I love books and having children has simply given me more opportunities to buy books and introduced me to a whole new genre. I have had some wins and some losses, but here are some of my favorites. PLEASE add your and your children's favorites in the comments section. Our newest addition is the book The Boy Who Grew Flowers. I got it in Berkeley recently and I will admit it. I am that person. The one who judges the book by its cover. And I got this one because I liked the illustrations. But the story keeps pace with the amazing pictures. This story is a bit of a romance and Ben LOVES this book. He even asked to take it to school so his teacher could read it to the class. And she did and she loved it too.
Charlie's Superhero Underpants is a book I learned about from my friend Jeanne. I saw it on her son's floor when we were doing a photo shoot at her house. It is a great story about a little boy who loses his superhero underwear, so he goes around the world searching for them. They also had Superhero School, which is about a boy who starts superhero school and is greatly disappointed to find that they are starting with math. But of course he see its relevance in the end.
Every time someone has their second child, I buy That New Animal for the first child. It is a lovely story about two dogs—Fudge Fudge and Marshmallow—who are very unhappy when a human baby comes into the family, but learn to find the advantages in their new situation. It is very funny and beautifully illustrated by another favorite, Pierre Pratt.
Where the Sidewalk Ends is of course a classic that we all read when we were children. It is timeless piece of work that I hope my children will read to theirs.
I am a big fan of Oliver Jeffers' books. My two favorites are The Great Paper Caper and The Incredible Book-Eating Boy. His illustrations are out of this world. I have to admit that his stories are the weaker element to me, but the visuals more than make up for it. The Usual Suspects inspired drawing of the line up of animals in The Great Paper Caper is not to be missed.
Berkeley Breathed penned a favorite book of ours called Goodnight Opus. It is a fantastic story about the imagination of children and their ability to believe that anything is possible. His Mars Needs Moms is another favorite of ours.
David Shannon writes wonderful books and I am sure that many of you are familiar with the No David! series. But my favorite is the one about Fergus the Westie dog. Good Boy Fergus is such fun and it is the only book that makes me feel like my dogs are well trained.
Fireboat makes me cry every time we read it. It is about an old fireboat that helped the rescue efforts in New York on September 11th. It is about teamwork in the face of tragedy and that advanced age does not render us useless.
My boys love all of the above books, but here is one that I love that they are lukewarm on. It is written and illustrated by the super talented Giselle Potter and is called The Year I Didn't Go to School. It is about one year in Ms. Potter's life when her family moved to and traveled around Italy. It is a lovely story and one that I want to read again and again. Interestingly enough it is the only book I have listed here where a girl is the main character. So if I was wondering whether people like to read books where the hero/heroine is the same gender as the reader, well mystery solved.
Beast Quest is a chapter series that Ben's friend Seamus recommended. Ben is on book number nineteen. He carries it with him and reads in bed every night before going to bed. I cannot speak to the quality of the books, but I can say that Ben's enthusiastic reading warms my heart.