Favorite Children's Books

I'm sure everyone has their favorite children's book, whether it is because of the story or the illustrations, they speak to us at a time in our lives when anything seems possible. When dragons can rescue us, and toys come to life.

As a fantasy and wildlife illustrator who is always tinkering around with possible children's book plans, I'm curious as to what moves the child within.

So if you have a favorite book from your childhood or if you love to read a special one to a child, I'd love to hear about it.

Here's one of my favorites, The Velveteen Rabbit and a favorite quote.

“Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.''Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit. 'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are Real you don't mind being hurt.' 'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,' he asked, 'or bit by bit?' 'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.”


― quote from The Velveteen Rabbit

I volunteered for a number of months with an organization called Reading Buddies. It was mostly retired folks who would read to 1st and 2nd graders at inner-city schools. This gave teachers an hour or so break to do admin and other stuff. I enjoyed it very much as I thought I was able to connect with the kids. 

The book I most enjoyed reading was The Giving Tree by my hero, Shel Silverstein. (He was truly a renaissance man. Film, books, poetry, music, wit - he wrote A Boy Named Sue). 

I could always initiate a good convo with the kids on that book. It focused on LOVE as the reason why we humans do so much of what we do. 

That's me, below, reading. 

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

I volunteered for a number of months with an organization called Reading Buddies. It was mostly retired folks who would read to 1st and 2nd graders at inner-city schools. This gave teachers an hour or so break to do admin and other stuff. I enjoyed it very much as I thought I was able to connect with the kids. 

The book I most enjoyed reading was The Giving Tree by my hero, Shel Silverstein. (He was truly a renaissance man. Film, books, poetry, music, wit - he wrote A Boy Named Sue). 

I could always initiate a good convo with the kids on that book. It focused on LOVE as the reason why we humans do so much of what we do. 

That's me, below, reading. 

Awww, that is so sweet.

I did a library project in Hoboken when I taught high school art at Hoboken Charter School. After I read Where The Wild Things Are to little ones with their parents, (dressed as a Wild Thing), I had my high school students help each child draw their inner wild thing and write their story.

I've caught up with a number of classics later in life, including books often described as childens book.  Some aren't.  For example, not long ago I read and enjoyed Watership Down.  Sorry, it's not a childrens book.  I can't imagine elementary school kids getting through it.  

My favorite book as a child was Alice in Wonderland.  I still love books that stretch the imagination and help us expand our own personal realm of possibilities.

Morgana, the girl in the black sweater on the right looks like my niece, who is also a teacher. 
Right now our children books around the house are stacked on shelves around the fireplace. Just can’t bring ourselves to part with the ones that have been scribbles when our kids were learning to write. The good ones (without scribbles) we randomly put in the little libraries attached to trees. 
I have a couple of new ones written by someone who is very close to my family, she’s only recently started writing children books a few years ago.  

Macaroni slippers 

Fig Wheatley and the circle of lunch 

Jaytee said:

Morgana, the girl in the black sweater on the right looks like my niece, who is also a teacher. 
Right now our children books around the house are stacked on shelves around the fireplace. Just can’t bring ourselves to part with the ones that have been scribbles when our kids were learning to write. The good ones (without scribbles) we randomly put in the little libraries attached to trees. 
I have a couple of new ones written by someone who is very close to my family, she’s only recently started writing children books a few years ago.  

Macaroni slippers 

Fig Wheatley and the circle of lunch 

Those two books are new to me but I'll search them out. Those two young students were awesome. We had a wonderfully diverse group of students. There was a lottery that chose students, first from Hoboken, then from Jersey City. I loved it. My Professor at MSU, where I got my Masters was a staunch believer in Inter-Disciplinary teaching so when I was hired, with a portfolio of such lesson plans I was often teaching art in other disciplines.  I was so enthused I quickly took the Praxis in both History and English to add to my certification in Art. Loved it. 

I put together a sample children's book that centered around Peru. I had traveled there with my husband, now my ex, as he was born there and had arrived here as a 12 year old with his sisters. It was exciting to see how much of Lima he remembered.  I combed through the book shelves and at the time felt that we had such a growing South American population but few books that such children could relate to.

Other projects have surfaced, and I miss all of the great bookstores that were on Rte. 10 where I could browse and look for a missing topic.

bub said:

I've caught up with a number of classics later in life, including books often described as childens book.  Some aren't.  For example, not long ago I read and enjoyed Watership Down.  Sorry, it's not a childrens book.  I can't imagine elementary school kids getting through it.  

I loved Watership Down! I keep thinking there was another book that I read that had a similar feel.  I vaguely remember reading The Mouse and His Child at that time but not sure that it's the one I'm thinking of.

joan_crystal said:

My favorite book as a child was Alice in Wonderland.  I still love books that stretch the imagination and help us expand our own personal realm of possibilities.

I was tempted to list that as my favorite. It stood out to me as a little girl as it was so much more complex than the girl saved by a Prince theme. 

Although when it came time to name my first cat, I went with Lucify, the mice version of Lucifer, from the animated Cinderella. I didn't have a female cat for years, so I skipped over Dinah.

For reading to my kids? Night is Coming. Hands down!

Morganna said:

Those two books are new to me but I'll search them out. Those two young students were awesome. We had a wonderfully diverse group of students. There was a lottery that chose students, first from Hoboken, then from Jersey City. I loved it. My Professor at MSU, where I got my Masters was a staunch believer in Inter-Disciplinary teaching so when I was hired, with a portfolio of such lesson plans I was often teaching art in other disciplines.  I was so enthused I quickly took the Praxis in both History and English to add to my certification in Art. Loved it. 

I put together a sample children's book that centered around Peru. I had traveled there with my husband, now my ex, as he was born there and had arrived here as a 12 year old with his sisters. It was exciting to see how much of Lima he remembered.  I combed through the book shelves and at the time felt that we had such a growing South American population but few books that such children could relate to.

Other projects have surfaced, and I miss all of the great bookstores that were on Rte. 10 where I could browse and look for a missing topic.

my niece is from jersey city. 

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.

I loved that book.

Jaytee said:

my niece is from jersey city. 

Did she go to Hoboken Charter?

For my kids, as little kids:  Peter Rabbit, Amos and Boris, Grandfather Twilight, the Dr. Seuss volume with The Sneetches in it.  A couple of those i really could read with my eyes shut back when.

For me: the Little House books (which i've also read through several times as an adult), The Wind in the Willows, Swiss Family Robinson.

(Here's a coincidence for you, Morganna: my son, now also vegan, taught at Hoboken Charter for one year.  Some great people there for him.)

I worked in the children's room at South Orange Public Library for a year when I was 18. I loved reading the children's books but I especially enjoyed having them read to me, or reported on (for summer book club) by the children. It was the best job, but it paid significantly less than minimum wage, so I couldn't keep it; I had to pay for college.

Going way back:

Babar 
Where the Wild Things Are 
All the Seuss books

Later:

Encyclopedia Brown
One-minute Mysteries
The Phantom Tollbooth

Also, please be mindful about posting photos of children here. If they are now grown it's not an issue. Consider removing them if otherwise.

I love Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff. It is the story of a young girl spending the summer at her family's beach house in the Rockaways with her grandmother during World War II. It is a beautiful book which I have given to my parents and others their age. 

I'm going to have to renew my library card as I see a couple I have not read. Why can't we have a big bookstore like Borders or Barnes & Noble nearby anymore.

I don't know Night is Coming or A Fourth Grade Nothing.

Many of the books in my collection were purchased for their illustrations but there were some that I bought for the story.

dave said:

Also, please be mindful about posting photos of children here. If they are now grown it's not an issue. Consider removing them if otherwise.

I considered that before posting. Those photos are over 10 years old.

mjc said:

For my kids, as little kids:  Peter Rabbit, Amos and Boris, Grandfather Twilight, the Dr. Seuss volume with The Sneetches in it.  A couple of those i really could read with my eyes shut back when.

For me: the Little House books (which i've also read through several times as an adult), The Wind in the Willows, Swiss Family Robinson.

(Here's a coincidence for you, Morganna: my son, now also vegan, taught at Hoboken Charter for one year.  Some great people there for him.)

What year. You can message me if you like. What was his subject?

and I loved Amos and Boris, Still have it in my collection.

I love and still have Wind in the Willows. I once owned the house on Halsey Place that is in the South Orange book and I put a brass plaque on the gate "Toad Hall".: The house was sold maybe twice and when the book was researched and published, they mistakenly said the house was named Toad Hall. Well not by the original owners in 1905.

Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy

and The Hobbit, of course

dave said:

Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy

and The Hobbit, of course

A couple of versions of the Hobbit sit on my mantle with The Lord of the Rings books, and The Silmarilion.

 I haven't read the Earthsea Trilogy, I only remember reading A Wrinkle in Time. 

mcb said:

I love Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff. It is the story of a young girl spending the summer at her family's beach house in the Rockaways with her grandmother during World War II. It is a beautiful book which I have given to my parents and others their age. 

Rockaway, interesting. I grew up not far from there. I actually used to bike to the beach. The list is getting long!

I lost count of how many times I've read this.

Morganna said:

I'm going to have to renew my library card as I see a couple I have not read. Why can't we have a big bookstore like Borders or Barnes & Noble nearby anymore.

I don't know Night is Coming or A Fourth Grade Nothing.

Many of the books in my collection were purchased for their illustrations but there were some that I bought for the story.

Night is Coming is a beautifully illustrated little gem of a book. The text is rhythmic and hypnotic.  My kids must have fallen asleep to it 200 times!  It was a gift from a friend at the birth of my son. 

Night Is Coming https://a.co/d/8OK7Idb

Henry and Beezus (Beverly Cleary). We all delighted in the everyday trials and tribulations of those kids. 

Flora and Ulysses (Kate DiCamillo).  Oddball but fun story of a friendship between a girl and a squirrel. 

Go, Dog. Go!   I love this book, and all the P.D. Eastman classics. The dogs and the story remind me of 1950s and early 60's beatniks.  It's like Jack Kerouac for kids. They go on the road.  They speak in lingo: "Do you like my hat?"  What was that really about?  They go to a party in a tree.  P.D. Eastman was so cool, man.