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struggle4progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 12:56 PM
Original message
What are your favorite children's books?
More than fifteen years ago, I gave some kids I know various George & Martha books by James Marshall. This Christmas, they returned the favor and gave me a collection of George & Martha stories. They're simple little tales, seldom more than fifteen sentences long. I still laugh out loud reading them

I'm still partial to Arnold Lobel's "Owl at Home" too
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rug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 01:02 PM
Response to Original message
1. Grandfather Twilight
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BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 01:07 PM
Response to Original message
2. "Goodnight Moon", all the Dr Seuss books, S.E. Hinton's books, Judy Blume's books
Madeleine L'Engle's books
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fizzgig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 02:15 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. i absolutely love judy blume
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MorningGlow Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 01:16 PM
Response to Original message
3. Different ages, different likes
For little ones, I'd have to say Dr. Seuss, Paddington, and anything by Sandra Boynton. Those were the books that I never got tired of, even when MG Jr. wanted me to read them for the 3,754th time.
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knowbody0 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 01:27 PM
Response to Original message
4. Ferdinan the Bull
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mix Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 01:30 PM
Response to Original message
5. James and the Giant Peach..Where the Wild Things Are...Encyclopedia Brown. nt
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datasuspect Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 01:45 PM
Response to Original message
6. A Child and His Lawnmower by Clarence Phenster
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IcyPeas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 03:39 PM
Response to Original message
8. How the Camel got his Hump - Rudyard Kipling
My niece and nephew were enthralled when I read this out loud to them (they were 4 and 6 years old). from this collection:

http://boop.org/jan/justso/
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surrealAmerican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 07:14 PM
Response to Original message
9. Are we talking about picture books here or ...
... "chapter" books?

For picture books, my favorites would include "Blueberries for Sal", many Dr. Seuss books, and "The Little Fur Family".

For Chapter books, most of L. Frank Baum's Oz series, "The Phantom Tollbooth", "The Trumpet of the Swan", and many books by Dianna Wynne Jones.

I'll probably think of others as soon as I post this.
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struggle4progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 10:57 PM
Response to Reply #9
14. I wanna know what books I need to read to be well-versed in the best of kid-lit!
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surrealAmerican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 11:19 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. I'm a little too well versed.
My kids are teens now, but I spent a lot of time reading to them over the years. I kind of miss it.
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peacefreak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 09:00 PM
Response to Original message
10. Stellaluna
Miss Rumphius & Annie & the Wild Animals
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tigereye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 09:31 PM
Response to Original message
11. Good Night Moon, Make Way for Ducklings, Harry Potter
series, Little Engine that Could, Dr. Seuss books, Phillip Pullman books, Roald Dahl books, A Wrinkle in Time, Harold and the Purple Crayon, books by Tomie De Paola and Eric Carle. Time Warp Trio series. Or any of the Caldecott and Newbury winners.


oh and any books done or illustrated (like Sector 7) by David Weisner. simply gorgeous.
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peacefreak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 09:46 PM
Response to Reply #11
37. David Weisner is wonderful.
How could I forget Tuesday! Must dig that one out for the grandkid. Thanks for reminding me!
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bigwillq Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 09:40 PM
Response to Original message
12. My Pet Goat
:evilgrin:

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Rabrrrrrr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 09:49 PM
Response to Original message
13. Pippi Longstocking. Encyclopedia Brown. Three Investigators. Where the Wild Things Are.
Though you didn't give an age range, so maybe you didn't mean "children".
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petronius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 11:02 PM
Response to Original message
15. The Wump World; Where the Wild Things Are (nt)
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applegrove Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 11:26 PM
Response to Original message
17. I didn't read that much as a kid but always like Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends".
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elleng Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 11:45 PM
Response to Original message
18. Winnie the Pooh








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frogmarch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 11:46 PM
Response to Original message
19. Little Lost Lamb
Edited on Sat Jan-08-11 11:46 PM by frogmarch
was my favorite book when I was a young child in the mid 1940s.

Little Lost Lamb , illustrated by Leonard Weisgard; text: Golden MacDonald, pseud. (Doubleday)

Oh, wind blow softly over the flocks....over the white, and the black sheep too. Blow softly." (Part of it went something like that.)

Now when I think of the book, I understand it had religious (Christian) overtones, but I don't care. The story and pictures were beautiful.



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burrfoot Donating Member (801 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-08-11 11:48 PM
Response to Original message
20. The Dark is Rising series,
by Susan Cooper. Absolutely wonderful for boys and girls with big imaginations...or to encourage big imaginations :)
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jmowreader Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 12:04 AM
Response to Original message
21. My Pet Goat
So good, even presidents like it!
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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 12:10 AM
Response to Original message
22. This is what I got:
When I was really little: Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, Where the Wild Things Are, Baby's First Christmas, Once Upon a Time in a Pigpen, Blueberries for Sal, Dr. Seuss, Make Way for Ducklings, and Outside Over There.

When I was slightly older: everything by Beverly Cleary, 90% of the stuff by Lois Lowry, EB White, Chronicles of Narnia, The Box of Delights, Elizabeth Enright, Robert McCloskey, Key to the Treasure, Harriet the Spy, The Dark is Rising, Wait Till Helen Comes (GOD THAT BOOK SKEERED ME BAD!), My Side of the Mountain, John Bellairs, and Monica Furlong.

When I was a "tween": Tamora Pierce, Zilpha Keatley Snyder (The Egypt Game and others), Diana Wynne Jones, and The Reluctant God by Pamela F. Service.

As an adult, I have developed a great love for Phillip Pullman and Harry Potter. :)
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CrawlingChaos Donating Member (583 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 03:34 AM
Response to Reply #22
30. You piqued my curiosity XemaSab
I looked up "Wait Till Helen Comes" on Amazon and the reviews are so phenomenal that I had to order a copy. I'm a trifle past grade 7 but I think I'll really enjoy it. :)

I hadn't seen the name Zilpha Keatley Snyder in ages - blast from the past! I remember "The Changling" fondly.
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Biker13 Donating Member (609 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-12-11 07:51 PM
Response to Reply #22
51. I'm 52...
and own EVERYTHING Elizabeth Enright ever wrote! Most of Beverly Cleary too!

I was lucky, my Mom was a Librarian, and I read constantly as I child. I still do as an adult, thanks to Mom!

Biker's Old Lady
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Danger Mouse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 12:17 AM
Response to Original message
23. I loved the Chronicles of Narnia as a kid, as well as...
Edited on Sun Jan-09-11 12:19 AM by Danger Mouse
The Wrinkle in Time books.
Also, I like Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and its sequels. I liked the Encyclopedia Brown books as well. I read the hobbit. Lots of silly kid books, hard to remember them all now that so much time has passed. I'm sure reading this thread will jog my memory.
Started reading Harry Potter as an adult. Loved it. Liked 'His Dark Materials' as well, but not as much as Harry Potter.

oh, and any shel silverstein and roald dahl. i was very fond of both. i also loved, loved, loved 'the lorax.' very moving to me.
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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 12:27 AM
Response to Reply #23
25. I forgot "Tales of a fourth grade nothing"
I think Pullman delivers the quality, and HP delivers the quantity, but they're two series where I was CRYING LIKE A LITTLE BABY at the end. :o
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Danger Mouse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 12:33 AM
Response to Reply #25
26. oh i remember now, by the end of the last pullman book, i was in tears...
i remember thinking to myself 'this reads like a linkin park' video, but i was still crying about it. i'm a wuss. :P
don't even get me started on 'deathly hallows' and snape.
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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 12:39 AM
Response to Reply #26
28. I wasn't crying at the END end
I was crying during the part where she betrays her best friend. Man, talk about a plot twist. :o
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Lionel Mandrake Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 12:20 AM
Response to Original message
24. "Madeline" by Ludwig Bemelmans
In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines
lived twelve little girls in two straight lines...
nobody knew so well, How to frighten Miss Clavel ...
In the middle of the night, Miss Clavel turned on the light
and said, "Something is not right." ...
... 'Nurse,' he said, 'it's an appendix!' ...
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Duer 157099 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 12:37 AM
Response to Original message
27. This one always made me cry when I read it to my son
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laylah Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 08:15 AM
Response to Reply #27
32. I bought this book for
my brother when our mom passed in Feb. '01. He sat in his car, in the drive-way, after the services, to read it, tears streaming the whole time. Wonderful book.
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struggle4progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 01:02 AM
Response to Original message
29. Thanks, everybody! I don't have time to respond now but I've bookmarked the thread
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CrawlingChaos Donating Member (583 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 03:56 AM
Response to Original message
31. My Faves
Wind in the Willows
Watership Down
Wrinkle in Time
The Railway Children (not to be confused with The Boxcar Children)
Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
Adventures of Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer (forced to read them, amazed to find I loved them)
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
All Beatrix Potter, but I was particularly obsessed with The Tale of Mrs. Tiggywinkle.
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blueamy66 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 08:20 AM
Response to Original message
33. I'm sure that I am not spelling this correctly, but.....
Chow San and the Very Wise Hermit....my Grandmother gave it to me and I wish I stilll had it.
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murielm99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 06:07 PM
Response to Original message
34. Almost anything by Daniel Pinkwater.
My kids loved those. "Tooth-Gnasher Super Flash" was one of my favorites.
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timtom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 07:53 PM
Response to Original message
35. the "Uncle Wiggily" books by Howard R. Garis.
They were read to us in first and second grades.

"Well, Uncle Wiggily didn't like the looks of the black hole down inside the stump, and he peered into it to see what he could see, but it was so black that all he could make out was something like a lump of coal.

"Well, Dr. Possum said I needed to have a change of scene, and some adventures," said the rabbit, "so I guess I'll chance it. I'll go down, and perhaps I may find my fortune."

Then, carefully holding his crutch and his satchel, Uncle Wiggily hopped down inside the stump. He felt something soft, and furry, and fuzzy, pressing close to him, and at first he thought he had bumped into Dottie or Willie Lambkin.

But then, all of a sudden, a harsh voice cried out:

"Ha! Now I have you! I was just wishing some one would come along with my dinner, and you did! Get in there, and see if you can find your fortune, Uncle Wiggily!" And with that what should happen but that big, black bear, who had been hiding in the stump, pushed Uncle Wiggily into a dark closet, and locked the door! And there the poor rabbit was, and the bear was getting ready to eat him up.

But don't worry, I'll find a way to get him out, and in case we have ice cream pancakes for supper I'll tell you, in the next story, how Uncle Wiggily got out of the bear's den, and how he went fishing—I mean Uncle Wiggily went fishing, not the bear."
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Odin2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-09-11 09:41 PM
Response to Original message
36. The Boxcar Children and the Laura Ingles Wilder books.
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Patiod Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-10-11 11:51 AM
Response to Original message
38. "The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler"
Just bought it for a neighbor child for Christmas.
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WinkyDink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-10-11 11:58 AM
Response to Original message
39. I had exactly 2: "A Child's History of the World;" and "Swiss Family Robinson."
Both greatly affected my future life.
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Goblinmonger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-10-11 12:14 PM
Response to Original message
40. Milne, Dahl, Silverstein. Can't go wrong with anything from them.
I also have a soft spot in my heart for "The Pokey Little Puppy."

I grew up on Seuss so him, too.
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Kablooie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-10-11 12:39 PM
Response to Reply #40
42. Pokey Little Puppy?! That still sticks in my head.
I don't know why. I can still see the cover.
It made an impression too.

The others you mentioned impressed me more as an adult than they did when I was a kid.
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Goblinmonger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-10-11 12:47 PM
Response to Reply #42
43. I love that it uses "pell-mell." Wonderful word.
My kids loved Dahl when they got to be about 8. Milne was ALWAYS a favorite--the original not the Disney stuff.
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Kablooie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-10-11 12:49 PM
Response to Reply #43
45. I agree about Milne, Chaaaarrrllie.
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Kablooie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-10-11 12:37 PM
Response to Original message
41. In grade school I was a big fan of the Freddy the Pig series.
I don't hear much about them anymore but they are still available.
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Kablooie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-10-11 12:47 PM
Response to Original message
44. Anyone read the original Uncle Remus stories?
I have a book from the 50's with some of the original text.
It's strange and hard to understand because it is written to mimic a thick, southern black dialect.
It is kind of fun to read aloud because it makes you sound like you can do accents that
you don't know.
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Throckmorton Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-10-11 01:06 PM
Response to Original message
46. The Kissing Hand
The late Mrs Throckmorton bought it the week before my daughter started school, when ever I want a good cry, I just have to look at it.

Dispite what your family thinks, April, I still love you.

Dan
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Hayabusa Donating Member (561 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-10-11 01:08 PM
Response to Original message
47. Pretty much any Star Wars book
I have a lot of the Jude Watson Star Wars books, as well as some of the other juvenile fiction in the series. There's some pretty good stories in the collection, especially the Jedi Apprentice ones.
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BlueIris Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-11-11 03:31 PM
Response to Original message
48. I've always loved Bill Peet.
I just stocked up on some Bill Peet books, actually. I also love the work of Ed Emberley, an artist who created many books about art for children.
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KamaAina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-11-11 03:47 PM
Response to Original message
49. The Starabella series
Edited on Tue Jan-11-11 03:48 PM by KamaAina
you likely haven't read them yet, but some friends of mine have come out with a series of children's books based on their elder daughter's experience with learning differences (autism). Tara also composed and performed much of the music on the accompanying CDs.

http://www.starabella.com

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Starabella&x=15&y=20

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Pendrench Donating Member (729 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-11-11 03:52 PM
Response to Original message
50. When I was very young (around 6 or 7) my favorite was
The Great Blueness and Other Predicaments by Arnold Lobel

Tim
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