Amanda, on books for Littles

Before we continue with Amanda's recommendations I would like to share the suggestions I sent her for what age group each post covers, just so you know and don't get too antsy pantsy if your favourite isn't mentioned yet!

1) books for when littles are too little to know what you're reading to them but they like it anyway

2) books for littles who understand the words now and will use the books to start to learn to read once they're big enough for that sort of thing

3) books for childrens who have just learnt to read and will hide under the bed for days on end reading the books if they are not dragged out by their ears for dinner.

And over to Amanda...

For Littles

For aloud and together, with clean ears and toes.

Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmens

She was not afraid of mice—she loved winter, snow, and ice. To the tiger in the zoo, Madeline just said “Pooh-pooh.”

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Doreen Cronin/Betsy Lewin

An important first book about animal rights and the dangers/merits of typewriters.

Esio Trot, Roald Dahl/Quentin Blake

A book about using deception and pet exploitation to turn unrequited love on its head.

James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl/Quentin Blake

A small boy guilty of murder flees the United Kingdom with several large insects, a surfeit of seagulls, and approximately 24 pairs of boots.

D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, Ingri d’Aulaire, Edgar Parin d’Aulaire

Zeus and Hera, mortals, seas.

Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride, Kate DiCamillo/Chris Van Dusen

One of many marvelous tales of a porcine wonder and her fondness for warm toast with a great deal of butter. Read all of these. Aloud. With great vigor.

The Giggler Treatment, Roddy Doyle/Brian Ajhar

A book primarily about poo, this volume also contains important information about biscuits and the Ways of Dogs.

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, Julie Edwards

This book, like so many children’s books, begins in a zoo. Whether it will end in one I cannot say.

Teatro Olivia, Ian Falconer

Not a book at all, but a children’s theatre with sets and programs and at least one prima donna. Particularly adept directors and their parents may also enjoy Olivia. Then again, they may not.

The Happy Lion, by Louise Fatio

A French lion out for a stroll wonders where everyone’s manners have gone.

My Father’s Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett

Lessons on the art of provisioning abound.

George and Martha: The Complete Stories About Two Great Friends, James Marshall

Martha was very fond of making pea soup. Sometimes she made it all day. Pots and pots of pea soup.

Now We Are Six, A.A. Milne

We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,
And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear

Amos and Boris, William Steig

A book about the importance of networking in unexpected places.

The Big Orange Splot, Daniel Pinkwater

A man infuriates his neighborhood association and encourages others to do the same.

The Stars, H.A. Rey

For those who watch the sky.

Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak

A book about mischief, wolves, and supper.

The Sneetches and Other Stories, Dr. Seuss

This book provides many with the rare but thrilling opportunity to holler “Oliver Boliver Butt.”

Ounce Dice Trice, Alastair Reid/Ben Shahn

Lists, including words to be said when grumpy, names for insects, and rude names for nitwits.

Squids Will Be Squids, Jon Scieszka/Lane Smith

A book about squids and their natures as well as notes on fable-writing, the dangers of.

Many Moons, James Thurber/Marc Simont

Parents are reminded to avoid grand, somewhat idiotic promises and we are all reminded of the uselessness of mathematicians and the dangers of raspberry tarts.

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, Chris Van Allsburg

It is important that you buy this book immediately. That is all.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Judith Viorst

There were limas for dinner and I hate limas. There was kissing on TV and I hate kissing.

Sector 7, David Wiesner

In which we become aware of the kidnapping tendencies and secret lair of cloud formations. Their trickery includes teaching small boys to levitate.

Flotsom, David Wiesner

Photos, fish.

Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White/Garth Williams

The best book I know.

Piggie and Elephant books, Mo Willems

These books about the marvels of interspecies friendship include at least one helpful discussion on how to dress appropriately for a party.

* first photo by Cassia Beck
* second photo by Thomas Krauss
* third photo by Little Love Blue
* fourth photo by Frederick Desmots

Amanda, on books for tiniest littles

Other parents-to-be get excited about buying tiny clothes or wooden toys or colourful nursery decorations for their little people and those things have tickled me intermittently, but books have been tickling us constantly since the first moment we sat down together on the floor of a children's book shop and started pulling things off every shelf.

Sitting there in a pile of books for children of every age we became completely overwhelmed. We put back every book and left the shop empty handed. As the door swung shut behind us I turned to N and said in a slightly broken voice "maybe we should ask Amanda what to buy?"

And so we did.

Amanda is a writer of poetry, a seer of wonder, an adventurer of adventures and a whisperer of children and here, in the first of a series of

guest posts, is what she has to say about books for little people.....

This is how it is for me: Of all the books, I am most fond of those written for children. It has been this way from the very beginning, and I have begun to suspect that it will be this way until the end as well. I spend a lot of time thinking about childhood and about witches and bears, and I believe that the stories must be told; we are set free so early by words and their sounds and meanings, by tales of mortals, voyages, wings feathered and waxed.

By no means exhaustive, what follows is a small collection of what I very humbly (if superlatively) consider to be the Best Books, and what I would recommend for Peonies in particular--for her sweet and clever and aesthetically discerning family. Beware that some solid contenders have been excluded; it is clear, for instance, that Peonies and her Boy and Rabbit will inundate their girls with the tales of Edward Bear, and I’m sure we’re all well aware that Eloise the City Child and Paddington from Darkest Peru cannot help but invite themselves into the lives of children who need them.

At the end of a day with small children, it has often been a long day even if it hasn’t. At the end of a day with small children, each of us needs stories to bring us home, send us off. If I were choosing books at the end of such a day, exhausted, and if children I love had been soaped and dried and jammied and if everyone had the wriggles and if there was a cool breeze and a warm duvet, these are the books I would choose. They are just-up-from-a-nap, bring-me-a-book reads; let’s-lie-in-our-fort-with-a-flashlight reads; goodnight, sleep tight reads. They are some of the best books I know.

So. Three small collections to be pulled off the shelves, with any luck by the sticky-fingered among us: for the very small, for littles, and for the slightly bigger too. I hope you will enjoy them.

For the Very Small

Dogs and apples, tigers, mush.

Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown/Clement Hurd

In the great green room there was a telephone, and a red balloon, and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon.

The Big Red Barn, Margaret Wise Brown/Felicia Bond

By the big red barn in the great green field, there was a pink pig who was learning to squeal.

The Important Book, Margaret Wise Brown/Leonard Weisgard

The important thing about rain is that it is wet. It falls out of the sky, and it sounds like rain, and makes things shiny, and it does not taste like anything, and is the color of air. But the important thing about rain is that it is wet.

Two Little Trains, Margaret Wise Brown/Leo and Diane Dillon

Two little trains went down the track, Two little trains went West.

Puff, Puff, Puff and Chug, Chug, Chug, Two little trains to the West.

Little Cloud, Eric Carle

In which we learn that some clouds need more attention than other clouds.

Go, Dog. Go!, P.D. Eastman

In which very many dogs do very many things. Some of them go. Others do not.

The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keats

He walked with his toes pointed out, like this:

A Family of Poems, Caroline Kennedy (editor)/Jon J. Muth

For beginning children on poetry before anyone can ruin it for them; Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams sing beside Dylan Thomas and Ogden Nash.

Pat the Bunny, Dorothy Kunhardt

In which the reader regards a handsome rabbit with solemnity. Sometimes the rabbit deigns to be patted. Sometimes he does not.

A Hole is to Dig, Ruth Krauss/Maurice Sendak

Mashed potatoes are to give everybody enough A face is so you can make faces Dogs are to kiss people

It Looked Like Spilt Milk, Charles G. Shaw

Sometimes it looked like spilt milk. But it wasn’t spilt milk.

Sometimes it looked like a rabbit. But it wasn’t a rabbit.

Chicken Soup With Rice, Maurice Sendak

The reader is introduced to the seasonal joys of chicken soup with rice.

In the Night Kitchen, Maurice Sendak

Milk in the batter! Milk in the batter! We bake cake! And nothing’s the matter!

Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business, Esphyr Slobodkina

In which we learn one of life’s most important lessons: When up against monkeys, it is helpful to lose one’s temper almost immediately. Also, it is unwise to nap beneath monkey-infested trees.

A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson

The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,
The howling dog by the door of the house,
The bat that lies in bed at noon,
All love to be out by the light of the moon.

A Tree Is Nice, Janice May Udry/Marc Simont

A tree is nice because it has a trunk and limbs.

Piggies, Audrey Wood/Don Wood

Various piggies are portrayed. We sometimes wonder why these piggies are drawn as fingers and not as toes. Other times we do not.

* first image from Lola's Room

* second image by Rakuyn

* third image by Simple Tess