I checked in with Carey, my oldest daughter and a co-editor of Wild Things and Castles in the Sky: A Guide to Choosing the Best Books for Children, to make certain it was okay to use her birthday, February 16th, as an excuse to post a list of children’s books that I read to her when she was little. She said it was okay… and even reminded me of a few of our favorites.
The majority of these books are from our very first years of reading books together. These books are also ones that are still sitting on the bottom three shelves of the tallest book shelf in BookEnd, our home in the west end of Lancaster. Although I discovered most of them in our local library, we loved them enough to buy our own copies.
Carey was the reason I discovered the goodness of a well-told and well-illustrated story, and how I also discovered my love for sitting on the floor, back against the couch, with a child on my lap (and later, when her sisters came, a child on one side of me, another child on my lap, and maybe another one rolling around on the floor or on top of me . . . and a book in front of us). Big cozy chairs do just fine, too. Snacks help.
Making a book about books with Carey has been a delight because, now that she teaches four year olds, she has continued developing her love of books and has also introduced me to many, many new books, authors, and illustrators in which to delight. It’s fun to have our roles reversed.
We spent many years going back and forth to the library, discovering stories written by people of all backgrounds and stories of all kinds… but these are the ones that got me started on my journey to learn more about books and to make reading a part of our family culture. These are the books written or illustrated by people we still remember. In the list below, there maybe be one book named with it’s author, but most likely that author has more books worth checking out. As with the suggestions in our upcoming book (Wild Things and Castles in the Sky—which should come out in early, early spring, 2022—shameless plug!), this list is just an introduction.
Read With Me Bible: An NIV Story Bible for Children
Tomie de Paola’s Book of Bible Stories by Tomie dePaola
Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child’s Book of Poems by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers
Mudpies and Other Recipes: A Cookbook for Dolls by Marjorie Winslow
Children Just Like Me: a Unique Celebration of Children Around the World by Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley
The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boyton
Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees (and the others in the classic board book collection )
Giving by Shirley Hughes
Tom and Pippo Go Shopping by Helen Oxenbury
What the Sun Sees by Nancy Tafuri
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
My First Little House Books: The Deer in the Wood adapted by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Corduroy by Don Freeman
McDuff Moves In by Rosemary Wells
This Quiet Lady by Charlotte Zolotow
The Lovely Present by Charotte Zolotqw
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
Just Only John by Jack Kent
Island Boy by Barbara Cooney
Miss Fannie’s Hat by Jan Karon
Jennie’s Hat by Ezra Jack Keats
Mr. Putter and Tabby Paint the Porch by Cynthia Rylant
Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
Little Bear by Elise Holmelund Minarik
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This post was written by Leslie Bustard, one of the co-editors of Wild Things and Castles in the Sky, coming Spring 2022.
