I have some little cousins to Christmas shop for. Some are around three years old, the others approximately eight. If you know of some excellent picture books for the little ones, or some good easy reading for the slightly older set, I’d really appreciate your help!
For the three year old, I really like anything by Richard Scarry. I just got these for my two year old boy and he loves them, though they are just a trifle “old” for him. For a three year old they should be perfect:
I’ve been reading this one for 14 years now to innumerable children (it came out when my son was 9 months old), and every single time, my voice catches and I get a little teary on the last two pages. I can’t explain why. This is our own personal “Good Night, Moon”, which I can’t stand. It’s just oozing with gentle parental love, and has a great rhythm and flow, without being too sing-songy or patronizing.
Time For Bed (“It’s time for bed, little mouse, little mouse. Darkness is falling all over the house.”)
But I also love the Richard Scarry books, and those are a little more challenging for a three year old (in a good way).
Just off the top of my head:
My 3-year old (and my 6-year old) loves the picture book Yellow Submarine. Yes, from the Beatles movie. He also loves hearing any of the Mr. Putter and Tabby books by Cynthia Rylant. Other huge hit picture books are You Can Do Anything Daddy by Michael Rex (which has the benefit of having robot gorilla pirates from Mars in it), Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen, the awesome How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon (anything by David Shannon is good), Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin, the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel (all of his books are good, although some are quite odd), The older one has lots of books read to him that are more difficult. These include the Jigsaw Jones series (think Encyclopedia Brown, but modern) by James Preller, The Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osborne, Magic School Bus chapter books (as opposed to the comic book ones) by Joanna Cole, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.
There are dozens more, I’m sure. Good past threads on children’s books are:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=135617
I third the Richard Scarry books. They are great for learning to read, and great for a little one who can’t read to look at by themselves. Sometimes for a long time, which is a great help to parents!
The Cat in the Hat & other Dr. Seuss books are good…the kids like the rhyming, and I have found as a parent that the rhyming ones are easier to read aloud for some reason.
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems. Or anything else by Mo Willems. Knuffle Bunny is also good. (This would be for the 3-year-old.)
My 5-year-old really likes the Magic Tree House books, but I don’t know if they’d be a tad young for the 8-year-old. It’s a good series, though.
Try these…
The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson
Click Clack moo - Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin
and its follow ups…
and
I… I mean my son… loved them.
Heh, my two year old drove me crazy for awhile with Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!. He kept demanding it over and over and over again, until I heartily wished to wring that little pidgeon’s neck, or at least, let him drive the damn bus.
Then one day, he just got bored with it. Now, it is Scarry and Thomas the Tank Engine all the time.
Thomas the Tank engine is like crack cocaine for little boys.
The Gruffalo and the the Gruffalos Child , excellent for the 3 year old
Not so much for the 8yo
Also try Something in my attic by Mercer Mayer
She also has a few other books in a similar style of monsters in the closet and crocodiles under the bed.
The Cat in the Hat, Cat in the Hat comes back &The Sleep Book are also favorites with our 5 & 3 year old sprogs. The one year old still just tries to eat the books.
I have a four year old… some of his current favourites are Green Eggs and Ham and Fox in Socks by Dr Seuss, George and the Dragon (can’t recall the author, but George is a mouse… he loves it to bits especially when we do the dragon actions together and I do my best to speak in an English accent when I speak for George and he adds his own favourites to the list of food George gets at the end…).
Good Dog, Carl is a favourite also because there’s only a couple of lines and most of the story is told in pictures. So I have him tell me the story.
Robert Munsch is also good. My favourites are Mud Puddle, Angela’s Airplane, The Paperbag Princess, Good Families Don’t (it’s a book about farting btw) and Love You Forever (though there are those who dislike it, since at the end it’s clearly implied that the mother dies).
This is the one I sent last year. I don’t know what they thought of it, since I don’t live close to them, but my kids and I liked it a lot. Even though we’re old.
I’m making a list so I can look at all of these suggestions at the library this weekend. Thank you everyone!
Mo Willems also has a great one called, Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct. It’s very funny and has one of the greatest character names ever, Reginald Von Hoobie-Doobie. We sing songs about him.
Fang enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s The Wolves in the Walls. He got a little scared on the first reading, but it’s now one of his favorite books.
I highly recommend any of the Mr. Lunch books, although they can be a little hard to find. Fun for kids and parents too!
My almost-three-year-old loves these. I got her a talking plush pigeon for Christmas.
MOST eight year olds are about perfect Magic Tree House book age.
My eight year old daughter just finished “The Tale of Desperaux” - but it astounded her second grade teacher - who found the trite Little House In the Big Woods too challenging to READ ALOUD to the class. My daughter has been reading that as well - which isn’t as challenging, but is one of those classics. She also like the Junie B Jones books and the really stupid easy Rainbow Fairies early chapter books and Magic Treehouse - all a little “easy” for her - but she is a pretty good reader for her age - those tend to be good eight year old books. She loved the first three now out of print (AGAIN) Betsy-Tacy books - but they scale and number four didn’t hold her interest - the girls had gotten that much older than her.
My son is nine and likes Captain Underpants, Magic Treehouse and the Bailey School Kids - all a little easy for him. He is currently working on Diane Duane’s “So You Want to Be a Wizard” - but is finding in to be challenging - his teacher is also impressed that he would read that in third grade.
I’m 43 and I found it challenging. 
For the younger ones:
A penguin named Osbert
Anything by Kevin Henkes: Imogene’s Antlers, Chysthanemum, Lilly’s purple plastic purse. Are all wonderful.
Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman. Wonderfully funny, rhyming book about 7 fussy eaters who drive their mother to distraction.
Anno’s Counting Book has to be one of the most brilliant learn-to-count books out there.
Dogger by Shirley Hughes, is in and out of print. If you ever find a copy, buy it. I swear you will LOVE it or you posess a cold, cold, bitter heart. you cad!
Monster at the end of this Book. starring Grover. A classic.
Older Kids
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid I just bought this last night at my kids school book fair and I.LOVE.IT. Funny, well written. My son cannot wait for me to finish it ( probably tonight) so he can read it. This book is the book that flew off the shelf at the bookfair. Scholastic cannot keep up with the orders. ( It is also only $4.99 or $6.99, I think, via the book fair.)
The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Basil This is an awesome Read-Aloud book to kids of all ages. It is the story of Basil who thinks living in a lighthouse in the late 1800’s is very boring.
One day a flying ship comes into his life and he hops on board, naturally, by the end of the book, he is involved in saving the world. Zee Bad guy in the book speaks vit a Gherman Akscent. ( Most Awesome!)
The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholmew Piff which looks promising.
A great resource, other than Amazon, is Chinaberry
My son got this at the book fair too, and has been pestering me to read it! 
I finished it last night and loved it. The writer definately picks up the memories long supressed of *just how hard it is being in the 5th grade and the dumb stuff we all did then * and makes it very entertaining. I handed it over to my 9.5 year old and he jumped right in and finished it this morning when he woke up.
cheese touch