Top 10 Books

Wow….I just realized I never came back and posted like I said I was going to. (Sorry Lloyd!) I don’t think I ever really appreciated the amount of extra time I have when one of the kids is in school all day. 😀
Anyway, she and I had a discussion the other day about children’s books, and which ones we felt were the most fondly remembered from our own childhood. It kind of turned into a “Top Ten Books That Should Be Read To Every Child” kind of thing. So I decided to post what we came up with here, and see how many people more or less agree. There were a lot more books I could think of, but these seemed to me to be the most important, memorable and/or enjoyable.
10. The Carrot Seed
What a great book to begin teaching the skills of patience, faith, hope and perseverance in the face of adversity. A little boy plants a carrot seed, and despite EVERYONE telling him it will never come up, the little boy continues to water and weed and care for his seed, until one day….he gets his carrot!
9. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Have you ever had “one of those days?” This is what happens to poor Alexander, and it seems like he is going to let his bad day get the best of him. Kids can learn along with Alexander that things aren’t always as bad as they seem.
8. Where the Wild Things Are
The classic tale of the power of imagination, in which a little boy who has been punished sets out to find a place where he can truly belong, and winds up finding that sometimes the best place to be…is right where you are.
7. Goodnight Moon
This is one of the simplest of books, but by that very nature it becomes one of the best. This is an easy one to be one of the very first reads, and by the time they are old enough to ask, this will be a book your child returns to again and again. The comforting messages and warmly-colored illustrations remain ingrained in memory for a lifetime.
6. I’ll Love You Forever
Is this not the sweetest book? Kids sometimes forget that even as they get bigger, their parents still love them the same, and still sneak in while they are sleeping to get those special cuddles. This book will help them remember that no matter how big they get, they will always be our babies, and they will also learn that they have the power to give back that same kind of unconditional love.
5. Where the Sidewalk Ends
A brilliant way to introduce your child to poetry, rythym and rhyme. Hilarious, touching, shocking, and sometimes sweet poems, accompanied by the author’s own adorable illustrations, this book is sure to be a favorite forever. My kids have the CD version of this book as well, and they love to listen to it before they go to bed (although those nights are often punctuated by a LOT of giggling 🙂 )
4. Corduroy
It doesn’t matter what flaws we posess. We are ALL worthy of love, and who we really are resides on the INSIDE, not in outward appearances. This is what Corduroy learns after a little girl is determined to buy him, not caring that one of his buttons is missing.
3. Green Eggs and Ham
Help teach your kids that it’s OK to try something new, even if it seems yucky. Try it, you might like it! This can apply to things to eat (and I try to read this book a LOT, because I swear Donovan could live on french fries and cereal lol) or to new experiences in general.
2. The Monster at the End of This Book
Well, not EVERY book has to have a valuable lesson, right? :LOL: This is perhaps one of the most fun books I read with my kids. I get really into it, and dramatically act out all of the pages until the “monster” is reached. Even my 9-year-old asks me to read this one again.
1. Amazing Grace
I chose this one as my number one book because I feel it sensitively and intuitively teaches one of life’s most valuable lessons; that no matter WHAT we look like, no matter WHO we are, no matter WHAT anyone else tells us we can or can’t or should or shouldn’t do…the fact is, if want to do it, we CAN. Grace has an avid imagination, and she loves to pretend to be all sorts of characters. But when she wants to be Peter Pan in the school play, she is told she can’t just becuase she is black and she is a girl. Well, with her mother’s and grandmother’s guidance, Grace learns that she CAN be Peter Pan, if that’s what she wants. And she was a wonderful one!
What are some of YOUR favorite childhood books?