light Burning,Abbie,as well as most of the curious George and Little House books. And we’ve also read most of the Little Jewel books,and Farming with Father, God’s World and Johnny, Blueberries for Sal, The Courage of Sarah Noble and Make Way for Ducklings.
Here are two great new children’s books:
http://www.clp.org/product/the_night_the_angel_came_2779
http://www.clp.org/product/danny_the_workhorse_2778
To see all children’s books sold on that site,click here: http://www.clp.org/store/browse/49_children
enjoy!
~Alison of http://sendasong.etsy.com
Our current family read aloud is Mary Poppins Comes Back. They love that Jane and Michael are familiar characters with Mary Poppins. It’s all the fun of the original Mary Poppins, in a sequel!
The Pinkalicious Series, If you give a … , Anything Dr. Seuss and any Eric Carle. We are starting the Junie B Jones books.
I used the Better World Books voucher that was available to order the first two boxed sets of the Junie B. Jones books for my middle child. She’s about to turn 3, but she’s extremely gifted and is pretty well leaving Dr. Seuss behind at this point. My oldest (now 14) LOVED Junie B. Jones, so I figure that Meghan will love them, too!
I also LOVE and would highly recommend the Jesus Storybook Bible. My kids also love all the Berenstain Bear books and my daughter loves Amelia Bedelia. Another author who we love is Sandra Boynton.
We love Hermie, The Common Caterpillar by Max Lucado and all The Bernstain Bears book.
Make Way for Ducklings by McCloskey
The Last Wild Witch by Starhawk and Smoky and the Feast of Mabon by Catherynne M. Valente and W. Lyon Martin are wonderful books. I’m getting them for my neice.
For older kids I highly recommend the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody. “The Home Ranch” was strictly a read aloud so that I could edit the cowboy language! I would say you should wait on these until age 10-12 depending on the maturity level of your child. They are great read alouds and we could hardly get the kids to go to bed at night when we were reading these in the evening.
Also meant to mention one of my sons all time favorite books is Oh,The Thinks You Can Think by Dr. Seuss. He is one of our favorite authors. My house is filled with so many Dr. Seuss books.
My son and I enjoy reading Tiki Tiki Tembo and The True Story Of The Three Little Pigs By A.Wolf. I remember reading those as a child and I am happy I can enjoy them with my son now.
So I asked my son what his favorite book is (he is 7) and for the last few years he has fallen in love with The Dangerous Journey – it has been on his favorites list since he was 5. I enjoyed the book, but my son LOVES it and we read it all the time. The book is a paraphrase of the classic Pilgrims Progress, but written so younger children can understand what is happening.
I am in awe at how much of life my son relates to this book, he’ll make comments like “Christian struggled with taking the easy way out, I’m going to make sure I obey God and follow the right path…” I am not sure a girl would love it as much, but Dangerous Journey is at the top of his list. You can listen/watch it on youtube if you want to check it out before you buy it.
We definately love Good Night moon, but a family favorite of ours is Fox in Socks, by Dr Suess. Makes for many giggles from our girls!!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE anything by Chris Van Dusen, especially the Magee books! He is a current author, but his books have a very distinct vintage feel. You gotta check them out 🙂
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Dr. Suess! Green Eggs and Ham is a favorite in our house! Since it is easy for kids to memorize, they can almost read it themselves without knowing they are really reading!!
Another favorite is the Gruffalo, Magic Tree House Books and Pocket of Kisses.
My son’s favorite right now is the The Three Little Pigs version that is in the big Disney Story Book. Unfortunately, we only have 2 books of the ones you listed above. Time to get some books!
All of the ones you listed are wonderful. The Ox Cart Man, Roxaboxen, Little Quack, Sarah Morton’s Day, Mad Maddie Maxwell, and Do You Know What I’ll Do? are just a handful of some of our personal favorites. 🙂
We are also reading the little house books. My girls also enjoy books by Lois Lenski. Last summer we read We Live in the Country.
I have to mention “A Hive of Busy Bees” by Effie M. Williams. It is a collection of short stories about a brother & sister and their adventures one summer on their grandparent’s farm. Their Grandmother tells them a new “BEE story” each evening, such as “BEE Obedient” or “Bee Grateful.” It has been one of our kid’s favorite story collections since they were little bitty. We had 4 children (not our own) stay with us for an extended period of time and they fell in love with “A Hive of Busy Bees.”
I saw several that we like mentioned but not these: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, and several more in series
KellyH
You really should read The Pickle Patch Bathtub by Frances Kennedy. It’s about some industrious children who spend an entire summer growing and selling cucumbers in order to buy their Mama a REAL bathtub. It’s a keeper in our house!
Yeah, I love Lois Lenski! I grew up reading them (because I think my mom did as well) and always look for them at the library book sale.
Let Me Hold You Longer by Karen Kingsbury is truly moving! I bought the edition that had the CD with it where she reads it to you… it made me cry the first time I heard it. Then I played it for my mom and it made her cry. I will read it to my kids as they grow up and then pass it on. It is amazing!
My children are a little older, so the lists we have enjoyed are a little different from the one included here; however, I just feel like you cannot go wrong with the read aloud lists from Sonlight homeschool curriculum co. We have used them every year and my oldest son is in fourth grade. They provide a vehicle for conversation and encourage a love for reading that is absolutely wonderful. There have been very few on their lists that were not a hit with us.
Little Critter books are popular ’round these parts! We love goodnight moon too!
We LOVE Roar of a Snore. It’s funny and has rhyming which I happen to love in children’s books. 🙂
I have the Jesus Story Book Bible on CD in my van. My kids will sit absolutly silent for as long as I have it on…..even after we are parked at home! Defanently worth investing in the CDs.
I totally agree! My son, has in turned memorized it! Great bible and CD!! Well worth the extra cash to buy the audio addition!
We love the Jesus Storybook Bible and actually have the audio cd version as well so we can listen to it in the van. My son is 7 years old and on the autism spectrum. He has recently accepted Jesus as his personal savior and I believe listening to that book has helped make his need for God’s rescue plan understandable to him. You have listed several books I’m not familiar with and look forward to trying!
The Dave Ramsey Junior series!
Love you Forever is a great book!
Stella Luna by Janell Cannon is a really cute book about a baby bat who gets lost from her mom and winds up living with a family of birds also Twaddletons Cheese by Ryan Higgins is really funny
Our favorite include:
You are my I Love You
Stone Soup
The Little Engine That Could
Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
My son’s favorite book that we read every night for probably close to a year was God Knows My Name by Debby Anderson. Great book filled with Scripture, fun pictures, and will probably become your child’s favorite book too!
I agree! Fabulous book!
Lisa you stole mine! My daughter loved anything by Sandra Boynton when she was a toddler. Now that she’s older, she loves the Pinkalicious series.
Llama Llama!
I am a former pre school teacher… my list of ‘must haves’ is very long! I was HUGE into reading to my students.
Some of my recomdations:
The “NO DAVID!” series books,
For older children, if you can find them, are the Water Magic book and the series that goes along with it. THere are 5 books and they cover all the natural Elements… Fire, Water, Wind, Air and Electricity I believe.
Rainbow Fish is a definate!
Down By the Cool of the Pool by Tony Mitton
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
(This was a personal favorite of mine when I was a child!)
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
Strega Nona by Tomie De Paola
(Strega Nona is a wonderful book as well!!)
I hope I have introduced you to new ones!!
Katie
I would add The Chronicles of Narnia, and Time for Bed.
http://www.amazon.com/Time-Bed-Mem-Fox/dp/0152010661/ref=sr_1_34?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331760963&sr=1-34
Thank you so much, looking forward to checking these out! One of our everyday reads is 365 Bible Bedtime Stories!
http://www.amazon.com/Bedtime-Bible-Story-Book-Read-aloud/dp/1557482640/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331760739&sr=8-1
Anything by Mo Willems, especially the Piggie and Elephant books, and the Pigeon books. So much fun to read them aloud! 🙂
Mo Willems is our favorite, too! My boys are older (in 4th grade) but still love Pigeon, Piggie and Elephant.
Yes yes yes! I have a bit of a crush on Mo Willems, he’s so awesome. I laugh hysterically every time I read Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.
All of the Llama Llama books! Llama Llama Misses Mama helped my little one with separation anxiety in a big way! We love all of the Sandra Boynton books, too.
My son adores How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, and Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems.
Our favorite read aloud book for our kids is Fool Moon Rising by Kristi and T. Lively Fluharty.
http://www.amazon.com/Fool-Rising-Kristi-Lively-Fluharty/dp/1433506823/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331760277&sr=8-1
There are so many great books it is hard to choose.
Actually one of my very favorites is A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson- but it must be the one that Tasha Tudor illustrates. It is gorgeous. A great introduction to poetry. We read a few a day until we finished it and still go back through. The kids were much more open to poems after that.
My son has loved the Virginia Lee Burton stories. We have to read Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel and Katy and the Big Snow often. He also enjoyed Pinocchio, Charlotte’s Web and Mr. Popper’s Penguins (nothing like the silly movie) very much.
Other favorites are A.A. Milne’s Pooh series, Beatrix Potter, All Robert McCloskey, All of the Little Bear series by Else Holmelund Minarik, The Story about Ping, Roxaboxen, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Little Engine that Could, and a beloved one- The Tale of Three Trees- a beautiful story about three trees that grow up to be Jesus’ manger, boat, and the cross. We love that one!
I too LOVE the Jesus Bible Storybook. It is the most excellent bible storybook out there. We have the audio CD and my kids listen nightly.
I love children’s books! I teach 1st grade and here are some of my favorites:
-The Giving Tree (Almost makes me cry…the kids think I’m crazy.)
-Amelia Bedelia (It’s fun when the kids finally start getting the jokes!)
-Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Classic.)
-Strega Nona (I always love Tomie dePaola’s illustrations)
-Sweet Tooth (Hilarious! It’s a great book to do funny voices with.)
-Any of the Frances books (like “Bread and Jam for Frances” or “A Bargain for Frances”).
So many more!! I love reading these books to kids.
The little house books are great, my son loved Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel, thats an oldie but a goodie. Also, Goodnight Moon, The little bear books and Where the wild things are, just to name a few.
Mike mulligan is great! We bought the cd and my oldest listened to it every night as he went to sleep. I love all of Virginia lee Burton’s books–The Little House, Katy the Snowplow, etc. They are my favorite to read.
Completely agree with you about the Jesus Storybook Bible. A friend of mine recently recommended it, so we purchased it for our daughter for Valentine’s Day. WE.LOVE.IT!!!
Absolute musts in our home have been:
You Are Special (Max Lucado). This book has a profound message; that what others think doesn’t matter. Only what God thinks matters (“The dots only stick if you let them.”)
Going to Sleep on the Farm (Cheyette Lewison)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8f8pxo6rBw
Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me (Eric Carle)
Definitely The Story of Ferdinand (which so beautifully describes one of my children). 😉
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
A Cranberry Thanksgiving.
Our household is all about books and reading!
Goodnight, Moon is also a favorite in our household. I’ve read it so many times over the past nearly 3 years that I’ve got it memorized and can tell it to the kids while driving in the car.
My absolute favorite children’s book is Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak. It is absolutely beautiful, both in story and illustration.
The Eric Carle books are good to read to much smaller children. Mine both like The Very Busy Spider a LOT.