The holidays are coming up fast, and I confess that I love to give children's books to adults and kids alike.Anyway, can you help me by recommending your favorite new children's books (that would also make good presents)? I have an Olivia thing, so Olivia Helps With Christmas is one of my top picks for little people. Some others that I'm considering include:
Incredible Book-Eating Boy
The Chronicles of Narnia Pop-Up Book
Thank You Bear
Trail: Paper Poetry Pop-Up
Edwardo: The Horriblest Boy in the Whole Wide World
The Higher Power of Lucky
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A Pop-Up Adaptation (not new, but wonderful.)
Or for the more adult-oriented edu-giftee, try the New Yorker Book of Teacher Cartoons.
For a great blog on kiddie lit, check out "The Miss Rumphius Effect."
7 comments:
Ones I forgot:
-Owl Moon
-Stella Luna
-The Gift of the Magi
-The Book of Dragons (Nesbit)
-The Elves and the Shoemaker
-books on tape/CD: anything recorded by Jim Weiss
-Danny and the Kings (Susan Cooper)
-Matthew's Dragon (Susan Cooper)
-Tam Lin (Susan Cooper)
-The Children of Lir (Sheila MacGill-Callahan and Gennady Spirin)
-The Mitten (Jan Brett)
-Brave Irene (William Steig)
Sorry, had to repost when I realized that because I logged in with my Gmail account my full name was showing. (These came before the above post).
Here's my list of recommendations, some are new, some aren't (I know you asked for new only, but sorry, I couldn't resist).
In no particular order:
1. For the New Englander, or anyone who loves beautiful illustrations AND beautiful language: Anything by Robert McCloskey (Time of Wonder, Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine).
2. For the dog lover:
a. anything in the "Carl" series (Good Dog Carl, Carl's Christmas, etc.)
b. Harry the Dirty Dog
c. Riptide
3. For the little ballet dancer:
a. Dance, Tanya
b. Shoes of Satin, Ribbons of Silk
4. For those who like fairytales, myths, and legends (these are mostly new takes on old stories--I'm sure you know the place to go for traditional fairytales would be The Pink Fairy Book, Blue Fairy Book, Purple Fairy Book, etc., and for myths, D'Aulaire's):
a. The Twelve Dancing Princesses
b. Boots and the Glass Mountain
c. Gilly Martin the Fox
d. Princess Florecita and the Iron Shoes
e. For older girls: Any of the Gail Carson Levine books
5. For the budding architect:
a. Castle
b. Cathedral
c. Roman City
(all by David Macaulay)
6. Other picture books:
-Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
-The Great Quillow
-Fritz and the Mess Fairy (for the mess-maker)
-anything by Rosemary Wells
-The Eleventh Hour (great for mystery lovers and puzzlers)
-anything illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg (e.g. The Polar Express, Jumanji)
-Saint George and the Dragon (by Margaret Hodges and Trina Schart
Hyman)
-Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
-Tumble Tower (for the mess-maker)
-Strega Nona
-Where the Wild Things Are
-anything by Jan Brett(beautiful illustrations and stories, very seasonal -- I recommend Trouble with Trolls, The Christmas Reindeer, and Christmas Trolls)
-The Rainbabies
-We're Going on a Bear Hunt
That's all I can think of for now, but for my TOP suggestions (since that list was fairly long) email me. I'll post a list for older children (and the grown-ups who haven't yet become TOO grown-up) later.
Anything by Mo Willems
I love the Junie B. Jones series for pre-readers and early readers. They manage to be cute without being insipid, a great gift to those of us who'd sat through endless hours of Barney and Raffi.
The George and Martha series by James Marshall is very nice for very young kids.
Dear Eduwonkette,
Please check out the beautiful and brilliant new picture book, "Sugar Cane," by poet Patricia Storace, a version of Rapunzel set in the Caribbean.
Try the book "Rules" by Cynthia Lord.
As a salute to our NYCDOE leaders I recommend the wonderfully amusing Allard/Marshall series about the Stupid Family
The Stupid's Step Out
The Stupid's Take Off
The Stupid's Have A Ball
and last, but not least
The Stupid's Die
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