Commenter Rose commented on the weddings and babies post:
Wait, can we have a post where everyone just gets to list favorite kids books?? That would be the perfect compliment to all these wonderful babies you get to enjoy.
(I am prone to giving Jamberry and I am a Bunny to new babies, but I’d love new ideas!)
This is fun, yes.
I find I am unexpectedly a little shy about saying the books I like to give! I am worried they will seem… Well, I guess I am worried they will seem Dated. I am an Older Lady now, and possibly I am giving Older Lady gifts. I think I will choose not to worry about it. Older Lady Gifts are good, is what I am going to choose to believe. We pass the crème de la crème down to the next generation, is how I am going to choose to think of it.
Some of the books I used to like to give as gifts are no longer available for purchase, which I think is one of the reasons I would worry, if I hadn’t chosen not to. Maisy’s Colors, by Lucy Cousins; Farm Animals, by Lucy Cousins; Where Is Maisy’s Panda?, by Lucy Cousins. One Red Sun, by Ezra Jack Keats. Pond, by Lizi Boyd; Forest, by Lizi Boyd. I am so glad I saved my own copies!
Here are the ones I am still able to order new:
(image from Amazon.com)
Blue Hat, Green Hat, by Sandra Boynton. Silly, fun to read. I wish it didn’t now say “(the OOPS book)”. We don’t need to point out the joke. I have also ordered But Not the Hippopotamus by the same author.
(image from Amazon.com)
Where Is Maisy?, by Lucy Cousins. In my opinion, not as good as the no-longer-available Where Is Maisy’s Panda?—but good.
(image from Amazon.com)
I Am a Bunny, by Richard Scarry. I loved loved loved that Rose mentioned this exact same book. I see I have ordered it seven times, more than any other book. I had this book as a child; I had it as an adult and read it to my children; I realize it may look very 1970s now, but I choose to believe that contributes to its soothing charm. I found it soothing to read, and it contributed to my appreciation of the name Nicholas.
(image from Amazon.com)
Pantone Colors. This one isn’t so much fun to read as it is fun to look at, and fun to choose which shade you like best of each color, and fun to appreciate and/or disagree with the color names.
(image from Amazon.com)
Everywhere Babies, by Susan Meyers and Marla Frazee. This one is starting to get harder to acquire. I choose it because the illustrations show many different kinds of families, without making any kind of big deal about it, which is a big deal.
(image from Amazon.com)
100 First Words, by Ms. Rachel. This is the only book I’ve given as a gift that I didn’t read to my own children—and in fact, haven’t read at all. I bought it to support Ms. Rachel, after seeing her anti-genocide posts online.
Sandra Boynton books were my go-to for baby gifts when my friends were having babies. But not the Hippopotamus was my favourite.
But YES the hippopotamus! …but not the armadillo.
My own daughter, now 19, loved this book, and I recently gifted it to a younger colleague (about 20 years younger) in a package of gifts for her new baby. I later saw her make a disparaging remark about that book specifically (I’m sure not having remembered who gave it to her) on social media. I thought, oh no, what’s offensive about it? And now I’m hesitant to share my own daughter’s old favorites.
I am a bunny! My favorite book as a kid. I still have my copy from early 60’s. I wouldn’t let my parents get rid of it. Google tells me it was published in 1963. But it is still very popular, and such a fun book. Also it is a good read aloud book. I remember having it memorized as a 3 year old and telling everybody I could read. I guess my parents read it to me a lot of times.
As a parent of a toddler, I still love the classics – Pat the Bunny, Goodnight Moon, Eric Carle, etc. My kiddo loves the Little Blue Truck books, and discovers new things to love at each stage. Newer options that everyone might not already have/get – All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon is beautiful and a favorite. There’s a series of Peekaboo books by Camilla Reid that are lots of fun. Lots of people with non-traditional family structures love the Todd Parr books (Love Makes a Family; The Family Book), and they’d be good for any child.
There is a book that I decided I would give to my best friend if she had a baby, but now we are both of an age where the chance of that happening is vanishingly small. The book is The Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown. It was one of my favorites to read to my kids.
I loved I Am a Bunny and so did my little brother :)
The big board book winners for my son were:
Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
Time for Bed also by Mem Fox — there’s a good chance I still have this one memorized and he’s 13 ;)
Goodnight Moon, which we also had as a picture book
YES Moo Baa La La La was my introduction to the fact that some little kid board books are actually awesome instead of mind-numbingly pointless, when I was in college and babysitting. I knew some Seuss was fabulous, but: board books??? And then I found out about some other picture books that actually have concepts (!) and a plot (!) or characters (!!!) and now I am entirely too enthusiastic about children’s books. (although my favorites are chapter books; Tales from Moominvalley; The Door in the Wall; Phantom Tollbooth; and Seuss still has a pretty high ranking from me even though he as a person had… uh. Problems. But Yertle the Turtle! And The Lorax! And the Sneetches! And The King’s Stilts!)
Alexander by Harold Littledale is one of my favorite out of print picture books; it’s a “we love you and your worth is not based on what you do but also maybe please do better when you can” message via an imaginary friend who is a multicolored zebra. (the kid is telling his dad, at bedtime, about all the “bad” things that Alexander the imaginary zebra did today – which, actually, the kid did – and saying “so, all of that: does that mean we have to get rid of Alexander?” and the dad is basically “nope, we love him, but I’m sure he’ll try harder tomorrow.”
The dad is smoking a pipe, though; sigh; this is a problem with so many old books, although I will take a pipe over casual racism, thanks. (Miss Rumphius fundamentally doesn’t need a cigar store indian! It was just part of the culture at the time and she had so, so many details in there… but if she had just not included that detail, it would be a much more recommendable book…)
Alexander! In the top 5 on my list.
My son and I were at Barnes & Noble today and I mentioned this post to him. He said we have to add Goodnight Gorilla and The Hungry Caterpillar. He also grabbed Time for Bed and quizzed me, and I do, in fact, still have it mostly memorized!
When my oldest was a baby, we read him the same 4 board books every night and he was both a great sleeper (then.) We did the same thing with the younger two children and they were terrible sleepers. So, mixed reviews on the getting children to sleep, but they were books that DH and I were willing to read every night for years, so. Anyway, we’ve bought these as gifts subsequently…
1- I Kissed The Baby! by Mary Murphy
2- I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak*
3- Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
4- The Going-To-Bed Book by Sandra Boynton
* Actually, in our rotation here was Fluffy Bunny, A Snuggle Book, which had a faux-fur cover. But I think it’s out of print and we also really enjoyed I Love You Through and Through, which is what we buy instead.
#2 & #4 were big favorites in our house too; I can recite them both.
Through and Through was our every night book for YEARS. Library book, his choice book, through and through, kisses, lights. For YEARS.
My favorite book I’ve read to all of my kids and bought for others was Otis by Loren Long, which I just learned was made into a TV show on Apple a few years ago!
My husband feels very strongly that Where’s Spot is the best baby book of all-time and makes sure we give a copy to everyone we know who is expecting a baby. The flaps are great, but we had to buy a new copy for each of the kids because they kept getting torn by little hands. Worth it.
Ten Nine Eight! It’s my favorite. Sweet rhymes and good fathering and describing a tiny girl as strong. There is a whole quiet story in the background with the cat.
Global Babies is the one all my babies have read to shreds. Photos of, well, global babies.
Oh! And how did I forget. Sandra Boynton’s Barnyard Dance and Lorinda Cauley’s Clap Your Hands are the most danceable, rhythmic books I know.
Love this post. My niece lives in a different country to me, so I am limited to online shopping vs just going to the thrift store if I was local. So I have to be especially deliberate in what I pick out to gift her. She’s about to turn 2 and I’ve been gifting Duplo and books since she was born. Let me see what I bought…
So before she was born I gifted the following board books, which were ones I enjoyed with my own kids:
Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell (also from my own childhood) (has flaps)
Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
For her first Christmas I bought:
Old Macdonald had a Farm by Pam Adams (from my own childhood) (has holes through the pages)
My First 100 Animals by Roger Priddy (photos of items to name)
My First 100 Words by Roger Priddy (photos of items to name)
Since then I have been gifting books by Julia Donaldson, starting with my favourite: The Snail and the Whale. She’s a British author and we are originally both from the UK, me and my brother. Love the rhymes and illustrations too.
Special mention to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, another must have.
I also kept our copy of I Am A Bunny and agree that one is a good one.
Yes to Julia Donaldson! I first discovered her by reading The Giant Jumparee, (Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury)…so fun.
My all time favorite children’s book is Library Lion. I gave it to my niece when she was a baby and at 2.5 she is finally ready for it and to my extreme delight she has become obsessed! It’s such a charming story about friendship and whimsy and when to follow the rules and when to break them. Swistle, it might be a particularly good book for you to give (or receive!) given your affinity for libraries.
A friend of mine introduced me to Library Lion recently and it is great! (I read it through archive dot org’s library/book-collection, which includes 1 scanned copy each of a lot of copyrighted books – only one person in the world can check them out at a time, and you do have to log in to borrow thebooks that are in copyright, but if your local library doesn’t have a book and you want to check it over all the way through before ordering it for someone’s kid, it’s a great way to verify that the Classic You Loved As A Child does not have any… things… in it that you did not notice as a child. The site also has the Wayback Machine, which is also an awesome resource, but their library/book collection is below the Wayback Machine box on the home page.)
I love that your niece became gratifyingly obsessed with the book. It really is a good one!
I am so glad that Swistle (and many others, it seems!) loves I am a Bunny too. It’s a good one! My husband’s family has a tradition of giving: Dear Zoo (which someone else mentioned) and Peek-a-Who as gifts to new babies, and I enjoyed both of those.
I’d love to hear picture book recommendations too! My youngest is still constantly dragging books to me to read. Some of my favorites:
Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman and illustrated by Marla Frazee (I would never give this book to a new mom because…well, maybe I’d be a little embarrassed that I identify with it so much. But with an obliging kid on my lap, I laugh and laugh at the pictures. Yep, looks just like my house.)
Some of my other very favorites to read out-loud to my kids, nieces and nephews, and (hopefully?!?) someday grandchildren:
If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach, Don’t! by Elise Parsley
Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall
The Water Hole by Graeme Base
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Jim LaMarche (and everything else he has illustrated)
Come on Rain By Karen Hesse
There’s a Bear in my Chair by Ross Collins
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Mr. Magee books By Chris Van Dusen
When I was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant (and Snow, by the same author)
Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli
Mustache Baby By Brigid Heos
Water is Water by Miranda Paul
Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco
and, oh so many others. Please tell me your favorites!
We happened to get seven silly eaters from the library for the first time right before my birthday and I almost cried reading it. (My child who is obsessed with it is, of course, MY “silliest” eater.)
Another Seven Silly Eaters fan here! My kids weren’t necessarily more attached to it than our other books, but *I* loved reading it aloud. And the illustrations are delightful. It’s in a “someday grandchildren” tote in my basement right now along with another 40 or so favorite kids’ books — many of which are listed in these comments!
Mustache Baby! And the subsequent adventures! My boys loved this when they were toddlers. And we still enjoy reading it in 1st and 2nd grade. My favorite is the Christmas Mustache Baby book.
Jabari Jumps is such a great book! As someone with a timid child, we wore our copy out!
Fun post!!
My favs!
The Rabbit Listened
The Kissing Hand
The Invisible String
Also love many others that have already been posted!
I’m so glad to see The Rabbit Listened on someone else’s list. It makes me teary every time I read it.
My 70-something mom gives the Mother Bruce books to every baby/kid she gives gifts to. They are aimed for a little bit of an older age, but the 2-5 year olds seem to love them. Bruce is a bear who adopts some baby geese. They are funny on both an adult and kid level and short (my mom’s criteria for kid’s books). They have the added bonus of actually being banned in at least 1 school district because Bruce is a male and apparently they should not adopt. Or maybe a bear shouldn’t be raising geese. Either way, you get the satisfaction of being annoyed at how stupid it is.
Be Quiet! by the same author is also hilariously fun to read, although I agree for slightly older kids.
My contribution is Subway. Probably more fun if you live near New York, but we loved it even living across the country with no Subways. According to my daughter… There are lots of letters and colors and little guys and trains and I very much like it and would recommend for the babiest of babies.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/subway-christoph-niemann/1100706822
I listened to a Slate podcast about this just last night: https://slate.com/culture/2025/09/best-kids-books-2025-picture-read-aloud-new.html
For being such household of readers, we strangely did not have a ton of beloved baby books. We mostly had board book copies of some classics: Goodnight Moon, anything Eric Carle, anything Sandra Boynton. A newer (early 2000s) author was Leslie Patricelli. Not real story-forward but they were cute. We moved into children’s picture books as soon as she wasn’t ripping pages, and that topic honestly deserves its own blog. Not a post, an entire blog. <3
Snowmen At Night by Caralyn Buehner
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
These were some of our favourite books to read to our now 14 year old. We have a thing for rhyming books and I believe there is a video online of celebs rapping the Llama Llama books. Its fun.
I also love to give Everywhere Babies! My own kids loved that book. I also give Madeline, I’ll Love You Till the Cows Come Home and the Tiger Who Came to Tea.
I am soooooo glad that Swistle mentioned Everywhere Babies, and very sad to hear that it’s getting harder to find. It’s definitely in my top 3 books to give for exactly the reason that she mentions, as well as the fact that some of the parents are depicted as experiencing … shall we say, “realistic” elements of parenthood. It’s a book that’s as much for the parents as it is for the baby/child.
At first I thought you were going to say no Maisy books were available at all and that made me sad. My kids loved Maisy. Anything by Sandra Boynton was a big hit, too.
I am trying to remember what books I got my now 12-year-old niece when she was little, though she was adopted as a toddler. I think we gave her our copies of The Bunny Planet books, by Rosemary Wells (First Tomato, Island Light, and Moss Pillows). The Monster at the End of This Book is a hit with preschoolers.
Counting Farm by Kathy Henderson – my son’s favorite as a baby, sweet and gentle rhymes
So fun to remember all these lovely books that I shared with my daughter. A little off topic, but for those mentioning Good Night Moon, I highly recommend reading this biography about the author – Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened By the Moon.
Goodnight Gorilla
My sister’s kids (now in elementary school) loved Goodnight Gorilla! I was forgetting that one.
I LOVE this one.
Sandra Boynton yes – Barnyard Dance and But Not the Hippopotamus were in heavy rotation as gifts and at playgroup. My best friend gave us If You See a Mouse https://www.amazon.ca/You-See-Mouse-Richard-Powell/dp/0307146146 when I had Angus and we all loved it, and it is no longer available and I am unreasonably annoyed about this. I also gave Guess How Much I Love Youhttps://www.guesshowmuchiloveyou.com/. Usually I would just go to the bookstore and wander around the kids section and see what felt best. Or buy one that I thought was classic and one that was newer. Hand Hand Fingers Thumb by Dr. Seuss and Ten Apples Up On Top as board books. And Goodnight Moon. Most of these are still in my elementary libraries and still get checked out.
My daughters are teenagers now but my favourites were the Julia Donaldson ones, The Gruffalo of course and The Gruffalo’s Child but also Room on the Broom and Paper Dolls (which is LOVELY but makes me cry) and also the Janet and Allan Ahlberg classics (possibly not known as well outside the UK? But they’re wonderful), Each Peach Pear Plum and Peepo!. And another UK classic – The Tiger Who Came To Tea, by Judith Kerr.
Each Peach Pear Plum is a favorite here, Peepo is called Peek-a-boo in the US and is also very sweet! We have The Jolly Postman by them too but that is better for older kids.
And The Baby’s Catalogue which always made us laugh when we got to the page with “accidents”!
Yes! I love The Jolly Postman!
Peepo! Yes, we loved that book (I am Canadian so it was know by its English title here. Also Each Peach Pear Plum is a winner. Thanks for the memories!
My go-to as a gift in this situation is:
Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, which my oldest delighted in.
Honorable mentions to my favorites as a kid:
Big Dog, Little Dog by P.D. Eastman and
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey.
Little Pea is the best!!
The Gruffalo books, by Julia Donaldson
Hippos Go Berserk, Personal Penguin, and Snuggle Puppy (really all Boynton books but these are our favorite)
Any of the Bear books by Karma Wilson (our favorite is Bear Snores On)
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear
If the baby is a girl, Anne of Green Gables. Then as she grows I complete her set.
OIder kids get Calvin and Hobbes books, always!
We are going to a 1yo birthday party next weekend where books were requested as gifts. We considered giving Mixed by Arree Chung (but found it now harder to source than two years ago) and are giving Our Little Kitchen by Jillian Tamaki. Both are books that our kids love.
I had forgotten Baby Cakes, by Theo Heras! One of my girls had a period of obsession with this board book, and we had to read it until it literally fell apart.
Click clack Moo (cows who type) is a favorite. I love the Otis books, and The book with No Pictures!
My go-to baby shower books are a box set of Sandra Boynton, or at least Moo Baa Lalala, my personal favorite. For a slightly older child, my absolute favorite book as a child, and a favorite of my children, was Pickles the Fire Cat. Obscure but still available!
I forgot about Pickles! As soon as I read your post I could picture the cover. As a child, I named my first cat Pickles because of this book.
I like to give Loryn Brantz’ board books, especially “It Had to be You.” I also like the classics like Ezra Jack Keats and Eric Carle.
Yes to all the Sandra Boynton (today I drank matcha out of my Hogs and Quiches mug). Love the mention of I am a Bunny, I had a vintage copy that I read to my toddler every. single. naptime, yes his name is Nicholas, but why is it? I like to give Elephant and Piggie books (by Mo Willems), which are picture books as well as early readers and therefore have a nice long shelf life (“Banana. So funny”). Favorite board books include I Kissed the Baby! (the baby is a duck) and Peek-a Who? A family favorite board book that I would hesitate to give as a gift is Toot by Leslie Patricelli. It’s about, well, farting. But we all call it tooting, because of this book.
Yes, I love Peek a Who!
One of my favorites that I was gifted and in turn love to gift is Listen, Listen by Phillis Gershator. Beautiful rhyming book about the seasons with equally lovely illustrations.
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson was my son’s absolute favourite book growing up. He’s 14 now and he still has this in his collection of books. :-)
Our latest favorite format, once little teeth start emerging, is the Indestructibles line of books. They’re made of Tyvek or something, like Priority Mail envelopes, and babies can chew and crumple them to their heart’s content! I think they’re even washable.
The baby in our life has become a little beaver and has gnawed through the spines of several board books. 😂
Yes! These are the best gift to give! I got some at my shower, and my younger son destroyed books well until age 3, so he got lots of indestructible books to look at in the car.
All the world! And it’s illustrated by the insane person as seven silly eaters
Same person, not insane
Oh my! What a delightful trip down memory lane! Many of our favorites have already appeared on this list, so I will simply add:
Beekle by Dan Santat (we LOVE Dan’s artwork)
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker
My Friends by Taro Gomi
Freight Train by Donald Crews
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi
I am from Australia so am going to give you the name of a modern Australian children’s classic picture book. Where is the Green Sheep? By Mem Fox. Please tell me it’s well known in the US?
It was first published in 2004 by the way!
Known and beloved! (At least in my house)
These are my defaults because I still love them:
Where the wild things are (still love the illustrations)
Go Dog Go! by P.D. Eastman (fun read aloud that we all quote all the time)
I’ll teach my dog a lot of words (illustrated by P.D Eastman)
Viper by Lisa Thiesing (for an older kid but a great read-aloud that teaches things and has some suspense in it, hard to find)
My daughter is 19 and still sometimes we quote Go, Dog. Go! to to each other, usually as we’re both getting into our cars to leave for the day. “Do you like my hat?” “I do NOT like your hat.” “Goodbye.” “Goodbye!”
Oh so many great suggestions! Yes, Indestructibles books are perfect for gifts at a shower, because they cannot by destroyed by even the most determined toddler.
My favorite baby and toddler books:
Peek a Who
But Not the Hippopotamus
Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett
Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett
Miss Rachel books are terrific, because she is a great person and toddlers love her
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis
Freight Train by Donald Crews
Fire Engine No. 9 by Mike Austin (mostly has sound effects like VROOM, GO!, CLANG! which is perfect for language development!)
My favorite preschool books:
Mary Wore a Red Dress (there is also a folk song, my favorite version is the one sung by Raffi)
Blueberries for Sal
Make Way for Ducklings (both by Robert McCloskey)
Goldilocks and The Three Bears (Jan Brett has a lovely version)
The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen have a fantastic, recently published version)
5 Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino
Favorite picture books
Snowmen at Night series (there is a seek and find element, that the author puts in fine print, and includes in all of her books) by Caralyn Buehner
Mustache Baby, Mustache Baby Meets His Match, Good Knight Mustache Baby, etc. by Carolyn Heos
Pig the Pug series by Aaron Blabey
Grumpy Monkey series by Suzanne Lang
Recently discovered favorites:
Chirri and Chirra by Kaya Doi (the illustrations are wonderful, the story is absolutely whimsical, and there are multiple books in the series that my boys and I loved rereading)
In the same vein, Sato the Rabbit series was a huge hit with my son. Very whimsical
All time favorite:
Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis – this is a great read aloud with an older preschooler, who has a solid understanding of proper word structure and meaning. The book is written in a completely made up language by the author, and the illustrations are indescribably hilarious. There is a whole world of bugs who make a discovery, come and go, communicate with one another, and follow a language pattern that is part Dutch, part German, part who knows what. We laughed so much as we read this together.
Forgot to add:
Where’s Baby? by Anne Hunter for toddlers
Let’s Play in the Forest While the Wolf is Not Around for preschool
So many good ones listed here! I loved the reading picture books at bedtime era (now have older kids).
For newborns (aka a baby shower gift) the black and white pattern board books are cool. My babies loooved to stare at those.
For toddlers
Goodnight Gorilla
Press Here
Any Sandra Boynton (especially the Bellbutton Book and Personal Peguin)
Preschooler
Elephant and Piggie, Knuffle Bunny , and Pigeon books by Moe Willems
Courderoy by Don Freeman
Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie DePaola (also the Strega Nona books!)
I could go on, I’ll end with the Clementine series by Sara Pennypacker for chapter books for early elementary (much better than Junie B Jones , IMHO)
We read every Strega Nona book we could get our hands on last year. I love Tomie DePaola!
A sweet one for pre-school / early elementary, The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. The main character, a racoon, goes off to school with all the other forest animals and brings his mom’s kiss with him. It’ll make you cry in a good way.
I always give Sheep in a Jeep. I love the first 3 Pete the Cat books by the original author Eric Litwin. The ones without Eric lose the magic. I like his Groovy Joe books too.
Grumpy Bird is another favorite at my house.
Our favorite that hasn’t yet been mentioned was “Gossie the Gosling” and the rest of that series. I have also gifted lots of Pat the Bunny, my childhood favorite.
Also, my youngest is six and we had just about every Sandra Boynton book and adored them. I could recite Moo Baa La La La and Eek! Halloween at this very minute.
Mama Loves You So
Where is the Green Sheep?
The Rainbow Fish
The Little Red Barn
See Touch Feel (series)
Jamberry! One berry, two berry, pick me a blueberry….
The Big Red Barn
My kids loved this Matisse board book called Dance for Joy that I was remembering the other day when I took my now 15 year old daughter to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC. We came home and read it.
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Anything by Tomie DePaola, but Stega Nona’s Harvest is a favorite here.
One of my relatives purchased any book with my daughter’s name she could find. Another relative got books from…minor celebrities…think an ice skater, journalist, etc
Sandra Boynton for the win! I am terribly old (raised my kids in the 80’s) but does anyone remember Gyo Fujikawa? Babies, The Flyaway Kite, Good Morning (Good morning! Good morning! It’s time to start the day. First we’ll have breakfast, then we can play!); The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown (obviously beloved, she has been mentioned so often here!); Robert Munsch (he’s Canadian like me) books (The Paperbag Princess, David’s Father, Thomas’ Snowsuit); Judith Viorst’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day – a title which our family adopted for our own descriptor of a bad day! Thank you Swistle for this topic and the opportunity to comment, read comments, and walk down a lovely memory lane!
I STILL HAVE MY CHILDHOOD GYO FUJIKAWA BOOKS. Sleepy Time and Let’s Play and Let’s Eat!
The Paper Bag Princess is simply perfect!
More More More Said the Baby by Vera B Williams!
What a lovely list to read through – I can still recite ‘Moo Baa Lalala’ and my babies are now in their thirties!
I would add ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen, and a couple of New Zealand classics that are just delightful to read aloud:
‘The Little Yellow Digger’ by Betty and Alan Gilderdale
‘Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy’ by Lynley Dodd (note that in NZ, a dairy is a local shop, nothing to do with cows).