These Are a Few of My Favourite... Books?!

As a children's librarian, I am often asked to recommend picture books for young children. Part of the job. So I am going ahead and fully ripping off Mo-Wo's frequent feature of recommended reading for the diaper set, but instead of a nice weekly suggestion that you can go get at your library and enjoy before she gives you another one, I'm giving you one big clump of ideas all at once. (Set your bookmarks now!)

What will I not include? The obvious greats and classics that you mostly know or will have been given/ had recommended already. Eric Carle, Ezra Jack Keats, Little Bear (nice little books, despite the uber-sappy TV version), Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss, Bill Martin Jr., Robert Munsch, and Sandra Boynton, to name some of the biggies.

I would also point you first to New York Public Library's most excellent list of 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know. A LOT of my very faves are on here already, so I won't bother to waste space by replicating them. This list prints out at 17 pages of annotated titles, but it's very worth the paper to print and save. With most of these titles, they have chosen one book (sometimes two) as representative of the author, but in most cases, it's also worth while reading the rest of their work. So I'm also not going to include titles by those authors. Seriously, it's a great list. Go get it. That takes care of the bulk of my list.

Now some other favourites of mine not covered by NYPL or the canon.

What Baby Wants, by Phyllis Root, ill. Jill Barton Lovely book about how to comfort a baby, great for participation and the thrill (for kids) of knowing better than those inside the book.

Baby BeeBee Bird, by Diane Redfield Massie, ill. Steven Kellogg (oh, and anything by Kellogg. Genius.) Great fun for participation, as well as just silly goodness.

Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stohl Walsh. She has a couple of others also, they are simple and fun.

Time for Bed, by Mem Fox, ill. Jane Dyer. My fave bedtime book. I give it to all new babies.

Everywhere Babies, by Susan Meyers, ill. Marla Frazee. A great book about the many types of babies. And someone pointed out to me that it is one of the very few, if not only, books that show babies being carried in slings and being breastfed, as well as many other ways of doing things.

Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop, by Chris Raschka. A cool slice of jazz rhythm, Pumpkinpie loves this one too and finishes off the lines for me. His others include Mysterious Thelonius (a Mo-Wo pick), Yo! Yes? (fantastic and much-lauded), a lovely arty version of Simple Gifts, and many other fun and quirky little numbers.

My Little Sister Ate One Hare, by Bill Grossman, ill. Kevin Hawkes. Gross and hilarious, as is his other book of short poems, Timothy Tunny Swallowed a Bunny. Great kid appeal, though.

How Do Dinosaurs Day Goodnight?, by Jane Yolen, ill. Mark Teague. One of a whole bunch of dino books on various behaviours, I love these. The rhymes are cute but never sweet, and I adore Mark Teague, both as an illustrator of other authors' works and his own.

A Bad Case of Stripes, by David Shannon. A great take on being true to yourself, even if it means admitting you like lima beans (never mind the Chianti, this is for kids). He is also the author of the v. popular No, David books (like the big books, hate the board books and am not loving the new doggy take-off either) and the fantastic book The Rain Came Down.

Red is Best, by Kathy Stinson. A book that truly captures the magic of favourite items - red hair barrettes that make your hair laugh? Perfect.

Amos's Sweater,by Janet Lunn, ill. Kim LaFave. Okay, I think sheep are inherently hilarious for some reason. But this one really delivers, starring Amos, a sheep who is sick of giving up his wool and makes a move to take back what once was his.

Little Fish Lost, by Nancy van Laan, ill. Jane Conteh-Morgan. A story of a mom and baby fish separated and reunited, embodies all the worries and the joy involved. Rhythmic, rhyming text and fantastic bright illustrations makes this a fun read, even as little fish is getting a bit freaked out.

Crictor, by Tomi Ungerer. A favourite of mine when I was a kid, this is the story of an unusual pet snake-turned-hero. Funny visual jokes and a super-cool old lady keep the older book from feeing too old-fashioned.

Wild About Books, by Judy Sierra, ill. Marc Brown. A new favourite, this fun and wild rhyming book about bringing literature to the zoo is filled with silly details and promotes the fun of reading without ever straying into "earnest" territory.

Marie-Louise Gay is both an author and an illustrator, and I love her. She has paired up with Don Gillmor to create two books I love (The Fabulous Song and The Christmas Orange). She has also written and illustrated a few books herself about Stella and Sam, a crazy brother-and-sister duo that crack me up.

For transportation-loving babies, there are two series that I really like: This Train, by Paul Collicutt (also This Plane, This Boat, This Truck, this Rocket) and I Love Trains! by Philemon Sturges, ill. Shari Halpern (also I Love Trucks!, I Love Planes! and some non-transport ones about ... Tools! ...Bugs! and ...School! ) These books show a lot of different types of vehicles, which is always nice for the enthusiast. I am also loving Margaret Wise Brown's Two Little Trains illustrated by Caldecott winners Leo and Diane Dillon.

I'm a fan of silly poetry for the very young, and two of my faves are fellow Torontonians Dennis Lee (of Alligator Pie and Garbage Delight fame) and Loris Lesynski (best known for Dirty Dog Boogie). I also like some of Edward Lear's better-known's, like The Owl and The Pussycat, which has been illustrated by everybody and their brother. And the true genius of hilarious poems and matching line drawings is Shel Silverstein, who I mention just in case, despite what I said about not including the obvious.

I also love using books that illustrate songs - they give a little focus, remind you of the words until you know them, and give the spark for you or your baby to remember to sing them when they pull the book from the shelf (or bin, in our case). Raffi has a bunch, Rosemary Wells has some in board book format (look for a gift set coming out this fall), Simms Tabak does a great "Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," and Nadine B. Westcott has several that are very funny riffs on classic songs. One of my favourites, however, is Little White Duck, by Walt Whippo, ill. Joan Paley. These illustrations are fantasic.

Nursery Rhymes are, of course, essential, and illustrated in various collections by all the people who illustrated The Owl and The Pussycat and then some. My favourites are the pair by Iona Opie and illustrated by Rosemary Wells: My First Mother Goose, and Here Comes Mother Goose. (These were also a Mo-Wo pick - I like her taste!) Bits of these are also available in a series of four little board books. I also like Kady MacDonald Denton's big A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes.

And one for Mo-Wo:
Comic and Curious Cats, by Martin Leman and Angela Carter. A unique alphabet book. Each page features great cat illustrations and 1-3 letters used to describe the cat(s). Features absurdly high vocab, may not really be for kids... but great fun for the erudite and esoteric feline fanatic nonetheless. An older book, it's out of print, and I already gave my spare copy to HBM, but if I find another copy for a reasonable amount, I am so mailing you one for the nuthatch.

Yes, there are many more, but these are some that rise to the top when I talk about picture books. Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming experiment in audioblogging - I am thinking storytime, with some of these titles topping the list. And god help you all, I might even sing some of them! (yes, your computer has a mute button.)
And I think I should stop now. Don't get me going on chapter books