Lilly, Queen of the Universe, is really anxious to start reading. She likes to get all of her books out and “read” the stories to me - what she actually does is tell her version of the story while pointing to the words, but it is a start.
All of this made me think back to my days as a new reader and some of my favorite books, including:
The Five Chinese Brothers. My all-time favorite. The mental image of the brother swallowing the ocean, is still with me.
Curious George Goes To The Hospital. I had several surgeries as a kid. Knowing that Curious George made it through told me that I’d be ok.
Bread and Jam For Francis. I have no idea why I loved this story so much, but if you had to have a badger for a friend, you’d be hard pressed to beat Francis.
Green Eggs and Ham. I am Sam. Sam I am. IIRC, Ted Geissel agreed to write a children’s story using fewer than 100 different words. Green Eggs and Ham is the result.
Lyle the Crocodile. Again, I have no idea why this book stuck with me, but for a crocodile, Lyle was the one to beat.
How 'bout you? On a cold, rainy day, when you could not go out and play, what book did you crawl up on your bed with as a child?
Incidentally, I found Lilly’s version of “Pat the Bunny” while cleaning out her closet and was reminded that when we first got it I thought it was going to be about a rabbit named Pat.
I remember walking home from school when I was nine years old, reading Bambi (I read when I walked, I read when I ate, I was always being told to get my nose out of that book!), and reading the part where his mother got shot. I was devastated - not only by the event, but the effect it had on me. I tried to eat my tomato soup and not cry, but my mom saw that I was choking back tears. She finally got me to tell her - I was embarrasses to be crying over a book - and bless her heart, she taught me that it was okay to cry if a story made you sad and held me till I could stop crying. That introduced me to the power of a beautifully written story, a lesson I’ve never forgotten.
The other books I remember are Misty of Chincoteaque and Charlie the Lonesome Cougar. If it was about animals, I was there!
I remember walking home from school when I was nine years old, reading Bambi (I read when I walked, I read when I ate, I was always being told to get my nose out of that book!), and reading the part where his mother got shot. I was devastated - not only by the event, but the effect it had on me. I tried to eat my tomato soup and not cry, but my mom saw that I was choking back tears. She finally got me to tell her - I was embarrasses to be crying over a book - and bless her heart, she taught me that it was okay to cry if a story made you sad and held me till I could stop crying. That introduced me to the power of a beautifully written story, a lesson I’ve never forgotten.
The other books I remember are Misty of Chincoteaque and Charlie the Lonesome Cougar. If it was about animals, I was there!
My kids like If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and the related books by Laura Numeroff.
One of my old favorites was Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. Remember Ferdinand? He was the bull who liked to just sit quietly under the cork tree and smell the flowers.
Another old favorite was Mop Top, by Don Freeman.
Books from my own childhood include Frog and Toad Are Friends and Ricki-Ticki-Tavi.
A more recent book I rather liked was about a cat named Six Dinner Sid.
Micky In The Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak. (“I’m in the milk and the milk’s in me!”)
God, I loved that book when I was four or five. I didn’t realize how much it owes to Little Nemo in Slumberland until I was seventeen or eighteen, but still…
The Story of Ping
Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
The Story of Ferdinand
Millions of Cats
Tikki Tikki Tembo
Five Chinese Brothers
The Amelia Bedlia books
And the McGurk Mysteries by E. W. Hildick. I forget which one came first.
Probably to local for you
Kahala, Where the Rainbow Ends
Pua Pua Lena Lena and the magic Kiha-pu
The Adventures of Kamapua’a
And I loved it when my dad read to me from The Borrowers every night before we went to sleep. We couldn’t wait to hop into bed and be treated to another chapter.
My Gods, I thought I was the only one to ever hear of the Moomintroll books! Small Clanger and Eve, you have excellent taste in books!
I am a big, big fan of Winnie the Pooh and spent (and spend to be honest) many happy hours reading the stories and acting them out with my own stuffed friends. I also recommend the Paddington Bear series–I still laugh out loud at some of the situations. Both of these series are great read-aloud books that a young reader may well pick up herself.
For simple (relatively) read alone books, nothing touches Dr. Suess. Some of his titles are a bit difficult–if only because he uses made up words (as in If I Ran the Circus)–but many are specifically meant for the beginning reader (ala Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham).
The other thing that got me reading books earlier than most is a collection of books that contain maybe one or two chapters from some book–The Count of Monte Cristo, Three Musketeers, Black Beauty and many others. After I mastered the chapter (or abridged version), taking on a “real” book with chapters and everything was not the least bit intimidating.
all of a kind family
amelia bedelia
yertle the turtle
little women and all that followed
ben and me (a bio of franklin through the eyes of a mouse)
judy blume
i read tons of biographies as a kid, i really liked history books.
Wow, you guys are bringing back memories! I used to love RIF day at school and I always wished I could buy more books. When I was in second grade one of my favorite books was Half Magic by Edward Eager.
Black Beauty
Lad, A Dog
The Wonderful Adventures of Nils
Anderson’s Fairy Tales
Little Women
Tom Sawyer
The Book of Knowledge (a series of childrens’ encyclopedias)
White Fang
The Golden Book of Dinosaurs
The Golden Book of Astronomy
I had four older brothers, so not only did I have all of their children’s books, but I read pretty much all of the books that were in the bookshelves in my room. Some of them were geared for older children, some of them were ancient by the time I came along, but I loved them all anyway. All of them I carry around in my head to this day - either the words or illustrations:
Harold and the Purple Crayon. I was too young to read this. The only thing resembling a purple crayon I could find was this funky metal pear-shaped contraption that extended a really messy chalky blue string, which I could then pull on to leave a mark and then turn a crank and wind back up again. My parents instantly bought me a washable purple marker after that little incident.
The Carrot Seed. I found this one at a local bookstore recently and bought it on the spot. (I still have my original Purple Crayon book).
Frederick and Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse. Both by Leo Lionni. Great pictures and stories.
Harry By the Sea and Harry and the Sea Serpent. Stories involving a dog just like my dog.
Katy and the Big Snow - or something like that. Katy is a neglected forgotten tractor that gets fitted with a plow, then they never need her until one big snowstorm.
By the time I was about 8, I was hopelessly in love with science fiction. One of the first SF books I got out of our school library was a cheesy thriller type book where the alien hook turned out to be a hoax, called “The Blue Man.”
After that, the book I loved best as a kid was Secret of the Marauder Satellite, which I got from the local public library.
When I was Lilly’s age, I was obsessed with the Richard Scary Busytown books. I have a few that both of my sons have just pored over too. Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm was another one I loved. I was all about the animals too, as I got older. I read all of the Margeurite Henry books, all of the Walter Farley Black Stallion books, all of the Albert Payson Terhune (Lad, A Dog) books, and probably all of the others people have listed here. I read every single young reader animal book in our library.
Later, I graduated to young adult science fiction. A neighbor lent me some Anne McCaffrey dragon books, and my mom got me started on Robert Heinlein. Sadly, not a juvenile, which would have shocked her, but it did get me hooked!
Eve and Small Clanger Thank you, thank you, for reminding me of the Moomintroll books! I had forgotten them to the point where I couldn’t look them up, but I’ve always remembered the Little My character. I’m so glad that my brain wasn’t making her up! The memory was so fuzzy that I wasn’t sure.