Favorite Children's Books

[Jody Barsch*]

A friend of mine at work is having her baby shower soon, and we've all been asked to bring our favorite childhood/baby book. As I was trying to think of a title, I began listing all of my favorite books from childhood, and now, and am feeling pretty nostalgic, and like I want to spend an obscene amount of money to recollect all of these books. I cannot, however, come up with the title of one of the book (although I had it in my mind yesterday): it is the story of a little girl whose father tells her that she must do three things in life – one is to live by the sea, another is to do something to make the world beautiful. The little girl grows up to live by the sea and spread flower seeds (lupin I think) all over the countryside on her bicycle. Does anyone remember the title?

Here are some of my favorite picture books (in alphabetical order):

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst, Ray Cruz

Are You My Mother?, by P.D. Eastman

A Bargain for Frances, and all of the other Frances stories by Russell Hoban

The Best Loved Doll, by Rebecca Caudill, Elliot Gilbert (Illustrator)

Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey

A Chair for My Mother, by Vera B. Williams

Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean

Crow Boy, by Taro Yashima

The Complete Adventures of Curious George, by H. A. Rey

The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish, by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean

Eloise, by Kay Thompson, Hilary Knight

The Frog and Toad Collection, by Arnold Lobel

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, by Chris Van Allsburg, as well as all of his other books: Bad Day at Riverbend, Ben's Dream, Jumanji, Just a Dream, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, The Polar Express, The Stranger, The Sweetest Fig, The Widow's Broom, The Wreck of the Zephyr, The Wretched Stone, The Z Was Zapped: A Play in Twenty-Six Acts, Two Bad Ants , Zathura

The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein

Go, Dog. Go!, by P.D. EASTMAN

House That Crack Built, by Clark Taylor

The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes

In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak

Just a Dream, by Chris Van Allsburg

Life Doesn't Frighten Me, by Maya Angelou

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Lonely Doll and Edith and Mr. Bear, by Dare Wright

The Lorax, by DR SEUSS

The Little Bear Stories, The Little Bear's Friend and A Kiss for Little Bear by Else H. Minarik, Maurice Sendak

The Lost Thing, by Shaun Tan

Madeline: The Complete Tales, by Ludwig Bemelmans

Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey

Mr. Punch, by Neil Gaiman

All of Leo Politi's books, especially Pedro the Angel of Olvera Street. (I met Mr. Politi at one of his very last book signings, that was before the city of LA shut down Angel's Flight again.)

The Story About Ping, by Marjorie Flack

The Red Tree, by Shaun Tan

The Secret Kitten, by Anne Mallett

The Sneetches and Other Stories, by DR SEUSS

A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound, by John Irving

The Tale of Two Bad Mice, by Beatrix Potter

A Thingumajig Christmas, by Irene Keller

The Velveteen Rabbit, or, How Toys Become Real, by Margery Williams Bianco

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle

When We Were Very Young, by A. A. Milne

Wind Child, by Shirley Rousseau Murphy, Leo & Diane Dillon

The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-The-Pooh, by A. A. Milne

The Wolves in the Walls, by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean

Yellow Umbrella, by Jae Soo Liu, Jae-Soo Liu

And my all-time favorite:
Outside Over There, by Maurice Sendak

[SanDeE*]

That is a beautiful list, Jody! I loved Where The Wild Things Are also. Is that by Maurice Sendeck too? Can't remember. Sorry I don't know the book about the girl and her father. Also Roald Dahl books are great too, but maybe not for babies!

[Natasha (candygirl)]

The Lonely Doll and Edith and Mr. Bear, by Dare Wright

I loved The Lonely Doll when I was a kid. I brought my Lonely Doll book with me when I moved, but left it on the shelf unread for years. A few months ago, I took it out to read it again and I was kind of shocked that I'd never seen how creepy the pictures and story were. I mean, are these appropriate for a child's book?





Then I read The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: the Search for Dare Wright by Jean Nathan. Despite how popular the Lonely Doll series was, this was the only biography about Dare Wright. After reading about her strange family, it made the Lonely Doll books seem even sadder and creepier - the spankings, the abandonment issues.

I thought maybe I was being to paranoid or PC in my judgement, so I handed The Lonely Doll to my boyfriend, told him it was one of my favorite childhood books, and asked him to read it. His response was very similar to mine - creeeeepy.

That is quite a good list of books though. A lot of my favorites are there. Other books not mentioned yet:

Goodnight, Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Corduroy and A Pocket for Corduroy by Don Freeman
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

[starbug]

The Velveteen Rabbit, or, How Toys Become Real, by Margery Williams Bianco

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle

When We Were Very Young, by A. A. Milne

The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-The-Pooh, by A. A. Milne

what a great way to pass the time! that's quite some list.

These are the ones I've read. I still have a copy of the velveteen rabbit (*sob* that book always made me cry), and the complete Winnie the Pooh. It's so nostalgic thinking about childhood - and books had such an effect on me when I was a kid (and still do).
I used to have all the Roald Dahl books. I've still got some of them but they are SO beaten up from reading, re-reading, and living under my pillow where I used to keep my book when I was sleeping.

And Candygirl, you're right - that's a bit creepy and definitely quite inappropriate! It reminds me of how I used to read the Captain Pugwash series when I was a kid without realising what names like Seamen Staines, Master Bates, and Roger the Cabin Boy were meant to convey ...

[SanDeE*]

And Candygirl, you're right - that's a bit creepy and definitely quite inappropriate! It reminds me of how I used to read the Captain Pugwash series when I was a kid without realising what names like Seamen Staines, Master Bates, and Roger the Cabin Boy were meant to convey ...

HA! That's hilarious!!!

[Andee]

HAHA that is funny . It's so weird that when we were little kids, we never realized things like that. Like sesame street for example. We didn't know back then that 2 grown men sleeping together was considered somewhat homosexual(bert and ernie. I loved them.)
hmm the night kitchen. I had that book when I was like 3, and my brother and I thought it was so funny how the little boy floated out of his pyjamas:P haha the things little kids find humorous...I also loved blueberries for sal. it was a favorite of mine at the age of two. I thought I was the coolest whenever I ate blueberries after that.
:O do you know what else was good? Arthur books. I still love the tv show. It's adorable.

[Nostradamus]

Great thread! I recognize a lot of these; wonderful nostalgia!



Wiping the dust off the back shelves of my mind, in no particular order...

Blacks Suits From Outer Space by Gene Deweese

The Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Treasure Island by Robert Loius Stevenson

The Hobbit: or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry

Home for a Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown; illustrated by Garth Williams

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

Incredible Cross-Sections by Stephen Biesty

Underground by David Macaulay

Wish I could remember more, there were so many...

[starbug]

I was reminiscing the other day and remembered a book that I read when I was about 9 or 10 that I absolutely loved. I'm pretty sure it was by Nicholas Fisk (I read a few of his books at that age) but I can't find it on Amazon.

Maybe someone here remembers it...?

It was about a team of schoolboys (there were at least two of them, maybe more, and one was definitely called Boff) and a mad scientist who decided to build a robot horse to win all the races. they would hide inside the robot's belly while it was running, working the controls. It was outwardly very convincing as a horse, apparently. I'm pretty sure the horse is brown, and there's something to do with another robot horse that was black, and dye running off which is how they found out about the competition. The climax of the story is a big race where the two robot horses are up against each other.

It's been bugging me because it was one of the best reads of my childhood...

[Jody Barsch*]

A documentary's being made on Dare Wright!
~Kickstarter #16
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/34 ... ight-story