Special Feature: Children's Books

[ValiantArcher]

This thread is for discussion of all children's books, but especially for picture books.

What are some of your favourite ones? Do you still have any of your old picture books from when you were little? Do you still collect them now? Why do you love them?

One thing I've noticed about picture books is their illustrations are often lovely (obviously---can you imagine buying a book full of ugly pictures?). But, also, a number of times their stories are sweet ones, too. Am I the only one who gets sentimental over picture books?

Some of my favourites:





And since pictures of books are lovely, just a reminder: All photos must be kept under 800x600 resolution. If you post actual photos instead of links, there is a limit of 4 photos per post. This will cut down loading times for those users still stuck on dial-up internet. Thanks!

[Shadowlander]

"I do no like green eggs and ham! I do not like them, Sam-I-Am!"

[stargazer]

Watch the Stars Come Out? I missed that one, but it sounds interesting!

The first books that come to mind are those I've read in recent years to nieces and nephews, or friends' kids, rather than those I had as a kid.

I can still quote big chunks of them...

"In the great green room..."



"Do you like my hat?"
"No, I do not. Good bye."



edit: and how could I forget Dr. Seuss' tongue-twisting Fox in Socks, which got its own stamp:



When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles
and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles...
...they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle
bottle paddle battle.

[sweeetlilgurlie]

I absolutely loved the Princess story picture books with beautiful illustrations. I don't mean disney princess books. Just illustrated versions of classic fairytales. That picture of the picture book of The Twelve Dancing Princesses brings back lovely memories. Actually, I still enjoy going to the library, getting out a nice big stack of picture books, and sitting down to read them and look at the pictures.

One of my favorite picture books is called The Four Gallant Sisters. I'm not sure who it's by. Have any of you heard of it? It tells the story of four sisters whose mother died, and they are left poor. To make their way in the world, they disguise themselves as men and each learn a trade.

[hyaline12]

I always liked Green Eggs and Ham. Just the other day I was in Wal-Mart with my friend reciting everything I could remember from it. She was trying out pillows and wanted to know what I thought of them, but all I would say was 'Try them! Try them! And you may. Try them and you may, I say!' It's one of my life's goals to have it memorized.

And all the other Dr Seuss ones were awesome as well. Particularly One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. One of my other favourites (and all my brothers' favourite as well) was this one:


(The tiger was our favourite.) We all thought it was a Dr Seuss one, simply because of the Cat in the Hat in the corner. Apparently, we never noticed the author's name even though it was big as life there on the bottom. A month or so ago, I decided to (and my little brothers joined me) pull out all our old kids books and we still fought over Ten Apples Up on Top, and I just had to read it out loud, which everyone but me was sorry about, because I went around the next day saying 'I can do nine, and hop and drink! You cannot do this I think.' once every 5 minutes.

I can't remember much else in the way of books, except for a few German books about cats that I had. (It was before I could read, so it didn't matter that I didn't know German. As far as I knew, they were English. ) I also had a version of Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid which I recently found, but I remember it gave me nightmares, so it ended up in the box destined for the thrift store, despite the fact that I never give away books.

[220chrisTian]

The Twelve Dancing Princesses! That's one of my favorite fairy tales! Thanks, Valiant.

I love fairy tales, Mother Goose rhymes, The Berenstein Bears, Puss in Boots, etc. Okay, I can't remember anything else 'cause I'm kinda in a rush.

Of course, when it comes to children's books, there's always Kipling's Jungle Books and Just So Stories, Ballantyne's The Coral Island, and Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. Do these sound familiar?

[Queen Susan]

Did anyone else think this was almost a children's horror story? Hehe. Some of the pictures were rather disturbing.

[Meltintalle]

gazer, that is one of my very favourite lines from Go, Dog, Go. We have two different copies of the book, one is the full version, and the other is a board book with most of the pictures but a different set of words. The favourite line from that one is:
Stop dogs stop! The light is red.
Go dogs go, it's green ahead!

*loves Dr. Seuss* I don't think I've ever read that one, hyaline. I'm going to have to find a copy now...

One of my very favourite children's books is Puppy in the Garden by Dennis Kyte. I shall have to scan some of the pages as there seem to be no readily available images on the internet.

[Kate]

Go, Dog, Go is one of my favorite Seuss books too. My family still quotes the hat line.

I loved this book while growing up:


It's such a beautiful story of honesty. And the pictures are lovely.

[A_Narnian_Ship]

I absolutely loved this book! "Corduroy" by Don Freeman was my standard bedtime story!! *sigh*I just love happy endings

[220chrisTian]

How did I forget Corduroy? I'm still reading it in my 20s! [I have nearly a bookshelf's worth of children's books. ] Thanks, A_Narnian_Ship!

[TheGeneral]

I always read the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel.

I also read a book about an owl (forgot the name, but he kept telling the moon to stop following him and he made tea from his tears lol). And a book about a grasshopper (also forgot the name, but there was a part when he met a bunch of beatles in the 'I hate mornings' club). Both were by Arnold Lobel.
And I always watched that show Reading Rainbow lol

[A_Narnian_Ship]

I almost forgot!!!! I have every one of these books!!! I used to read them to my little cousins all the time!!!

[Shadowlander]

Goodness, I almost forgot one! If we're talking children's picture books here how can one omit the Where's Waldo series? Heck, I like those even as an adult.

[malkah]

A_Narnian_Ship, I was just coming in to post Corduroy when I saw you beat me to it! That was one of my favorites! *also loved the Eastman books, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and Twelve Dancing Princesses*






Another that I absolutely loved was called Warm in Winter, but sadly it's out of print and Amazon doesn't have any cover pictures.

[Aravanna]

Oh, what a fun, whimsical topic! Time for a healthy dose of nostalgia.

Val, I feel bad, I've never heard of any of those books except for the last one. They look lovely too!

'gazer, I love most Dr. Seus books and it cracks me up that you can quote part of Fox in Socks. Not easy to say out loud. Being the crazy environment nut that I am, I always liked The Lorax.

*vaguely remembers Ten Apples Up on Top.

Are You My Mother? is amazing but I was always scared by the part at the end when I was little.

The General, thanks for reminding me of Frog and Toad. Those two were so much fun.

*would recommend Amelia Bedelia to any exchange student trying to figure out all our weird expressions* That book made me laugh.

I spend many hours as a child trying to find Waldo.

Anyways, some of my favorite books were kind of unusual. My library had Festus and Mercury books. About an old farmer and his cat. The books are hard to find in the US since they were written by Sven Nordqvist, a legitimate Norwegian.

My favorite was probably Fox Hunt I couldn't find the cover, but here's a puzzle based on one of the pages.
http://www.hjelms.com/products/puzzle/f ... ury-puzzle
There was just always so much fun, weird stuff going on in those books.

Also, An Owl and Three Pussycats was always a lot of fun. "You can never really own a cat." A fact to learn early, or you'll be very puzzled by your feline friends.

And who can forget The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash. Seven Kellogg is a brilliant illustrator!