Books for kids
 

I was reminded of the Henry and Mudge books in another thread which got me to thinking about kids books in general. One that I really liked reading to the kids was Heckedy Peg. It has the charm of a very old story, but it's recent. The illustrations are wonderful. Very fun to read aloud.

I just read up on this book and it looks like my kids (4 and 5) would really like it. I'm going to get a copy from the library and read it to them. I've been looking for a book like this to read to them. They are not 100% ready for Harry Potter besides, this book has, apparently, some great illustrations whereas Harry Potter doesn't have any.

I recommend the classic A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell, and Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman and Diana Souza.

What's in common with these? :)

That looks like a good one. . . sometimes I wish for those story-reading days again... but then I come to my senses. I read Where the Wild Things Are about four thousand times. Oh. My. God, my boy-child loved this book.
I can still (and it's been some five years or so...) recite the damned thing word-for-word...
<small>
<b>Where the Wild Things Are: Story and Pictures by Maurice Sendak...</b>
<b>O</b>n the night Max wore his wolf suit... and made mischief of one kind... and another ["chasing the dog with a fork is never a good idea," I would interject here]... his mother called him "Wild Thing!" and Max said, "I'll eat you up!"
<b>S</b>o he was sent to bed without eating anything.
<b>T</b>hat night, In Max's room, a forest grew... and grew.... and grew until the ceiling hung with vines [but there were no vines in the picture] and the walls became a world all around. . .
<b>A</b>nd an ocean tumbled by with a private boat just for Max [see? there's his name, painted right on the side of it!] and he sailed off... through night and day, and in and out of weeks, and juuuust over a year, to the place Where the Wild Things Are.
<b>A</b>nd when he came to the place where the wild things are, they ROOOARED their terrible roars, and they gnashed their terrible teeth and they showed their terrible claws, till max said "BE Still!" and he tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once. And they were frightened, and they called him the most wild thing of all, and they made him King Of All Wild Things.
"<b>A</b>nd now," cried Max, "Let the wild rumpus Begin!"
[<i>and they rumpused, and rumpused and rumpused</i>]
"<b>N</b>ow stop!" siad Max, and he sent them off to bed witoout their supper.
<b>A</b>nd Max, the King of All Wild Things, was lonely.... and he wanted to be where someone loved him very best of all. ... then allll around from far away across the world, he smelled good things to eat. So he gave up being King of Where the Wild Things Are.
<b>B</b>ut the Wild Things cried, "Oh, please don't go, we'll eat you up, we love you so!!"
<b>B</b>ut Max said, "no."
<b>A</b>nd the Wild Things roared their terrible roars and they gnashed their terrrible teeth and they showed their terrible claws.... But Max just stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye.
<b>A</b>nd he sailed back, over a year, and in and out of weeks, and through a day....
<b>I</b>nto the night of his very own room... where he found his supper waiting for him.
...and it was still hot.</small>
OK, maybe that's a little sad.... I found the text online, and I think I've missed about two or three words.

//going away now. :) ....I wonder if I can find it in French somewhere. . . .

The reviews are mixed with Heather Has Two Mommies. The most "useful" review (twice as many "useful" ratings as the second most useful) of this book by an Amazon reader.

There are a lot of books that enchanted me in childhood that do so to this day ... Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Dark is Rising Sequence (older kids ... pre-teens probably), The Jungle Books,The Green Knowe books, Island of the Blue Dolphins, My Side of the Mountain, Black Beauty, The Black Stallion books and about a thousand other books about horses.

There are a lot of great children's books out there, not all of them are Caldicott or Newbury winners.

My Side of the Mountain and The Phantom Tollbooth are two of the best kids books... I still pick them up from time to time if I need a quick read.

If you or a child you know is a fan of My Side of the Mountain, I recommend any book by Gary Paulsen. Hatchet and Canyons are my two favorites.

shel silverstein is good except for the one about the tree and the boy, that bummed me out. still does.

for little kids, i likeParts and More Parts. They still make my son laugh hysterically. The Berenstein Bears and Curious George, of course.

for a little older, The Chronicles of Narnia are good.

I loved Harriet the Spy. The sequel (The Long Summer) wasn't as good. I was very disappointed by the movie.

There's supposed to be a Narnia movie coming out soonish ... late this year? Please, please, please, oh PLEASE let them do it right!!

December, I think. The costuming and props are being done by WETA, who did Lord of the Rings, so it will LOOK good, at least.

I took my kids to the library last night and read that book to them. They really enjoyed it! Great illustrations.

Good suggestion.

I really enjoyed the trilogy by Madeleine L'Engle, The Swiftly Tilting Planet, A Wrinkle in Time, and A Wind in the Door. I also loved the Chronicles of Narnia.

The Black Beauty books. The Earthsea book as well, and I started the Lord of the Rings at 12.

I just started rereading Earthsea for the first time since I was in elementary school. Interesting writing style.