What do you read to your kids?

[Schlegel]

Primary Cats by Marsha Heatwole. Bright colors, few words. It's the very first book she begged us to read over and over. Supercheap used on amazon.

[Fat Cat]

Momotaro...formative story of a boy born from a peach who befriends animals and battles demons.









The Story of Ferdinand...best book of all time or greatest story ever told? Was my all time favorite as a child, my parents still get chills and nausea from my endless appetite for repetition.






The Five Chinese Brothers...the Chinese always win in the long run. Do it faggot.






Tikki Tikki Tembo...teaches the lesson that simple is better.







The Giving Tree...Shel Silverstein is a great writer and all his books are great, but this is a pretty excellent example.

[Turdacious]

The Giving Tree...Shel Silverstein is a great writer and all his books are great, but this is a pretty excellent example.

If you haven't read it, get this one too. It's a little more adult than a lot of his other stuff (darker but younger kids won't get it), but it is great for kids and you'll enjoy it too. I read through it twice before giving it as a gift. For kiddies, I'd make sure and get the other books first though.

[Thud]

fwiw, the song "a boy named sue" was written by shel silverstein.

makes perfect sense that it were, but i didn't know till i was reading the inside jacket of one of his books a few months ago.

[Thud]

In the infant stage it probably doesn't matter much what you read them, but you can't go wrong with rhymes and pretty pictures. Most board books probably do that, the trick is finding ones you love cuz I think a certain amount on repetition and familiarity is good at that stage, to the extent your kid knows one or two by heart. I happened to personally enjoy the ones by Margaret Wise Brown, like Good Night Moon and Big Red Barn. I also enjoyed the Suess book Mr Brown Can Moo, Can You? because it was fun to get down with the noises.

My kid's early favorite was: Blue Hat, Green Hat. It's a lot of silly sight gags that's also teach colors and articles of clothing and such. He laughed a lot.



Kids also tend to like the Pigeon books cuz they're silly:



Later on you can do a lot worse that EB White (Charlotte's Web, etc), where you actually feel like your reading a real writer, opposed to a children's book author.

[chi]

Anything by Julia Donaldson. The Gruffalo being the best.

The Iron Man by Ted Hughes.

Where the wild things are. repeatedly.

Mr Men & Little Miss books.

Thomas the Tank Engine.

Anything by Judith Kerr

Anything by Janet & Allan Ahlberg

The Wind in the Willows

Winnie the Pooh

Alice in Wonderland.

[Protobuilder]

fwiw, the song "a boy named sue" was written by shel silverstein.

Damn.

I have learned something to day - could call it an evening.

[Holland Oates]

fwiw, the song "a boy named sue" was written by shel silverstein.

Damn.

I have learned something to day - could call it an evening.

Damn. He wrote songs for Dr. Demento, Bobby Bare, and various other artists. And he freaking wrote Marie Laveau. Plus he had a sweet beard.

[DrDonkeyLove]

I've been two bourbons short of getting this magnificent cat added to my left arm.




x2 for the Five Chinese Brothers

[TerryB]

this is what happens when we let women post here

you need recommendations?

on kid's books??

just fucking pick some

that ugly little boob sucker won't care which ones

[Holy Cow]

http://www.amazon.com/Where-Did-Come-Pe ... 0818402539



This one's educational, and not gross, although it covers sexuality and pregnancy openly.

EDIT: It's also funny. See:

[KingSchmaltzBagelHour]

Shel Silverstein is awesome.
These are good too...

[KingSchmaltzBagelHour]

any Suess shit, too, but you've gotta find your cadence or else you'll feel like an illiterate retard reading it out loud.

[Holeyfraggaroley]

Mike mulligan and his steam shovel

Ping the duck

2x on FC's

[nafod]

This one requires you to make lots of sounds as a train approaches and passes in the night. A regular staple



I can recite this one verbatim with my eyes closed. Which is good, because you can read it to your kid while completely thinking about something else.



The Mo Willems books are great. Two characters, lots of love and exaggeration



Any of the books with fur and sandpaper and stuff for them to touch. Junior will just stick it in his mouth anyway.

Of course there are the more racy selections...

[Schlegel]

Also the Eric Carle books were an early favorite, especially the very hungry caterpillar and the very lonely firefly. Roundabout age one.

[Gin Master]

Babies don't care what the story is as long as they can watch and hear you reading to them.

No matter what you're reading, you'll be thinking this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlLvAF7lQt8[/youtube]

[CFB]

My wife read this one to our two little monkeys a few times. They loved it because it always ended with smootchies from mommy.

[Sassenach]

any Suess shit, too, but you've gotta find your cadence or else you'll feel like an illiterate retard reading it out loud.

Ha. Yeah. I learned this early on. "Reading out loud, how hard can it be?"


Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I now have quite a list compiled -- which is good because I get sick of reading the same thing over and over. I had forgotten about Shel Silverstein, so I'll be picking that up soon, I loved him when I was a kid.


Oh, and Proto? We put up with a lot of your oddball non link clicking/chink licking, blueberry ass explosion bullshit here, but you should never tell an IGXer their baby is ugly, that's just bad form. I will cut you.

[Blaidd Drwg]

That's a fine looking baby. Pick a book YOU like..the best kids books have a semi obvious message and don't insult the intelligence of the reader. They will like what you like.


My wife and I still read to the kids, 7 and 10. Both of them are reading well above grade level but they are still get calmed down by the drill.

[Gin Master]

EZ had me read this to him when he was over for the Highlander.

[nafod]

I get sick of reading the same thing over and over.

As I mentioned above, as you keep reading the same thing over and over and over, you will reach a point where you've got whatever it is you're reading so wired that you don't even have to think about it, at which time you can relax and think about everything else. Don't underestimate this, it is a key path to both of you enjoying bedtime reading.

Lovely baby!

[Andy83]

My wife read this one to our two little monkeys a few times. They loved it because it always ended with smootchies from mommy.

This is the key. Establishing the connection between love, comfort and warmth with books and reading.

[DARTH]

http://www.amazon.com/Where-Did-Come-Pe ... 0818402539



This one's educational, and not gross, although it covers sexuality and pregnancy openly.

EDIT: It's also funny. See:

I got that when I was 3, thought it was dirty and hid it under the porch. Mom found it later and had a great laugh about that.

[DARTH]

"In the Night Kitchen" was one of my faves as a kid, mine liked it as well.

At this point it's just about bonding and setting the routine.