A friend recently asked me for a list of girls' books because she has one daughter in houseful of boys. As you may know from my previous articles, I am nuts about books! The best books came from my grandmother, who was an English and Speech teacher. I either found them in her house or she gave them to me. So, I am going to give you my ten favorite books by category, either by author or title.
The first category is Easy, but I'm assuming your kids are pretty good readers.
1) Mother Goose. Can't top this. The kids love the rhythm and rhyme. I saw Mother Goose's grave in Boston at the age of nine and was completely thrilled. I didn't know she was a real person!
2) Grimms' Fairy Tales. Don't get the Disney version. The import is lost if Little Red Riding Hood doesn't get eaten.
3) Ferdinand. I discovered this as a child. I just love the artwork and the "sit just quietly."
4) James Arnosky. He writes non-fiction about nature and does the watercolor illustrations himself. It is quiet and beautiful.
5) Robert McCloskey. Remember Blueberries for Sal? Make Way for Ducklings? That's him.
6) Thomas the Tank Engine. The early days. It is fun with flawed characters and a message about pleasing God. The later books dropped away from the message to simple entertainment.
7) Llama, Llama, Red Pajama. My daughter loves reading this with her kids. The rhythm, rhyme, and typical conflict (going to bed) are wonderful for developing relationship with your kids.
8) Beatrix Potter. Of course! Greatest adventure stories in the nursery!
9) ABC books, especially Handmade Alphabet. I started teaching my kids reading from a curriculum. By kid number 4, I was teaching them just with ABC books. Handmade Alphabet has no words but has beautiful colored pencil drawings of hands in the International Manual alphabet. My later kids learned the manual alphabet along with the printed alphabet and it helped their decoding tremendously.
10) Dr. Seuss. We couldn't do without him. The first books I remember reading were Green Eggs and Ham and Hop On Pop. Historically, he rejuvenated the phonics method of reading and got us out of the purgatory of Dick and Jane.
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