Great Childrens' Books

Taiwan Parenting
1

I can’t believe no one started this thread before, but they didn’t. At least not in the Parenting Forum. Anyway, I’ve got lots more to add later, as my father taught Children’s Lit in various universities and has written and reviewed children’s books professionally for almost 40 years, as a result of which my house in Taipei is overflowing with kid’s books. Every trip home my parents always tell us to bring extra suitcases to transport the loot back to Taipei.

But for now I just want to comment on one of my 27-month-old girl’s (and my wife’s and my) favorite childrens book authors, Lucy Cousins. Her books are terrific: colorful, cheerful, upbeat, full of animals and easily read over and over and over. We really like these two:

But, she has done countless fabulous books (and I’m eager to buy a few more) as you can see here. Many of them are board books, too, which makes them perfect for toddlers.
amazon.com/exec/obidos/searc … 55-3518511

Ok, 2 more favorites. Goodnight Moon is a classic for good reason. Peaceful, soothing, with interesting details to explore, this makes a perfect bedtime book. Our girl was hooked on it.

She’s now moved on to another classic, Where the Wild Things Are, as one of her bedtime favorites. Believe it or not, when this book came out many adults objected to the book, claiming it’s too scary and inappropriate for small children. Idiots. Our girl loves it and doesn’t find it the least bit scary. On the other hand, she loves that Max becomes king of the Wild Things, but empathizes when he gets lonely at the end and wants to go home to his home-cooked meal and his bed . . . and she’s asleep within minutes after closing the book.

That’s all for now. I have to return to work.

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For the older kids anything by Sheil Silverstien is great

1st graders love “No David, NO” probably because they see a naked kid running down the street.

My all time favorite is “Ms. Katz and Tush” I cry every time I read that darn book by Patricia Polacco. In fact all her books are good, but that one is my fav.

Then there’s the Strega Nona author and all of his books.

For older kids, the last good book I read was called “Frindle” a great book about teaching kids the potiental they have within.

3

My 31 month old daughter loves Goodnight Moon, too.

Her other favorites are The Eye Book by Dr. Seuss as Theo LeSieg, Bathtime for Clifford(but only if I substitute her name for Clifford’s), and Seame Street’s The Monster at the End of This Book.

Her favorite Chinese books are a series about a little monkey named Chi-Chi. I like these books too because each one teaches a lesson about how to interact with others.

4

Bus Stop

by some japanese author…great illustrations

5

I love children’s literature and have been building a collection of award-winning books - Here are some of my favorites:

Preschoolers: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle and Bill Martin Jr.; Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by John Archambault and Bill Martin Jr.; Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman; The Little Mouse, the Red, Ripe Strawberry, and the Big, Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood; The Kissing Hand (can’t remember the author offhand).

For emergent readers there’s a huge variety of books, but some of my favorites are the Little Bear series, Henry and Mudge, and the Frog and Toad books.

For older readers…gosh, don’t quite know where to start. Well, for middle elementary - grades 2 to 4, I recommend Frindle by Andrew Clements; Jennifer, William McKinley, Hecate, and me, Elizabeth by E.L. Koenigsberg, The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume; Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary, and of course, The Magic Treehouse series. For children in grades 4 to 6, I recommend The Tale of Despereaux, Holes by Louis Sachar, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (author forgotten, but this book stirred up such emotion in me when I read it - I laughed, was outraged, sad, proud, and made hopeful by the events in this book), Pink and Say by Patricia Pollacco (sp?), and Wringer by Jerry Spinelli. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to add to this list. And this isn’t even my list of favorite read-aloud stories for kids of all ages…

6

I really don’t like Goodnight Moon. It doesn’t do anything for me. Harold and the purple crayon is a good moon book though

7

some great titles listed. our 1 year old is loving the “david” series as well, especially the shot with the full diaper.

just want to add that you may be surprised at how many books might be available here - our neighbor’s daughter goes to a local primary school, and her mom found that it’s full of english books for kids. she borrows about 4-5 per week, and her daughter devours them (sometimes reads, other times listens).

if you have kids, perhaps check their school library and save some $$$.

8

My little one’s favorites include Laura Joffe Numeroff’s “If You Give…” series: If You Give A Mouse a Cookie, If You Give A Moose a Muffin (much requested), If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Take a Mouse to School, and If You Take a Mosue to the Movies (Christmas theme).

BTW, it took the folks over at WW Norton long enough: The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature debuted in 2005 - it weighs in at 2,200 pages and includes 170 authors (with a good number of notables missing). It’s not really for kids - but it is really interesting.
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/titles/english/nacl/welcome.htm

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Also look up Esme Raji Codell’s How to Get Your Child To Love Reading (or something like that). It’s the size of a dictionary, but grouped by themes like bringing in a new baby or the first day or school or books about cooking (but not necessarily cookbooks…ones like In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak or Eating an Alphabet by Lois Ehlert), and has lots of ideas to promote literacy at home, in school, and in your community (why do I feel like I’m writing an amazon.com review?).

10

Agree with Goodnight Moon,Goodnight Gorilla, Harold and the Purple Caryon and Where the Wild Things Are (current favorite)

Also want to add Owl Babies, Dr.Seuss, Eric Hill’s Where’s Spot series, anythings by Eric Carle and Curious George

11

jdsmith wrote
I really don’t like Goodnight Moon. It doesn’t do anything for me.

You may be slightly older than the target audience.

I thought it was pretty silly too, but my daughter never tires of it. Sometimes I feel reading it just one more time may be what finally drives me over the edge.

12

The Monster at the End of this Book. A Seseme Street book.

Loved hearing my dad read it. Of course, he did such a good job that my sister and I would be howling with laughter, and out mother would end up calling, “They’re supposed to be going to sleep!”

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[quote][quote=“navillus”]jdsmith wrote
I really don’t like Goodnight Moon. It doesn’t do anything for me. [/quote]

[quote]You may be slightly older than the target audience.

I thought it was pretty silly too, but my daughter never tires of it. Sometimes I feel reading it just one more time may be what finally drives me over the edge.[/quote][/quote]

Ha, that’s true, but I can basically do the gist of Goodnight Moon by saying goodnight to everything I see. :slight_smile:

14

For those new to parenting/Taipei, the Taipei Public Library has a very good library of English-language children’s books. The main branch at GienKuo Sth Road has a children’s English library in the basement, they have picture books, books for older kids, big books, dvds, cds, and so on you take out. Even our local branch here in Muzha has a really good English-language section. And, you can request the books from any branch in the Library to be sent to your closest branch, you drop them off there when you are finished with them. If you read Chinese, you can do all your book searching and requesting online too. The library service is free for Taipei residents.

http://www.tpml.edu.tw/TaipeiPublicLibrary/index.php

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[quote]You may be slightly older than the target audience.

I thought it was pretty silly too, but my daughter never tires of it. Sometimes I feel reading it just one more time may be what finally drives me over the edge.[/quote]

Ha, that’s true, but I can basically do the gist of Goodnight Moon by saying goodnight to everything I see. :slight_smile:[/quote]

I suspect you’re being slightly facetious JD, but I can see why some people might not be thrilled with that book. It’s almost 60 years old – first published in 1947 – and the arts and peoples’ tastes have evolved since then. Still, I believe it’s endured for good reason. Yes it is repetitive, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in a childrens book, particularly a bedtime book. It’s soothing, peaceful and works like a charm to lull young ones to sleep. At least in our house it does.

We’ve got three books in our house that are almost as old, by another classic author: Lois Lenski. Published in the early ‘50s her books are simple and wholesome and hearken back a different world, before suicide bombers, global war on terror, and feminism. When my folks handed me Lenski’s books to stuff in my suitcase I hesitated, thinking they might be a little too old-fashioned. . . and sexist, but turns out our girl loves them. They’re a beautiful small size, perfect for the car or bed, and full of charming, pastel-colored illustrations of brother and sister playing, of cowboys, farmers, and old-fashioned americana, with plenty of details to keep the kid occupied. These books brought home for me a key point re childrens lit: the parents’ initial reaction to the books is not so important as the child’s. Here are two of the Lenski books our girl loves:

Others mentioned Eric Carle. Yes, he’s terrific and most of his books are available in board book version, which is a must if you’ve got a toddler. Like lots of great kids’ books, they’re also available in Chinese or English. Other authors we like are Peter Sis, Anthony Browne and Chris Van Allsburg, though our girl loves all kinds of books.

In fact, one of her favorite genre is the various pregnancy/giving birth books that we bought almost 3 years ago. More than once we’ve walked into the room and found her sitting on the floor staring, a little in awe, at a photo of a naked woman with enormous belly, breasts and pubic hair right out in the open and baby’s head starting to emerge from the vagina. Did I rush to grab the dirty book and stash it on a high shelf? Nah. I don’t see how viewing that could cause her any harm. On the contrary, good for her to learn the facts early. Better yet, she greatly enjoys the photos of babies sucking on breasts, learning to eat food, crying and going to sleep. Maybe it makes her feel very grown up or maybe it gives her a feeling that there are lots of other kids just like her.

16

I really like Lois Lenski’s books for older children. If you get a chance, you might enjoy reading The Strawberry Girl with your older elementary school student about a potential family feud between have’s and have-not’s that gets diffused by kindness and friendship. The language is a little challenging as the dialogues are in vernacular, but it doesn’t take away from the story.

Books that feature photos of real children are always a plus for children of any age. There are several good ones, featuring kindergarteners at school which will help ease any preschooler’s anxiety about their first day. There are books featuring families together which can be used as a springboard to start a photo journaling/scrapbooking project together. There are books of babies just doing all sorts of things like eating, playing, getting dressed, etc. that are fascinating to the babies who look at them. This is why I am a huge fan of the Preschool Power video series. Kids love to see other kids doing what they do.

They had some nice photographed babies’ and children’s books at Costco a while back. I bought a whole stack for my nephew, niece, and cousin who are all 3 years old or younger. They loved them and my nephew who wasn’t talking yet just touched the pictures with his huge blue eyes opened wide.

Dorling Kindersley books about social studies, science, and history are great additions to your kids library. Even if they can’t read the words, they love looking at the real photgraphs of their favorite topic - dinosaurs, rainforests, inventions, Vikings, insects… They have a lot of subjects covered.

And I love reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White and My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett aloud to my students, in addition to The Tale of Despereaux and Ramona Quimby, Age 8.

17

This was my favorite book when I was a kid. My Mom still tells me about how obsessed I was with it. It’s about a man who dares to paint his house purple in a neighborhood where everyone elses houses are white.

I will not conform!!

18

Great reminder about the library! It’s mentioned briefly in the “TOP FIVE places” sticky, but since we’re on the subject of books, here’s a bit more info…

The foreign language children’s book collection of TPL is called “The Small World” – it opened in 2002 and it’s B2 of the library (B1 is the Chinese collection). The vast majority of books are in English, but they do have some books in German, French, Japanese, and a shelf of “Other Languages.” The English collection is a bit disorganized, but if you dig around you can find plenty of good stuff for children of all ages. They have a few shelves for 0-3, several for 4-8, then books on natural sciences, language, adolescent literature, technology, etc. There’s also a room of oversized books, a periodical shelf (with Ladybug, Cricket, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and others), a reference section, a computer area, drawers with videos and DVDs (these can only be checked out for three hours at a time so you’re pretty much limited to watching them in-house), and a room where they occasionally hold English activities.

All you need to get a library card is an ARC (free for Taipei residents), and you can check out up to 20 books at a time for a month. The library is located at No. 125 Jianguo S. Rd. Sec 2 (tel. 2755-3067) and The Small World is open Tues-Sat 9-6 and Mon and Sun 9-5 - the library is closed the first Thursday of every month.

I’m over there at least once a month. With children’s books as expensive as they are, the library has been a real boon for us, and it’s added quite a lot of variety to nightly storytime, and it’s fun to just sit in the library and read together and browse through the books. The library itself can get pretty crowded, but even on weekends there’s hardly anyone down in The Small World.

19

The kids still seem to like “The Little Engine That Could.” My 2.5-year-old girl loves “More, More, More, Said the Baby” by Vera B Williams, although the part about kissing toes I find mildly disturbing. The kids all loved “Tikki Tikki Tembo” by Blair Lent. My first grader loves the Ready Freddy series. The title character loves sharks so each illustration has the letters “FIN” hidden somewhere. He also loved “My Father’s Dragon” by Ruth Stiles Gannett. The Harry Potter series of course is great–probably for around 2nd grade and up, although the later books are quite a bit darker than the first one.

20

Chasing Vermeert is a really good book for the older set. I always loved Encyclopedia Brown books although I always had to look for the answers to the mysteries in the back.

And Judy Blume books are perfect for upper elementary/junior high school students. My 4th graders loved Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. And all of my female friends back home had read Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret…sometimes behind their parents’ backs. :unamused: