Tell me your favourite children's stories

[John K]

As some of you know, I'm to be a grandpa for the first time around Christmas, or early in the New Year - my younger son and his partner are expecting twins so they aren't doing things the easy way! I use to read a lot to my sons when they were little and I enjoyed it as much as they did - I'm hoping to do the same for our grandkids once they are old enough but I need to catch up on what everyone likes these days. What were the stories you enjoyed as a child? What have your own kids enjoyed if you have children? Or perhaps you have read or gifted books to nephews and nieces, or to friends' kids.

No reason to restrict this to books for under 7's - I suspect there's quite a few of us that still enjoy reading books written for kids and teenagers, or could do with ideas for presents.

Some of us have already opened up a bit of a discussion in my Nightspore blog and there's some good suggestions in there which is what prompted this thread.
This links to the start of that discussion: Nightspore

I'm reposting some of my favourites here to get the thread running - please anyone else who's already posted, feel free to do the same

The_Very_Hungry_Caterpillar_Power_Point.pdf


And for older kids - I read through most of these to my sons when they were 5 - 7 years old, and they started to read them by themselves after that. I still re-read these quite often just for myself

Moomins ....

 

[Wyote]

 

[Wyote]

 

[Asa]

For young kids:
Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

For Older Kids and Adults:

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

 

[David54]

Tigger comes to the forest and has breakfast

 

[JennyDaniella]

 

[Wyote]

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Yes

View attachment 56082

And yes

 

[mintoots]

I abhorred the endlessness of the dirt in this book. I absolutely hated the Cat. And yet it's one of those books that's hard for me to forget.

 

[mintoots]

No harry potter books?

 

[BritNi]

 

[Daustus]

I"m an expert these days John for little Kids. My son loves these 3:

Dragon's Love Tacos:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0545604265/?tag=infjs-20

The Day the Crayons Quit:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0399255370/?tag=infjs-20

Are you Scared, Darth Vader:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1484704975/?tag=infjs-20

Personal Favorites:
Wrinkle in Time
The Hobbit
Chronicles of Narnia
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Harry Potter

Older Kids:
The Outsiders
The Giver
Hatchet
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Movie was made 'Love, Simon')
Lord of the Flies
The Hunger Games are Great

 

[John K]

Wow, there's some really great suggestions already here - I think I might well get some of these to read myself. I notice we've got this suggested 3 times now. It's brilliant and my sons loved this story when they were toddlers.

Has anyone heard of this series of kids books. I read many of these in the 1950s / early 60s (8-11 years old) and they gave me my taste for science fiction. I can only vaguely remember the plots now but I remember I loved them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemlo

No harry potter books?

My favourite is The Order of the Phoenix - I just like Sirius Black's house (and in the Deathly Hallows too). I don't think I'd like to read the later books in the series out loud, they are too long and I think younger kids would lose the plot - the first two of them would be a good out-loud read. I'd not hesitate to buy any of the set as gifts for teenagers though - I often re-read them myself.

 

[Lady Jolanda]

Read this to them at the appropriate age. You'll have them hooked to books for life.

 

[John K]

Read this to them at the appropriate age. You'll have them hooked to books for life.

It’s a long time since I read this and can’t remember much about it apart from the atmosphere. There’s something different about early science fiction books- they seem to make the world more mysterious than modern sf. I like this one too, for similar reasons

 

[MoonFlier]

Peter Rabbit is at the very top of my list too! The book I grew up with had amazing art. I'll get a pic of a page if I can find it.

Tikki Tikki Tembo

Make way for Ducklings

Peter and the Wolf (audio/book combo as it introduces children to the concept of story telling through music alone)

The Lion and the Mouse

tons more... I'll save them for later.

 

[Impact Character]

Jooohn. You made it a thread! Thank you so much! This is wonderful. I don't know what to say.
How interesting what books you grew up with in different corners of the world (and even more so how the very hungry Se caterpillar who eventually metamorphs seem to have gotten stuck with many of us (me too btw). haha <3)
I seriously need to investigate the titles of some books. I'll get back to it but for now I'll just add the one from Nightspore and a couple others for the very young.

"Pettson and Findus" by Sven Nordqvist
(actually a series of books and stories for young kids to look and be read to)

(< this one is about Depression, I kid you not)

Spoiler: illustrations

The lovable thing with Pettson is, that he is this old introverted dude who is no longer lonely when he gets a cat, but basically he lives in his own realms where his chickens have their own weird lives and there are also weird tiny creatures everywhere (mucklas who make his stuff vanish basically, and kids can discover them on the pages) who nobody really seems to notice from the normal weird world of daily neighbourhood wonders. His cat is a bit hyperactive and a smarty pants. xD
The illustrations are really interesting in a way that they aren't just sequential (from picture to picture) how you know it from most other books but there is some kind of progress/simultaneity within the very same image often which has a wonderful feel for time/space and pacing imho.

(< Impy's Adventures)

(< Rainbow Fish is so sharing Agape)

(< next to Maurice Sendak a total classic lol)


Astrid Lindgren
[...]

and of course Michael Ende

[...]

...and Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales that come in all forms and shapes.


From newer artists I can recommend anything with Jon Klassen:

 

[John K]

Jooohn. You made it a thread! Thank you so much! This is wonderful. I don't know what to say.

Yes I thought we should go for it! I did wonder if we’d already explored it a bit too far in Nightspore to leave much room but I needn’t have worried- there’s loads of great suggestions here and many that are new to me. What fascinating suggestions you’ve just posted as well - they look delightful and I only know one or two already. I can see a children’s library starting to build at our house

 

[John K]

Here’s another that my sons liked



A big skeleton, a little skeleton and a dog skeleton live in the dark cellar of a dark house on a dark hill. The skeletons venture out one night to find someone to scare, but everyone is in bed so they amuse themselves by scaring each other and playing with the skeleton animals in the zoo.

 

[Impact Character]

I can see a children’s library starting to build at our house

View attachment 56135

That looks so great, can I move in? lol

 

[mintoots]

I wanted to share this instagram post of a very empathic baby girl reading a book. I hope it warms your hearts as well as it warmed mine. <3

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

Edit: her level of empathy is astounding. She reminds me a lot of INFJ babies.