What is your favorite children's book? Tell me why!

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

I have so many of these books remaining from my childhood and treasure them. I loved Go Dog Go when I was young.

A favorite of mine has always been Never Tease a Weasel by Jean Conder Soule. It has never been reprinted, but it was a great book.

You can knit a kitten mittens
and perhps that cat would purr
or fit a fox with socks
that exactly matched his fur...

but never tease a weasel, not even once or twice.
A weasel would not like it, and TEASING ISN'T NICE!

The book is so cool.

 

[Magpie]

1st grade teacher here...I have LOTS of favorites, for many reasons:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom- I love this book! When I was student teaching in Mobile, I remember playing the tape that went along with the book. Ray Charles reads the book, and I love his rendition!

Miss Nelson is Missing- one of my favorites! I read this to my class every year, and tease the kids that I am going to come to school as Miss Swamp!!

Billy Joel has a beautiful song called "Goodnight my Angel" This song has always been special to my family. I played the song for DD, and now there is a book to go along with it. the first time I read it to DD4, she burst into tears!!(she's sensitive!) That book is special to me by default- the song really holds the meaning.

Excuse the typos & grammar- I had 3 cosmos and am slurring my typing

My children's junior kindergarten teacher insisted on having them say the letter *sounds* instead of the *names* when they read this book aloud in class. So it was, "Ah told Buh, and Cuh told Duh..." I thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard! They never sang the Alphabet song in class, either.

I understand the theory behind it - if a child has to memorize both the letter names and the letter sounds, that's twice the memorization than if they just learn the sounds. But honestly there were maybe three four year olds out of that entire class who didn't already know the Alphabet song by heart before they ever set foot in that classroom! One of them could even read fluently.

 

[Sthronds]

My all time favorite was "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin. It is a mystery book. Millionaire Sam Westing dies and 16 heirs have to figure out what happened to win his estate. I got that book at the book fair in 5th grade in 1981 and 27 years later I still have my copy. I pull it out and read it at least once a year.

I love The Westing Game! I had a teacher read it to the class in 5th grade and we would sit and take notes on the mystery. When I was teaching 4th grade I read it to my class and they loved it as well. Great book!

 

[Stacerita]

Where The Wild Things Are

 

[Liberty Belle]

I don't have kids, but I have several from my own childhood that I still read every once in a while.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsberg
Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy

Both of the above, I couldn't really tell you why, I just really liked the stories. Behind the Attic Wall is a bit creepy when you think about it, though - it's about dolls who live in an attic and come to life.

The Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald J. Sobol - fun to try to figure out the mysteries on your own before looking up the solution
The Bruno and Boots series by Gordon Korman (I think it's out of print now, though) - just plain funny
Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer - simply because The Cure made a song out of it, even using some lines directly from the book.

We love the Dr. Seuss book of stories with "What Was I Scared of" (or as we call it, "The Pale Green Pants") in it. We also love the first story about the "Sneeches with stars upon thars."

And Goodnight Moon is still a favorite, even though my little one is almost 5.

ETA: My favorite books when I was a small child were Are you My Mother? (Dr. Seuss) and Robespierre, by Elizabeth Hunter. When I was a little bit older, I loved the Amelia Bedelia books and Little House on the Prairie.

 

[DVCLiz]

My children's junior kindergarten teacher insisted on having them say the letter *sounds* instead of the *names* when they read this book aloud in class. So it was, "Ah told Buh, and Cuh told Duh..." I thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard! They never sang the Alphabet song in class, either.

I understand the theory behind it - if a child has to memorize both the letter names and the letter sounds, that's twice the memorization than if they just learn the sounds. But honestly there were maybe three four year olds out of that entire class who didn't already know the Alphabet song by heart before they ever set foot in that classroom! One of them could even read fluently.

This is so dumb it makes my head want to explode. What in the world was that teacher thinking????

Talk about missing the point...

 

[jsmith]

for small children-The Runaway Bunny and Miss Nelson is Missing were my favorites.

When i was old enough to read to my self-my grandmother had a set of elementary readers by a writer named Thornton W Burguess about the animals of a farm and the surrounding woods. i believe they were actually published in the early 1900s-they were old when my mother was small and she is nearing 70-the books are first editions and quiet valuable today-my mother still has them-and i still love to read them even tho my own children are grown-they are charming stories with lots of adventures.