While She Knits - Kiddie Korner

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

Last time I asked about comfort books, and this is almost more a specified version of that question.

What are your favorite childrens' books? I mean picture book/early reader style children's books, not middle grade.
What were your favorites?

And, of course, WHY?

Have you given up picture books? Or do you still occasionally pick up a Berenstein Bears if it's one you never saw before?

*guilty!* 

Comments

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I never read picture books any more, but my absolute favourite when I was a kid was 'The Patchwork Cat'.

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

They won't let me reshelve the children's books at work unless they're absolutely desperate, because last time I think it took me two+ hours. I am a complete sucker for good illustration.

Chris Conover's The Wizard's Daughter is one of my favorites.

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

Well, my mom's favorite is Tommy at the Grocery Store. I think it's because it's so bizarre. The mother leaves her child at the store and people think he's various products: "he's a potato! he has eyes!" and such.

As for me, I love the Chris Van Allsburg (so does she) ones. Oh, oh, and the Little Dog books. We still say "Little Dog, Little Dog, that is not for you!" at each other in my family.

[cleo]

There is a children's version of "The Cantebury Tales" that is beautifully illustrated. I used to love it just because of the pictures. I always loved "Owly" too...and even moreso now because my little boy loves it. It's nice that my copy has lasted that long.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I don't read them anymore, but the Mog books.

They got me liking cats, I think

[keestone.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh! So many books!

East of the Sun and West of the Moon as retold and illustrated by Mercer Mayer is still a favorite (points to icon). Spectacular beauty of the illustrations aside, I loved that the girl was the one who went on the quest to save the prince. (Dude. If I were some sort of biological reductionist, I'd be looking for the feminism gene.)

There were two absolutely beautiful picture books in my local library where I grew up that I'd love to track down. One was a retelling of the Demeter and Persephone myth, the other was a story about Harlequin getting his distinctive costume (oh, hey! It looks like it was Harlequin and the Gift of Many Colors illustrated by Remy Charlip). And, there was a gorgeous retelling of Tam Lin that totally started my obsession with versions of that ballad.

I also loved Tomie De Paola's Strega Nona stories, Nana Upstairs Nana Downstairs, The Clown of God, and I could have sworn he did a book about the swallows of San Capistrano, but I can't any references to it. Tomie came to a local bookstore when I was tiny, and he taught us how to draw sheep!

Let's see... what else? Practically anything by Maurice Sendak or Dr. Seuss (particularly Fox in Socks ... evil children love to make their parents read that out loud fast). I think all my siblings learned to read on Go Dog Go, and I can still make family members laugh by saying "Hello, do you like my hat?" at random. We also had a beautiful but fragile and unwieldy edition of Andersen's fairy tales that had belonged to my Grandmother.

[keestone.livejournal.com]

Ack! I missed a close tag there.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Yes, I too loved Fox in Socks and Go Dog Go, as well as all things Maurice Sendak. Also Ferdinand the Bull and Bedtime for Frances (and the other Frances books). I discovered Tomie de Paola as an adult, and The Art Lesson makes me choke up every time I read it, seriously. Bill and Pete are also big de Paola favorites. Allan Ahlberg's The Bravest Ever Bear was probably Wildcat's favorite. I also love Kate Banks and Georg .... oh, shoot, I'm going to have get back to you on his last name, sorry. And, as Leslie mentioned a few weeks back, The Big Jump.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Georg Hallensleben.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Haha, Wildcat liked Mog. My husband hated them and kept threatening to throw them out when she wasn't looking. I rather liked Mog and the way she thought "dark thoughts."

[hikari-cyhan.livejournal.com]

I don't have any of my picture books on hand right now, since they're all at home, so the title may be different...but I've always loved Jesse Crosses the Sea. It's about an immigrant girl coming to America from some non-specified European country during the early twentieth century. Even back when I was little, I thought the art was absolutely gorgeous.

Also, I don't know if these are early reader or not, but I am a HUGE American Girl fan. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

[savvywriter.livejournal.com]

I like Green Eggs and Ham. My little brother Samuel (4) likes to read the part of Sam-I-Am, and I read the other guy.

I'm also liked a book called "No Flying in the House" about a little girl who was part fairy and had a white dog named Gloria who was three inches high and could talk.

[savvywriter.livejournal.com]

OH yeah, and Winnie the Pooh (the original stories). *cheesy grin*

[traboule.livejournal.com]

Hey, do you have an Amazon link or something for the Canterbury Tales? I think I know someone who's looking for that edition - or at least a beautifully-illustrated children's version.

[boxofpencils.livejournal.com]

yay a topic i'm very familiar with :D

1. the boy who was raised by librarians by carla morris

i feel any description i try to give this book will do it a great injustice! but it's my favourite book to just curl up with and daydream (though since it's a picture book, it's very short). it's about melvin who loves books and finds comfort in the orderliness and the vast knowledge of the library and it's librarians. hmm. yeah i was right, that description did not do it justice. *sigh*


2. the giving tree by shel silverstein

classic! i love how it has something for every age group. i read it to my students (who are 3 years old) but i also love reading it over and over again and pondering over the issues in the book, hidden by symbolism. so delicious :)

[elsa12790.livejournal.com]

This thread made me think of all the little phrases that we quote in our family:
"Let the wild rumpus start!"

"A dog party! A big dog party!!"

And two that might not be so familiar but are from awesome, awesome picture books:
"Eat your greasy bloaters!" from How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen by Russell Hoban and illustrated by Quentin Blake. If I had to name one book in which the words fit the pictures, and vice versa, perfectly, it would be this one.

"Something went terribly wrong..." (said in a voice of awful foreboding) from Dodo Gets Married by Petra Mathers. She also has other books including these characters but we like this one best.
These two books are particularly fun to read out loud because I get to use over-the-top accents.

And my favorite picture book is Boodil, My Dog by Pija Lindenbaum. I can't recommend this highly enough for anyone. Lindenbaum also has other books that we all (me, husband and two kids) adore, such as Else Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies. Very loopy and delicious with sharp little details.

My kids are 10 and 7 so we're more reading books like Harry Potter these days, but we still return to these.

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

The Hairy Maclary books by Lynley Dodd. Wonderful pictures, and great verse. This is a writer who makes words sit up and beg!

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

American Girl books didn't come out until I was a grownup and a librarian. However, being a book collector *and* a doll collector, I have all the books and all the dolls and all their things up through Kit - Samantha, Molly, Kirsten, Felicity, Addy, Josefina, and Kit. I decided to stop collecting when the Kaya books came out because they changed the titles and I figured I had to stop somewhere before the perilously bulging walls of my house actually exploded.

(But I did succumb to a coupl of accessories that the newest AG, Julie, has. She's from the 1970's, and I had to buy the little record player and the little Barbie styling head. Apart from that - not even tempted. I can think of few decades with uglier clothes for girls than the 1970's.)

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Did you know there's a second Tom and Captain Najork book? A NEAR THING FOR CAPTAIN NAJORK, I believe it's called.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Would this be the Tam Lin written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak? I do love his illustrations.

Leo Politi did Song of the Swallows about San Juan Capistrano - could that be the book you're thinking of?

How neat that you got to see Tomie de Paola in person! I do love his books. Clown of God makes me sob just describing it to other people.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Rereading, apparently I do love saying "I do love." Sorry for being repetitive.

[elsa12790.livejournal.com]

Is that where he's living with Bundlejoy Cozysweet (I have to smile just writing that name)? And there's something with a giant frog? We've read that one. The first one, we own, so it gets read and reread with some regularity. And this made me think of another great picture book, Mrs. Armitage and the Big Wave. Quentin Blake both wrote and illustrated this one. He's got such a sense of quirky exuberance.

[keestone.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's the Jane Yolan and Charles Mikolaycak book, and yes! Song of the Swallows is the right book. So, it's by Leo Politi, not Tomie de Paola. No wonder I couldn't find it.

Meeting Tomie de Paola was a very memorable experience. It's been ever so long since I last read Clown of God, but it's such a beautiful book.

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

My favorites were always Margaret Hodges' retelling of St. George and the Dragon, illustrated by Trina ... (*goes to look up her name*) Trina Schart Hyman! First book I bought for my niece--when she was about 6 months old!

And all the Francis books, for which we have hunted high and low in order to give them to my little niece.

And, of course, Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat. We still quote that to each other. My dad has the whole thing memorized.

[kilerkki.livejournal.com]

My sisters and I quote Go Dog Go to each other, too.

"Do you like my hat?"
"No, I do not like your hat!"
"Goodbye then!"
"Goodbye!"