Great Children s Books to Give To A Child:

I love reading and have read most of my life even as a kid. In many other areas of parenthood - like birthday party goody bags and American Girl doll imaginative play - through out all of this people call me a well-documented slacker. But give me a stack of good childrens books and a couple of attentive little people? I could read to that all day long .

If you’ve got kids on your shopping list for this year, you know that you just can’t go wrong with a book. Unless of course, it’s a book based off a television show. You know, Count with Dora or It’s Check-Up Time, Elmo! They’re not stories; they’re brand extensions. Unfortunately books like that take up most of the shelf space at Amazon these days. Not worth it.

Any casual reader knows that animals predominate in childrens lit. I’m not sure what’s with all the anthropomorphizing, but books that feature people, or people interacting with animals, stand out in most parent's mind. And yes, the ages and gender of the receiving children influence many selections.
Without further ado, this is here’s my list.

Books Featuring People or Things:

• The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
  
• The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss. Babies dig this book.
  
• Freight Train, by Donald Crews
  
• Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey. The mother bear does talk, but it’s mostly a people story.
  
• The Stray Dog, by Marc Simont.
  
• Tree of Cranes, by Allen Say
  
• Good Night Engines, by Denise Dowling Mortensen. Toddler boys love this one.
  
• Digger Man, by Andrea Zimmerman. Ditto for the toddler boys.
  
• A Chair for My Mother, by Vera B. Williams. With plenty of drama, this book teaches kids about saving their pennies.
  
• Strega Nona, by Tomie De Paola
  
• Fancy Nancy, by Jane O’Connor. Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy and Fancy Nancy: Bonjour, Butterfly are sweet too. Skip the product extensions.
  
• The Knuffle Bunny series, by Mo Willems. The bunny in the title remains blessedly silent. And the postscript in the last one, Knuffle Bunny Free, chokes me up so much that I can’t read it aloud.
  

Books Featuring Animals Interacting With People:

• Good Night, Gorilla; 10 Minutes Till Bedtime; Officer Buckle and Gloria, all by Peggy Rathmann. She’s a genius.
  
• A Pocket for Corduroy, by Don Freeman
  
• Curious George Flies A Kite, by Margret Rey and H.A. Rey
  

Books Featuring Animals Acting Like People:

• Frog and Toad books, by Arnold Lobel
  
• Bear Snores On, by Karma Wilson. Listeners should be instructed to mimic snoring noises at the appropriate cues.
  
• Poppleton books, by Cynthia Rylant
  
• Farfallina & Marcel, by Holly Keller
  
• Bats at the Beach, by Brian Lies. It’s brilliant. The sequels don’t quite measure up to the original masterpiece.
  

Books for Emerging Readers (girls):

• Junie B. Jones, by Barbara Park. Her grammar isn’t what you’d want to teach your children, but my niece has never laughed so hard as when Junie B. tried to steal the flowers from the flower girl.
  
• The Boxcar Children, No. 1, by Gertrude Chandler Warner. An Excellent Book, though I’m not yet qualified to speak about the others in the series.
  
• Princess Lulu Goes to Camp, by Kathryn Cristaldi. This beginning reader paperback, a fun friendship story, is just $3.99 on Amazon.
  
  -Birdy