Your "essential/must haves" for kids' books

[chicago]

What are your must haves for your child's collection?  Making an Amazon wish list of books to buy for now and later.  I loved Dr. Seuss and Berenstein Bears as a kid, but I'm out of the loop with new stuff! Looking for all age groups.

[drloretta]

Knuffle Bunny (the series)
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late
Rikki Tikki Tavi
Sandra Boynton stuff

[imimahoney]

Cordory books
On the night you were born
I love you stinky face
Good Night .... series books (we have countries and cities from all over the world)

[Brie]

Keep in mind that they won't care about plot for awhile. Think board books, with texture and flaps, for the first 2 years or so. They have very short attention spans.

C's favorites are:

Little Blue Truck
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Cat and Dog by Matthew Van Fleet
I Love to Eat and I Love to Sleep
Anything Sandra Boynton
Time for Bed

[Jalapeñomel]

Go The F*ck to Sleep


But really that's more for me than him.

[Deleted]

DD likes the books with flaps she can lift, like "Where is Baby's Belly Button" and "Dear Zoo".

[Ashley&Scott]

Little Blue Truck
Little Blue Truck Leads the Way
Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Goodnight Moon
Moo, Baa, La La La
Hippos Go Berserk
On the Night You Were Born
Pete the Cat Wheels on the Bus
Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer
Peek a Who
Touch & feel books

[loskadoodle]

Don't let the pigeon books
Anything with pop ups (the very silly shark)
Counting books (10 wriggly wiggly caterpillars)

[Deleted]

C's Amazon book list is embarrassingly long. Her current favorite books are from the "That's Not My _____" series. She loves to touch the different textures. I would say "That's Not My Dragon" is her most fave.

As a librarian, I would encourage you to get Locomotive by Brian Floca because it's the Caldecott Medal winner from your child's birth year. Other than that, get board books that you like reading out loud, picture books you enjoyed as a child and, beyond that, that your kid develop his/her own preferences.

Some authors I really like: mo willems, karma Wilson, Sandra boynton.

[drink227]

Llama llama books
Give a mouse a cookie books

[SallySparrow]

All of them. Kidding. But not really. A has so many books, it's bordering on ridiculous. But DH and I are both book people, so there's that.

I love all the Pigeon books. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, etc.
Velveteen Rabbit
Stellaluna
Leo Lionni books
Some of the obligatory alphabet, shapes, colors, animals books. They're all the same to me, really.
Corduroy
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type
Goodnight, Moon
Guess How Much I Love You
Where the Wild Things Are
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Beatrix Potter stories
Madeline
The Monster at the End of This Book
Winnie-the-Pooh
Knuffle Bunny
On the Night You Were Born
Blueberry Girl

[Deleted]

Ditto pp's who recommended "touch and feel books." DD was obsessed with them from 9 months onward.

We read the Dr. Seuss board books a lot: Oh the thinks you can think, the foot book, there's a wocket in my pocket, etc.

We're also big fans of the Harry the Dirty Dog series.

Her favorite book is "Roadwork."

[niq]

The Sandra Boynton collections
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom/123/ABC
We borrowed Eating the Alphabet from the library and he's got the right idea on that one ...

[glitzy07]

Another rec for "On the night you were born." We got it as a gift and I love it so much.

[strawberriquen]

Sandra Boynton books
On the Night You Were Born
8 Little Monkeys
Karen Katz, lift the flap books
Dragons Love Tacos
The Runaway Bunny
Touch and Feel books
Corduroy
Counting Kisses

[MamaMaui24]

Pat the bunny
The bear snores on
The little engine that could
Wheels on the bus

[mdana]

The Porcupine Mouse
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
The Funny Little Woman
The Velveteen Rabbit
the Arthur series
The Mitten
Pigs from A to Z
Robert Sabuda pop up books
Strega Nona
The Snowy Day
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Very Quiet Cricket
In the Night Kitchen
Shel Silverstein books
Curious George Goes to the Hospital
Frog and Toad books
The Rainbow Fish
Make Way for Ducklings
The Stinky Cheese Man
Madeline
The Polar Express

eta: for when he's older:
Magic Treehouse series
Little House series
My Name is America and Dear America series (I LOOOOOVED these)
If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War (and subsequent books)
Shadow Spinner

[h]

Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Very Hungry Caterpillar
Cowboy Small
Green Eggs and Ham
Cat in the Hat
Frog and Toad Are Friends
Make Way for Ducklings
Caps for Sale
Bedtime for Frances
Bread and Jam for Frances
Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Dr. DeSoto
Soloman and the Rusty Nail
Harry the Dirty Dog
Roses for Harry
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
James and the Giant Peach
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Ramona series
Mouse and the Motorcycle
Harry Potter series

How the Grinch Stole Christmas
The Polar Express
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes

Newer books that my kids love --

I Want My Hat Back
The Little Rabbit Who Liked to Say Moo
Wild About Books
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site
Dr. Meow's Big Emergency
Chief Rhino to the Rescue
What do Wheels Do All Day
Magic Treehouse series
Captain Underpants series

[Deleted]

DS loves "good night good night construction site" and "steam train dream train." He could read those two all day Long.

Other faves include Where the wild things are, little blue truck, and brown bear brown bear

[pacificrules]

(I haven't read the responses, so these might be repeats but...)

We love:
the Matthew Fleet series: Dog, Tails, Heads, Moo, etc.
Curious George
Sandra Boynton books
Pout-Pout Fish
Scholastic 'Discover More' series: Farm, My Body, See Me Grow, etc.
Nina Laden books
Cam Jansen books (now that DD is older)

[countthestars]

Click Clack 1,2,3 and A,B,C
Mommy's Best Kisses
Horns to Toes
Barnyard Dance
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
1,2,3 Go
On the Night You Were Born

[Deleted]

DS's current favorites are all by the same author, Emma Garcia: Toot Toot Beep Beep, Tip Tip Dig Dig, Tap Tap Bang Bang

On the whole, though, we own little and go to the library a lot. His favorites have been very very fickle.

[magpie]

DD's favorite book right now is called Global Babies and is a board book with pictures of babies from around the world in it. My favorites are Little Blue Truck, Anamalia (really gorgeous abc book with elaborate animal illustrations), and over in the meadow-type counting books.

[SpartanGirl]

A mishmash of age ranges (Sorry for the long list, we love books):

The Best Loved Doll
I want my hat back
17 things I'm not allowed to do anymore
Anything by Robert Munsch
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (I read this to my oldest when she was about 5 - beautiful book)
Giraffes Can't Dance
The Day Jimmy's Boa ate the wash
Harry the dirty dog
Alexander and the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day
The paper bag princess
I stink
Diary of a worm
Interrupting chicken
Katy No Pocket
Press Here
Chalk
Cloudy with a chance of meatballs
Not a box (and Not a Stick)
What do you do with a tail like this
Pete the Cat books
Frank Asch books
One
My Father's Dragon
When Sophie Gets Angry - Really Really Angry
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Scaredy Squirrel
all of the National Geographic "My First Big Book of.." Kids books
That's Not My...books
Bear Snores On
Gossie
A Mother for Choco
Harold and the Purple Crayon
The Robot and the Bluebird
The Eyelike books have great pictures (Eyelike books)

[Deleted]

DS is 23 months and still does not have the patience for Dr Seuss. I get like 3 pages in, and he loses interest. Hopefully someday! Right now he loves:

Anything Sandra Boynton
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Going to Sleep on the Farm
Time for Bed
The Napping House
The Snowy Day (Caldecott award winner)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Guess How Much I Love You

[Brie]

Also the entire BabyLit series is great. They pop up on Groupon or Plum District occasionally.

[megs193]

Feb 16, 2014 19:59:01 GMT -5 glitzy07 said:

Another rec for "On the night you were born." We got it as a gift and I love it so much.

I cried the first few times I read this book. I give a copy with every shower gift I give.

[litasail]

Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed!

[MadamePresident]

Right now my daugher has board books. She has really been enjoying anything that has holes in the pages. For a younger baby, I really think its kind of nice to have some inexpensive books that you don't mind if they chew on and destroy.

[Deleted]

Feb 16, 2014 23:14:05 GMT -5 MadamePresident said:

Right now my daugher has board books. She has really been enjoying anything that has holes in the pages. For a younger baby, I really think its kind of nice to have some inexpensive books that you don't mind if they chew on and destroy.

Oh yeah, inexpensive books are KEY. DS has several books that are getting pretty beat up, we're about to replace them.