Favorite Children's Books of All Time?

[Arugula Latte]

Mine would include the Phantom Toll Booth, James & the Giant Peach, Misty of Chincoteague (ooooooh, pooooonies), and of course the Dr. Seuss series. Oh, yeah, and the Little House on the Prairie series. And, may I recommend a wonderful, wonderful book that will bring tears to your eyes (I'm partial because it has to do with Oregon a little): "Oregon's Journey." Beautifully illustrated. Pure poetry. I think the author calls himself "Rascal" or some such. He's a European writing about America. Please buy it for any children you know.

[villager]

1. It's a long list, really...

...but includes "Yellow Eyes," "The Crossbreed," Suess, "Suzuki Beane," the Lloyd Alexander Prydain series, and more recently, Chris van Allsburg and Philip Pullman.

And for great brand spanking new kids books, check out Donna Jo Napoli's novel "The Great God Pan," and Otto Siebold's pop-up "Alice in Wonderland."

[MercutioATC]

2. "Where the Wild Things Are"

.

[SaveABug]

3. James and the Giant Peach

was a fun movie. Alas, I never have read the book. I grew up without much of a childhood, but I remember my favorite book being Tom Sawyer when I was just a young lad.

[Lars39]

4. Henry Reed, Inc.

Still one of my favorites. :)

[LanternWaste]

8. Wow!

You are the third person on the ENTIRE planet (myself and a friend being the other two) whom I've met that has even heard of that book.

My god! You've brought back some memories....

Makes me think of...Alvin Fernald, and The Three Investigators, too...lol

[Lars39]

11. It's an older book; I hope it makes a comeback. : )

[mitchum]

20. Make that the FOURTH person on the ENTIRE planet

I remember two of them; The one where he had a babysitting service and another one where he was travelling across the country and his friend (Midge?) thought she saw Tab Hunter at the theme park.

[Salviati]

12. This sounds really familliar

I read so much stuff as a kid, I can't remember it all... What was this one about? (I did just remember reading a whole bunch of the Danny Dunn books though...)

[LanternWaste]

15. Danny Dunn was pretty great too :)

Ahhh....Danny Dunn was up there in my reading list, too. Maybe I wasn't as weird a kid as I thought....lol.

Danny Dunn and the Time Machine being my fav of that series...the one where he meets Ben Franklin...lol :)

[Salviati]

19. Yeah, they were a bit before my time

but my dad got me started reading them. My favorite one (that I can remember) was the one where they built the spacecraft, that one and the one with the remote control dragonfly...

[mitchum]

21. Another great one!

Also remember "Danny Dunn and The Homework Machine" and "Danny Dunn and the Anti-gravity paint"

[Lars39]

16. Good stuff......very dry humor.

Here's a site with descriptions:

http://xaosearch.com/517415/Henry_Reed_Inc..html

I seem to remember the rabbit in the mailbox and the worm farm the best. :)

[KoKo]

5. "Little House on the Prarie" Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder/ Secret Garden

was a favorite, too. .......Many......were my favorites....but those were the ones I still think of today that I learned from......in some way that stayed with me.......

[LanternWaste]

6. Chronicles of Narnia

No doubts. "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis.

And to date, one of my guilty pleasures is bringing them out of the bookshelf, dusting them off and reading them every few years or so...

[Jonte_1979]

52. Ditto

Wonderful books.

[Salviati]

7. I've got a whole list of books with which I'll warp my future children

A partial list of the ones I can think of now:

The Dark is Rising
The Golden Compass
A Wrinkle in Time
The Hobbit
The Black Cauldren
Enders Game
Coraline
Harry Potter
Treasure Island
Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. Alexander's Horrible Rotten Very Bad Day...

Guess How Much I Love You?

Good Night Moon.

The Going To Bed Book

Courduroy

[Catshrink]

10. Yep -- Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Rotten Day

It's awesome for any age. Puts things in perspective ... even in Australia.

[AquariDem]

36. One of my faves too!

:)

[newyawker99]

53. Congrats AquariDem!! 900 posts

:toast:

[LWolf]

13. Agghhh!

You've asked an ex-children's librarian for a list of favorite kid's books. OMG. How about if I just give you some random titles that pop into my head?

Start with just a few of my favorite authors. Just pick a book. Any book by:

Patricia Polacco

Audrey/Don Wood

Cynthia Rylant

Chris Van Allsburg

Dav Pilkey

Gary Paulsen

Jean Craighead George

Robert Munsch

Madeline L'Engle

Susan Cooper

Betsy Byars

Shel Silverstein

Outside of those, here's a few more faves:

Miss Rumphius

The Monster At The End of The Book

Robin William's version of Pecos Bill (Rabbit Ears Production)

Where the Red Fern Grows

Shiloh

The Hobbit

The Harry Potter Books

Hank the Cowdog books!!!!!

Should I go on?

[Arugula Latte]

34. The Monster at the End of this Book

Oh, man, I love Grover. (Oops, I gave away the ending.)

[Rooktoven]

59. And _you_ were so scared...

;-)

[LWolf]

60. LOL

Shhh....

Listen, I have an idea...

[luckyluke]

14. I wish I had children...

...so I could buy them children's books. -ll

[shanti]

17. lots of 'em, as a bookworm kid...

all of the l. frank baum books (oz), edgar rice burroughs books (tarzan, john carter of mars), little house on the prairie series, the three little horses books, black stallion series, misty of chincoteague (me too, lol!) among many others

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

18. I'm showing my age

Winne the Pooh (with the pre-Disney drawings, thank you!)
Through the Looking Glass (and this was before "White Rabbit"!)

[Cheswick2.0]

50. silly old bear

My mother used to read Winnie the Pooh to me. Wonderful illustrations!

[kskiska]

22. An obscure (in America), old Dutch/German children's book

Der Struwwelpeter
von Heinrich Hoffmann



(First story in book of classic gruesome tales and illustrations for children)

Just look at him! There he stands,
With his nasty hair and hands.
See! his nails are never cut;
They are grim'd as black as soot;
And the sloven, I declare,
Never once has comb'd his hair;
Any thing to me is sweeter
Than to see Shock-headed Peter.

more stories…
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/struwwel/struwwel.html

My German landlady remembers this book well. It's a classic in Germany. My mother came across it back in the 40s in a hospital waiting room. It's a book of tales warning children of the dangers of thumbsucking, playing with matches, careless behavior, abuse of animals, and other bad behavior and its consequences.

[KoKo]

24. OMG, Kathy and you're perfectly normal! I loved Grimms fairy tales so I

know where you're coming from....but this book of yours sounds even darker...wasn't it frightening as a child?

Not that Grimms Fairy Tales are a picnic, either! And I read all of the Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow Fairy Tale anthologies...I loved those too...taught about the "realities" of life....even though they were fairy tales. Think it was the fairy tales that made me a "tinfoilhatter" actually.........LOL's

[kskiska]

26. My kids thought Struwwelpeter was "disturbing"

but it never bothered me. I liked Grimm's, too. Glad to have found a kindred spirit, KoKo. We denizens of the night have to stick together.

[KoKo]

63. Our time was grim (Grimm) sort of like today, LOL's kids didn't have that!

Can't explain to folks who don't see it.......

Get your point! Yes.....it's good to know...a few of us out there........

[KoKo]

64. btw, Kathy, your graphic looked like Edward Scissorhands.....I liked that

movie.......and I like Johnny Depp, too. He could portray alot of characters in stories I read as a child....

I love him......see him as a reincarnate of Buster Keaton from the 30's movies (?) I think thirties, anyway....but he's always a great "pantomime." So, in Grimms or your book....he would be so interesting......

Kids really need to see this again....in a form they could relate to......but what do I know about it! LOL's

koko

[marzipanni]

45. Oh, yes, Slovenly Peter!

I'm a 1950 kid and my family had that book, in English. My older brothers and I thought it was funny!. I assumed my grandmother had it when she was little- it looked very old-fashioned. My mom still has it at her house, and my brother dug it out and had my son read parts of it and they had a good laugh.
Another kid whose hairdo resembles Slovenly Peter's is ELOISE- she was my hero when I was 5-6. I had a white puff-sleeved blouse and pleated charcoal grey skirt with button-on suspenders just like hers. This girl made up her ownrules! If you know any 6-year-old girls I'd recommend ELOISE books to them. I took an Eloise book out of the library and my 8-year-old son and I read it together. He thought it was amusing- but he couldn't really imagine himself as ELOISE! I guess it's a girl thing.

http://www.mariebrenner.com/books/eloise.html

[Kellanved]

51. That gets my vote as well (with Max& Moritz not far behind)

There is even a Struwwelpeter Museum and a Struwelpeter Monument in Frankfurt.




And on second Place: Max & Moritz
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/mm/mmmenu.html

[mitchum]

23. Dodie Smith's "101 Dalmations" and Sterling North's "Rascal"

[BrotherBuzz]

25. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

by Virgina Lee Burton. Here's a picture of Mike and his beloved shovel, Mary Anne.

[Catshrink]

29. I loved Mike Mulligan and his Steamshovel!

Thinking outside the box --

[BrotherBuzz]

43. Yes, thinking outside the box...

I hadn't thought of it that way, but it's true. Mike should be an inspiration to our officials today in how to solve some of their problems. Sometimes, you've just got to take a novel approach to make things work. Thank you for that wonderful thought.

[Catshrink]

58. No - thank Virginia Lee Burton

I agree wholeheartedly that "thinking outside the box" would help solve many of our problems in healthcare, education, etc. Rules frequently hinder progress and solutions and stiffle creativity.

[TrogL]

27. Dr. Doolittle series

by Lofting

[Deja Q]

28. "Little Richard"

My favorite aunt always read it to me and I always re-read it. The original book still exists in a closet, but the poor thing's in tatters because it'd been read too much!

My aunt is cool, she always did things to have me try to open my mind. My parents were more interested in making sure I stayed "in line" and well behaved, oh I'm quite the polite little robot. :-( They sheltered me, too. Don't get me wrong, I love them dearly and I'm very close to mum emotionally, but my aunt is the greatest!

I wish I were a child again. There's something about being picked on by the other kids that's more refreshing than being alone as an adult.

[arwalden]

30. Green Eggs And Ham

[Catshrink]

35. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

[Rooktoven]

56. If you want to go bump bump bump

Just jump on the hump of the wump of Gump.

[KCDem]

31. Harold and the Purple Crayon,

Olivia, One Fine Day, The Little House, anything by Seuss, James and the Giant Peach, Where the Wild Things Are... I could go on and on!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

41. Harold's so cool! nm

:-)

[Breezy du Nord]

32. "Matilda"

And the Princess Diaries series are actually pretty good. (What I thought was kinda funny is that the movie was made by Disney and in the book a girl called Walt a misogynist)

[arwalden]

33. Caps For Sale

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

37. Harry Potter

I read the first one, expecting more. But then I realized it is a children's book. A comic without picures. Pretty good, though.

[AquariDem]

38. All four of the A.A. Milne books

I think I've always enjoyed The House At Pooh Corner a little more than Winnie-the-Pooh. It just seemed to go a little deeper, especially in the last chapter, which was a little sad. Of the two poetry books, When We Were Very Young is my favorite. To me it has a certain special magic and freshness.

[Rooktoven]

57. You know, I never read them as a child,

but have to my kids over and over. I don't even have to do the disney voices.

One secret to getting laughs is to realize that Eeyore isn't a lovable sad donkey, but a bit of a self-obsessed jerk.

(Hey, read the originals, it'll back me up.)

[AquariDem]

61. I love the "Britishness" of the originals

Disney completely took that away. The older videos which stuck somewhat to the books were okay (I actually loved those as a kid), but the "New Adventures" are pretty bad.

[morningglory]

75. Yes! and I agree with all the books mentioned,

but my favorites to read to my children were Beatrix Potter's series with her own drawings, with all the British-ness, so foreign to me as a Floridian. The cold, etc. When I was in grades 5-6 I adored Enid Blyton mysteries about 4 children who used "torches" to explore caves and solve crimes and mentioned "dustbins" and "lorries". Great stories. I saw some new ones in Canadian bookstores being posthumously written by someone in Enid's name.

[MarianJack]

39. Mufarro's Beautiful Daughters!

It's an African Cinderella. Beautifully written and drawn.

[Alex146]

40. Harry Potter

[GoddessOfGuinness]

42. Bambi...the Felix Salten version

Very cool stuff. My Dad got mad because I wanted to be a vegetarian after reading that book. (That was next thing to being a commie for a repug in the 60s)

[LibInternationalist]

44. Polar Express

Hands down

[dolo amber]

46. Shel Silverstein

"The Giving Tree" and "A Light in the Attic"...also, P.D. Eastman "Are You my Mother" (which is HYSTERICAL when read out loud with a NYC Jewish accent!! :D) and, much as I HATE to admit it :grr: the stupid "Velveteen Rabbit"...WHY that story still has the power to make me run bawling to the nearest stuffed creature and squeeze the life out of it is beyond me...:eyes:

[newyawker99]

54. Congrats dolo amber!! 300 posts

:toast:

[LosinIt]

47. As a Kid I read a scifi book called "Chocky", anybody hear of it?

It was about a kid that everyone thought had an invisible friend who as I recall was really an alien. This made me think of it. Think I'll go look around the net to see if it is still in print. Think my 12 yr old would enjoy it.
....Back now, here's a review from Amazon:
John Wyndham's Chocky is a rather humanistic story about how a family deals with one son's mysterious unseen friend, Chocky. At first they thought their son was suffering from an over-exercised imagination. Then it becomes plainly that Chocky is real, and is literally from out of this world. Trite? In a way, yes. But I found the characterizations, especially of the parents, to be very well judged. So from a science fiction perspective Chocky doesn't enthrall, but otherwise it stands fairly well on its own.

However I expected much more. John Wyndham has written some very intriguing books which really makes one think of social/environmental issues. The Chrysalids, for me, is his best. Wyndham simply didn't try to achieve such heights with Chocky, which is unfortunate.

Bottom line: a curious and very readable novel. But Wyndham has done much better.

Humanistic, no wonder I liked it. Guess I'll hit the library to see if they have a copy. I'd like to read it again.

[Spirochete]

48. The Henry Huggins books

by Beverly Cleary
The Little Eddie Wilson series, by Caroline Haywood
Old Yeller, Savage Sam
Mrs. Coverlet series


now I feel old...

[AquariDem]

62. I loved Cleary's books..but once, when I was about nine..

I was just finishing getting over the flu, and for some reason I was craving meat like crazy. So I was reading "Henry and Beezus" in bed, and I became stuck on the last chapter "The Boy Who Ate Dog Food." Something about the way Beverly Cleary described that canine cuisine (it wasn't even that long a passage) just fueled my craving even more. Fortunately, my mom picked me up a burger at the local soul food joint. There, aren't you glad I told you this?

[Gemini Cat]

49. My favourite was: "The Little Prince"

By Antoine de Saint Exupery.
I loved that book as a child.

[KoKo]

65. I didn't read "Little Prince" until college....but what a wonderful story.

and what an insight into life.....that book is.......

Thanks for remembering that book.........:-)'s

[KoKo]

66. DU "bug" caused repeat post.....sorry......deleted......

n't

[notadmblnd]

55. The Boxcar Children...

Mrs PiggleWiggle
Pipi Longstockings
Grims' Fairytales
Tom Saywer & Huckleberry Finn
To Kill a Mockingbird

[peacefreak]

67. Tuesday

by David Weisner
Miss Rumphius--Barbara Cooney
Annie & the Wild Animals--Jan Brett
Ferdinand--Leaf

[The Lone Liberal]

68. Every child should be introduced to two books.

One is the Little Prince.
The other is Alice in Wonderland.

The Little Prince is filled with thoughts which should be inculcated into the persona of every human being on earth.

Alice in Wonderland is the most oft quote books for the analogies to which it lends its self.

[annonymous]

69. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

These were two of my all time favorites. Also enjoyed Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries as well as Dr. Suess and Maurice Sendak books.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

70. "A Wrinkle in Time" was my favorite when I was little.

[kimchi]

71. The Boxcar Children.

Little House on the Prairie books are great also.

[greatauntoftriplets]

72. Pippi Longstocking.

Something about her really appealed to me.

:evilgrin:

[BuddhaGirl]

73. Any book by Lois Lenski

I loved her stories - "Strawberry Girl" and "Texas Tomboy" were my favorites!

[Lindsey]

74. Dr. Seuss, "Oh the Places You'll Go"

an incredible book (it's written mainly for kids who are leaving kindergarten and going to the first grade, but I think adults get just as much out of it as the kids do; if not more) Here's some of the finer points:

...You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.
...Except when you don't
Because, sometimes, you won't
I'm sorry to say so but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.
...You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbows and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

...oh, the place you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball, will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame!You'll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on T.V.
..except when they don't. Because sometimes, they won't.
I'm afraid that some times you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win...'cause you'll play against you.

I cry every time I read this (however, it does have a happy ending as we hope our own lives will!)