Ask HN: What's your favorite children's books?
Board books, normal children's books, STEM, non-STEM. I'm interested in them all.
I have been a dad for 18 years and am about to have my 7th kid. I read lots of different kids books to them, but usually when they are about 5 they start to love it when I read Grimms's Fairy Tales (before that they are bored when they hear them).
They nick name them the Death stories, and kinda laugh about how it is crazy they are stories for kids (so much disappointment when they make . But, damn if they don't always want to hear them all the time.
What is nice is there is nothing sugary sweet about them, and there are great lessons to untangle from the stories. Sometimes the lesson though is that sometimes bad stuff just happens, and you have to deal with it.
It also has a sliver of a view of how people long ago saw things and what was important then, and what still is important today.
We are almost through our second lap through the book, and I could see another lap or two through it as our next child comes into listening to it, then maybe I'll be reading it to my grandchildren.
In this reimagining, they are basically 100-140 page long novellas with a lot of pictures accompanying them. Amelia is a child (3rd grade possibly? Not sure exactly) and she doesn't understand slang or colloquialisms, but otherwise she's a smart kid... which means she's less frustrating than the OG Amelia Bedelia where she was an adult maid that has absolutely no clue what the hell's going on around her.
The books are cute, though sometimes you can tell the author has belabored something just to reach a publisher-mandated word count.
The other annoying thing about them is that that they can't just say "she" when they talk about Amelia Bedelia, and instead they say Amelia Bedelia's full name over and over whenever they mention Amelia Bedelia's father or Amelia Bedelia's mother or Amelia Bedelia's dog. (I basically have just re-created what could have been a real sentence in the books)
Once you get over those annoyances though, they're cute little stories about children who have problems and try hard to come up with and execute on creative solutions. They've grown on me, like a fungus.
Probably rare because the young protagonist who over-judges the severity of his minor problem, gulliblly starts on a quest where he increasingly suffers worse, finally concludes the actual solution is to confront his problems with swift and blinding violence. I read it so many times I can still recall a good portion from memory.
My personal favourite was "Stig of the Dump", which still holds up today, unlike many from my childhood.
I had that book for a loooonnnng time, until I loaned it to a friend for reading and he lost it :( It was very well written and as a kid, it was very interesting to me.
The only one I didn't have is Yertle The Turtle
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie - the original is by far the best of these.
Ramona Quimby series - Beverly Cleary
Iggy Peck, Architect (+series) - Andrea Beaty
Beast Feast - Emma Yarlett
Dragons Love Tacos (+ 2) - Adam Rubin
The Princess in Black (+series) - Shannon & Dean Hale
Don't Let a Unicorn Scribble (+series) - Diane Abler
The Camping Trip - Jennifer Maan
Maddie & Mabel (+series) - Kari Allen
I Love You Stinky Face - Lisa McCourt
Authors that were always good: Arnold Lobel, Sandra Boynton, James Stevenson
And don't forget to check https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ , they are affiliated with the Internet Archive and they don't show up in shopping searches.
To add to your list: anything by Julia Donaldson. The Gruffalo, Super Worm, Room on the Broom, the Whale and the Snail.
Perennial favs when my kids were 3-5
Matthew Cordell is awesome. "Cornbread and Poppy" are cute, "Evergreen" is fun, but check out his whole catalog. Probably my favorite active author/illustrator.
"Nobody Likes a Goblin" by Ben Hatke
"The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess" by Tom Gauld
"The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown" under the pseudonym Golden MacDonald
”The Dark Tales of Lillebror Rabbit“ by Jonna Björnstjerna
"Les P'tites Poules" by Christian Jolibois
A little older, Ursula LeGuin is amazing, "A Wizard of Earthsea", "Catwings".
The "Who would win?" series is also very popular at home.
The Owly comics are amazing for kids who are just starting to read. It's also super cute.
Junie B. Jones stuff is also something I recall reading multiple times.
Harry the Dirty Dog series
Amelia Bedelia series
Little Toot
Katy and the Big Snow
Tikki Tikki Tembo
Eloise
Babar series
Others from Weekly Reader - including Gus was a Friendly Ghost, Be Nice to Spiders, The Mystery of the Great Swamp, and Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
Later
Stuart Little series
When I got a bit older I really enjoyed the Narnia books by CS Lewis. And The Belgariad by David Eddings.
I read a lot, but many titles are probably not available in English.
As I couldn't find those books - I created a business for it: https://www.storystarling.com/en/showcase
The Mouse and His Child - Russell Hoban
A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel - Ursula K. Le Guin, Fred Fordham
The SAS Survival Handbook - Lofty Wiseman
They more or less all cover the search for being self winding.
The Monster at the End of this Book
The Little Red Caboose
Favorites to Read to Kids:
The Hiccupotamus
Dear Zoo
The Sneetches
Mercy Watson to the Rescue
Pete the Cat (I Love My White Shoes or His Four Groovy Buttons)
Favorite Authors: Mo Willems, Sandra Boynton
The Skull (Jon Klassen)
The Way Things Work (David Macaulay)
Animalia (Graeme Base)
Nanette’s Baguette (Mo Willlems)
The princess and the Pony (Kate Beaton)
Frederick (Leo Leoni)
It was one of the few books I actually remember enjoying as a kid.
It is hard to say favourites without a target age.
Then for older than the first few months, my kids loved Maisy books, Spot books, various Julia Donaldsons, Percy the Park Keeper and Hairy Maclarey to name a few.
Good luck with all of it!
The Owl and the Pussycat
Goodnight Moon