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Comment by illwrks | Hacker News Reader

I’m a designer and also a parent, when you start reading children’s books to your child you realise how many bad stories there are, they can be empty, with bad writing etc.

Once you find a good author you stick with them, perhaps back then there were less and so they took it upon themselves to create them. My favourite’designer’ book is little blue and little yellow by Leo Leoni (I think), it’s basic colour theory, so simple and easily conveyed.

I’d also recommend anything picture books by Julia Donaldson and Alex Schafer (the Gruffalo). They are great for 2/3+. My child is 11 now and refuses to donate them, she loves them so much.

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> when you start reading children’s books to your child you realise how many bad stories there are, they can be empty, with bad writing etc.

I'm also a parent, although my children are rather older, and I agree with you. Books for young children are a massive sector - perhaps because parents (often) want to expose their children to books, and parents and children seek novelty (albeit for different reasons). But there just aren't that many good children's authors, and the recent trend for celebrities to write children's books just floods even more filler into the space. A poor book can be a bedtime disappointment.

To your great suggestions I'd add Judith Kerr (the Mog books) and Lynley Dodd (Hairy Maclary, Slinky Malinki). Its been a decade or more but I can still recite quite a lot of Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack from memory.

Great suggestions, we have mog in a corner somewhere too :)

>But there just aren't that many good children's authors, and the recent trend for celebrities to write children's books just floods even more filler into the space.

Even worse is when grifting rightwing politicians get into it. There are some downright insane ones being marketed now.

A signal we used when picking out books for our kids was to avoid any book that had a silver foil medal on the cover announcing it had won the Newbery or some other award. These books often had an eat-your-vegetables vibe about them. They were books adults thought kids should like but rarely were ones that our kids would go back to again and again.

That seems like a reasonable heuristic for books from the mid-70s on, but before that they were usually really good books.

The only book with a foil I'd not avoid is Where the Wild Things Are.

I couldn't agree more. More than 90% of the children's books you find in a bookshop (in Germany at least, but I imagine it's similar elsewhere) are terrible: terrible writing, badly rhymed, cheap computer-aided illustrations, facile educational content that no-one needs, etc

On the other hand, when you find good authors like Leo Lionni (start with Frederick), it's amazing because it's as much fun for the parents as it is for the kids.

Other wonderful authors include Toni Ungerer (The Three Robbers). Any other recommendations?

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