# Favorite Picture Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 4, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853 "2012-04-04T20:42:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/21 "2012-04-06T12:48:33Z")
Yeah, those are some righteous goats! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/22 "2012-04-06T13:58:17Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Leaving aside a zillion Dr. Seuss books, I have fond memories of [“Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm”](http://www.amazon.ca/Animal-Friends-Maple-Hill-Farm/dp/0689844999). I’ve never seen anything else quite like it, with its beautiful pictures and descriptions of horses that bite people, cows that get tangled in barbed wire fences and dogs that were hit by cars. Hilarious. I need to get this book. That would have been right up my alley when I was a kid and I bet my kids would love it. > [@phreesh](#): > > There was a book simply called ‘Gnomes’ by Wil Huygen that really captured my imgination when I was a kid. It showed the day-to-day lives of Gnomes and I loved it. I still have my copy of this book that I got when I was a kid. I still remember seeing it in the shop and buying it. I would pore over it for hours. My two favorites when I was little were [Old McDonald Had an Apartment House](http://www.amazon.com/Old-Macdonald-Had-Apartment-House/dp/0689817576) by Judi Barrett and [The Sailor Dog](http://www.amazon.com/The-Sailor-Little-Golden-Book/dp/0307001431), which is a Golden Book. I don’t have my copies of those from when I was a kid (my nephews have my Old McDonald book), but I bought copies for my kids. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/23 "2012-04-06T14:06:38Z")
I recently found a few of my childhood picture books at my parents’ house. They’re in bad shape, but they bring back vivid memories. Did anybody have [The Ice-Cream Cone Coot and Other Rare Birds](http://www.vintagechildrensbooksmykidloves.com/2009/05/ice-cream-cone-coot-and-other-rare.html)? \*All the birds inside this book are very strange and rare, and if you travel to the zoo you will not find them there. Don’t look for them in nature books, in parks or pet shop cages, The Drippet, Piffle and the rest live only on these pages. \* Or [The Marvelous Catch of Old Hannibal](http://www.amazon.com/The-Marvelous-Catch-Old-Hannibal/dp/B002BF3W2A/)? About a fisherman’s tall tale. _“That’s a grand catch, Old Hannibal, a marvelous catch, the best I ever did see!”_ ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/24 "2012-04-06T15:00:25Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > _The Tall Book of Make Believe._ Very imaginative stories, but the best thing about the book is the amazing illustrations. I used to look at the pictures and make up my own stories. My book was printed in the '40s, and not in very good shape, but I still look at the pictures now and then. Truly extraordinary book. My wife has a copy of this. Those pictures are quite distinctive… some I would almost say border on the grotesque in a sort of “uncanny valley” way. Also I would like to third (or whatever) _The Poky Little Puppy_. Another Golden Book I remember fondly is _Scuffy the Tugboat_. I’ve seen different versions of that book over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/25 "2012-04-06T16:33:15Z")
[The Five Chinese Brothers](http://www.amazon.com/The-Five-Chinese-Brothers-Paperstar/dp/0698113578) [The Rabbi and the Twenty-Nine Witches](http://www.amazon.com/Rabbi-Twenty-nine-Witches-Marilyn-Hirsh/dp/0761455868/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333729650&sr=1-1) ---
**Author:** ![LaurenIpsum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@LaurenIpsum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LaurenIpsum)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/26 "2012-04-06T16:58:56Z")
Just thought of another one. _The Witch’s Catalog._ It wasn’t really a story, but a fake catalog of magical products you could buy. I think it’s the kind of thing that gets a kid’s imagination going. For example, there was a “magic jumper”\* that let you jump really high. A weather balloon that actually changes the weather underneath it. And a doorway that you could walk through and be instantly clean without taking a bath. And then there was the genie in a bottle, but I always wondered why someone wouldn’t just buy the genie and then with for all the other stuff in the catalog. 😉 I believe it was from the 1970s, and the illustrations were simple but well-done. \*Meaning “jumper” in the American sense, of a pinafore-like dress, not the British “jumper” or sweater. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/27 "2012-04-06T17:17:14Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > [The Five Chinese Brothers](http://www.amazon.com/The-Five-Chinese-Brothers-Paperstar/dp/0698113578) I loved this when I was a kid. It felt kind of weird to read it to my little kids, with all the horrific attempted executions, but it never bothered them. There are some complaints that it’s racist, though, for making all of the Chinese people look alike. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/28 "2012-04-06T20:15:15Z")
The Big Orange Splotch- By Daniel Pinkwater A marvellous book on non conformity and following your heart. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/29 "2012-04-07T00:01:10Z")
Oh, we love the Big Orange Splot here! Also Tooth-Gnasher Superflash, another Pinkwater picture-book classic. My favorite when I was a kid was _The Elephant Who Liked to Smash Small Cars_, by Jean Merrill. It was all about this elephant who liked to smash small cars, and when a small car drove along his road, he would merrily smash it, singing his car-smashing song. Then a man opened a small-car dealership on the elephant’s street, and the elephant had a wonderful time. The man decided to sell big cars instead, and smashed the elephant until he promised never to smash a small car again. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/30 "2012-04-08T01:30:01Z")
Anything by Richard Scarry. Loved his artwork. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/31 "2012-04-08T02:42:58Z")
[Boswell’s Life of Boswell](http://www.evelynleavens.com/bos1.html), by Evelyn Leavens (1958, Simon & Schuster). The whole perfect 25 page book is available in the link. ---
**Author:** ![SticksAndString](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@SticksAndString](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SticksAndString)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/32 "2012-04-10T10:43:07Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > Stephen Cosgrove’s Serendipity books, like _Leo the Lop_. > Anything by Audrey and Don Wood, like _The Napping House_ and _King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub_. > Also a really obscure series from a German baron called Wolo, I’d love to see _Friendship Valley_ or _Amanda_ made into an animated film. OMG..I LOVED the Serendipity books too. Every time we had one of those stupid paper things come around or a book fair at school, I’d try to buy as many of the ones that were offered as I could. I thought the illustrations were so beautiful. Courtesy of my MIL, Slim has a copy of “The Napping House” on his book shelf. She used to be a Reading Recovery (I think that’s like tutoring? IDK) teacher for an elementary school, so every year for birthdays and Christmas or whatever she gets him at least one book. This year he got “Heaven is For Real FOR KIDS!” (which I thought was kinda meh..the sparkly unicorn was cute though LOL) and “Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You” which has beautiful illustrations but I can’t read it without bawling my eyes out. **GuanoLad** –We checked out “In the Night Kitchen” the other day. Slim thought it was hilarious to see a naked child butt on one of the pages. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853/33 "2012-04-10T16:14:17Z")
Dav Pilkey’s “Dragon” books. My favorite is “[A Friend for Dragon](http://www.pilkey.com/bookview.php?id=4).” “[Dragon’s Fat Cat](http://www.pilkey.com/bookview.php?id=15)” is also great. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-picture-books/617853.md?page=1)