The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos by Deborah Heiligman

How Much is a Million by David M. Schwartz

And of course anything by Dr. Seuss.

I've agreed to organize the list. I'll collect suggestions for a few days & then post the list, which will be updated periodically.

Thanks for the great suggestions so far! Keep them coming!

Butterfly Count—Sneed Collard
The Story of the Root Children—Sibylle Olfers
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (and more)—Bernard Waber
The Paper Bag Princess—Robert N. Munsch
The Story of Babar (and more)—Jean de Brunhoff
How Groundhog's Garden Grew—Lynne Cherry
The Little Island—Margaret Wise Brown and Leonard Weisgard
The Little House—Virginia Lee Burton
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type—Doreen Cronin
Princess Smartypants—Babette Cole
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble—William Steig
Petunia—Roger Duvoisin
Miss Nelson is Missing—Harry Allard
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses—Paul Goble
The Egg Tree—Katherine Milhous
Borka, The Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers—John Burningham
When I Was Young in the Mountains—Cynthia Rylant
Beryl's Box—Lisa Taylor
Emma Kate—Patricia Polacco
Insects are My Life and Reptiles are My Life—Megan McDonald
Amos & Boris—William Steig
Bently and Egg—William Joyce
Diary of a Worm (and others in series)—Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss
Scaredy Squirrel (and others in series)—Melanie Watt

Just so stories - Kipling
The story of ping - Marjorie flack
Beatrix potter peter rabbit collection ( in original language rather than amended)
My dd4 loves these books because the stories are sweet but the language is lyrical and in the case of potter and Kipling very rich

I would mark these with "Caution" or "YMMV," particularly for the very young age group. All three are rather grim in their different ways. Some children may pick up on the disturbing implications and others may not.

I guess so, I'd struggle to read these to an older child though. I think a lot of the issues that come up in the book are more to do with old fashion values and gentle intro to some of the harsh realities of life - which in times gone by was generally done through story telling - I have to admit though that even though my DD understand the subtext of the stories she is not the most sensitive child in the world.

We borrowed this from the library and DD would have really enjoyed it a year ago:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0746085346/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

I think this is part of a reading series. I'm going to see if I can borrow other books from the series.

We read a ton of Berenstain Bears and Angelina Ballerina. Although, my daughter will read almost anything. She even reads the captioning off the TV, lol. She's 3.5 now but we've been reading these for a while. She still can't read these books super smoothly by herself, but she'll read most of it. I love all these suggestions; I'm going to have to make a list!

Early reader series:
Frog & Toad
Poppleton
Mr. Putter & Tabby

Picture Books:
"My First Little House" books
DS4 loves all the Magic School Bus picture books, but especially the earlier ones, and the chapter books.

Astronomy:
Jump Into Science: The Moon
One Giant Leap: The Story of Neil Armstrong

Bad Kitty books

DS4 is currently obsessed with "The Tale of Despereaux: The Graphic Novel"