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Favourite Children's books

along with where the wild things are, there is another book by sendak titled pierre: a cautionary tale which to this day will send me into fits of laughter. i gave it to my niece early on and she loves it too, which makes it doubly valuable to me.
 
The works of Russell Hoban, specifically the series of books about Frances the badger (e.g., Bread and Jam for Frances, Bedtime for Frances), and a curious one called La Corona and the Tin Frog. This one is not easy to find; I had to go online and get it from England, I think. (I'm in New York). Wonderful to read as an adult as well.

BTW, Russ has written quite a few novels for adults that are magnificent reads. I recommend The Medusa Frequency and Kleinzeit as two to start with. Check out his stuff here: http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/

Another series of books I really loved when I was about nine or so were the Mushroom Planet books by Eleanor Cameron. I'm currently trying to get them again to re-read; they've become collector's items, though.
 
Oh, I don't know if anyone here has mentioned it, but one that just came out within the past few years: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. Very funny indeed.
 
I would have to say almost anything by Seuss, Dahl, Carroll, Lear, both for reading them to kids and having them read to you, Seuss and Lears style is Hypnotic when getting read to, and only works if you pronounce them properly. so as well as reading helps with speech (espescially if you happen to have a North West English accent, and you talk proper :p)

I think my Mum was also trying to teach me to spout utter gibberish, (or is that gibberese)

and her plan worked completely.
 
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One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue FishWP by Dr. Seuss. Hehe,

One fish
Two fish
Red fish
Blue fish
Black fish
Blue fish
Old fish
New fish
This one has a little star
This one has a little car
My what a lot of fish there are

And that's all I can remember. Basically the entire Dr. Seuss range.

Enid Blyton's Famous Five series. Dad used to read those to me when I was young and illiterate.

And strangely enough, I didn't really like it when I was a kid, but Der StruwwelpeterWP by Heinrich Hoffman. It does teach a lot of things, but I think that it might also have something to do with my hatred of soup...
 
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I collect Ladybird books. Ladybird is a well-known UK publisher of children's books, having been around for over a hundred years. The Ladybird range covers both fiction and non-fiction. The non-fiction titles cover hundreds of subjects and have been used in schools for many years.

Most of my collection consists of titles produced during Ladybird's heyday from the 1960's - 1980's. Anyone from the UK over the age of 25 will remember these. The typical Ladybird book is a mini-hardback (about 18x12cm). They are superbly illustrated, notably the 'Well-Loved Tales' series, which consists of most of the popular fairy tales - Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc. Every illustration consists of a separate oil/acrylic painting produced for the purpose and photographed. To me, they represent a standard of book illustration that has yet to be matched by any publisher anywhere. Like all good children's books, they are timeless.

This is my favourite one. The characters and their facial expressions in this book are just genius:

pigs.jpg
 
I used to like a lot of my ladybird books too, didn't they also do Larger sized ones, my very first reading books were Lady bird, My first book type ones as well as couple of the more trad. stories.

Just remembered Roger Hargreaves, and all the little Mr books, and some of the greatest stories from Grimm (nothing like a little threatened infanticide and risk to keep'em in check mwuhuhhaha) I did have a ornately decorated MASSIVE tome with a lot of the Grimm stories in, that was for serious story time.
 
Let me think.

"The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks", by Nancy McArthur
"Where The Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls
"How To Eat Fried Worms" by Thomas Rockwell
James Howe's "Bunnicula" books
Just about anything with "Choose Your Own Adventure" printed on the cover.
 
Gregory said:
The Dark is Rising and the Chronicles of Narnia. But mainly as a child, I was absorbed by the Hollow Tree books, three brilliant and regretably out of print books about a raccoon, possum, and crow who lived together in a giant hollow tree.
Click to expand...

Bump, and

Gregory, you might find the following blog amusing: (my brother told me to google "the dark is rising film i want to vomit")

That is a film I am glad to have not seen
 
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We of course cannot forget the epic “The Monster at the End of This Book”. Fraught with tension and suspense, with a gripping twist at the end.
 
Winnie the Pooh

It was a joy to read to my kids when they were little - beautifully balanced, the words just rolled out. Alice in Wonderland is another that is considerate towards the reader with jokes for everyone. Where the Wild Things Are was also fun especially as my son has the same name.

I think one of the worst books I ever tried to read to them was The Incredible Journey which tested my patience towards the author beyond breaking point - it was unnecessarily wordy imho.
 
I just finished reading the "Golden Compass" series, actually I finished them last month but I forgot that I wanted to post my THANKS here.

Thanks everyone who recommended them, I really enjoyed them, I had a long flight from California to the Grand Cayman Island and I didn't even mind the delays. I was so hooked that I just sat on my balcony and finished the second one. I didn't take all three books with me.

I could have done without the dust idea, but just about everything else was very engaging. So sad that I am all done with the series, maybe for best as I really have other things I should be doing.

Thanks again,

Susan
 
Bunnicula, The Howliday Hotel, and The Celery Stalks at Midnight. I never read any of the books after the last.

Also The Hardy Boys series is one I read a lot from the school library as a child. As well as the Hardy Boys Casefiles for "young adults".

I still read C.S. Lewis's Narnia books even if I don't agree with his message. They're just fun reads.
 
Winnie the Pooh (BD - Before Disney)
The House at Pooh Corner (BD)
The Wind in the Willows
Swallows and Amazons
the "Jennings" series
 
Well, as I've already said what I liked as a pre-to-early teen elsewhere, I'll have a go with the really early-age stuff.

I loved Tolkein's Father Christmas Letters. I loved that book to bits.
Milne's Winnie The Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner, obviously. And Now We Are Six - my mum used to read me the poems.

Harvey's Hideout, by Russell & Lillian Hoban. Which I recently had to ask around a nice lost-book forum to figure out the title of.

And lastly Gilli the Guillemot by Ann Mari Lagercrantz.
 
I just finsihed one my daughter brought home, called "The Mysterious Benedict Society". I quite enjoyed it. Has a bit of the Roald Dahl flavour, with some good skeptical kids for protagonists. Not a bit of woo in it at all.
 
joobie said:
along with where the wild things are, there is another book by sendak titled pierre: a cautionary tale which to this day will send me into fits of laughter. i gave it to my niece early on and she loves it too, which makes it doubly valuable to me.
Click to expand...

I loved that book as a child and my son loves it, too. Did you like Carole King's rendering of it in song form?
 
One of the things I miss is reading books to my son and making up voices for the characters.

We loved all the books by Chris Van Allsburg and our favorite was “The Garden of Abdul Gasazi”.

We also read every James Marshall book especially the “George and Martha” series.

The last books I was allowed to read to him were the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Adams, of course, and “The Sirens of Titan” by Vonnegut. We both cried at the end of that book.
 
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