Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Books!!!!!

Just read this thread on an age-mates discusson group, and wanted to start it here

DS2yrs is big on:

Oliver Jeffers (anything)
Sandra Boynton's Pookie Books
Richard Scary (anything)

And the best single book recently is
"The Ledgend of the Golden Snail" by Graeme Base.

What's your kid reading?
And, more selfishly, what was your kid into around the same times they were into the stuff my kid is into now?

-Mich.

DS5 is heavily into comics, especially Carl Barks duck comics and Tintin lately. He has begun getting more interested in superhero and action/sci-fi comics like Judge Dredd, but I haven't found the time recently to vet the stories, so he's not reading them right now. For non-comic, non-puzzle books he enjoys factual stuff like the DK flat books (we have tons) and the recently discovered Library of Curious and Unusual Facts (of which we have four volumes so far). He greatly enjoyed reading this "Scary Stories Treasury" recently (it's really not that macabre, and some of the stories are quite silly): http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060263415

I believe he also read in the last year "The Mouse and the Motorcycle", some Choose Your Own Adventure books ("The Cave of Time" and "Your Code Name is Jonah" come to mind), and assorted other stuff.

I'm not so good at remembering milestones exactly, nor do I remember just what books he was most into at ages 2-3. His favorite Dr. Seuss book early on was probably "Oh, The Places You'll Go!", and his favorite first readers were "In a People House", "Go, Dog, Go!", and "Big Dog, Little Dog". After that I remember that he got into some of the DK Readers and Step Into Reading series, including on the fiction side principally a line of stories about a young detective alligator called Otto and his Uncle Tooth.

ETA: I think a lot of the early Step Into Reading books are dreck, especially the ones based on children's movies and cartoons, but I remember that our son liked these early on:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0394896254/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375824170/

My dd LOVED the Richard Scary books, but she would only read them with my husband. I think they had a little thing going there. She also loved the original Winnie the Pooh stories..

I remember that as toddlers my kids liked:

the original 7 Curious George stories
the 'I Can Read' books by Arnold Lobel (Frog and Toad, Owl at Home, etc.)
the Little Bear books, illustrated by Maurice Sendak
the Nutshell Library by Sendak (Pierre, Chicken Soup with Rice, etc.)
Stop That Ball, A Fly Went By, and others from the Cat in the Hat series
a big compendium of the original Thomas the Tank Engine stories
George and Martha
The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business
the skinnier Roald Dahl books (The Minpins, The Giraffe, the Pelly & Me, The Enormous Crocodile, Fantastic Mr. Fox)
lots and lots and lots of Magic School Bus picture books (I think we had over 30)
books by Virginia Lee Burton (The Little House, Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel, etc.)
Kipling's Just So Stories, illustrated by Tim Raglin

Our DS2 is currently into:
Sven Nordqvist's Pettson and Findus books
Tove Jansson's Moomin books
The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library

(We are in a Nordic country so our English book options are a bit limited.)

Here are some of DD's all time favorites:

Cat and the Hat (and really Dr. Seuss anything)
Go Dog Go
Maisy anything
The Gruffalo/the Gruffalo's Child
Fancy Nancy
Curious George anything
LLama LLama anything
If you give a Mouse a Cookie
Where the wild things are
No T-Rex in the Library
Madeline
Oh My Oh My oh Dinosaurs

We are in the US, and we love Moomins, too!

Books my kids loved that are similar in age range to newmom21C's list (hate to give a range for gifted kids, but say 2-5):

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
Red Berry Wool by Robyn Eversole
The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau and Gail de Marcken
I, Crocodile by Fred Marcellino
Bub: Or The Very Best Thing by Natalie Babbitt

Hey, go for it. Especially if you happen to have a lot of Icelandic stuff hanging about

If it's a kid's book, I shouldn't need the dictionary TOO much ;P

"The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business" Sounds awesome.

"Red berry wool" sounds like just the right sort of thing for a child of mine. Is it actually about wool? Can we do that dye up in our backyard? Quiltmaker's gift similarly... hmm...

"Bullfrog builds a house," which is not actually a frog and toad book, was one of my favourites, and DS really likes it now. Unfortunatly I think it might have contributed to my odd ideas about marriage. Oh well. Propagandize young, right?

More books, more books! Fun!

-Mich

Red Berry Wool is a charming story about a lamb named Lalo and the boy who tends his herd of sheep. Lalo's boy wears a bright red sweater made from the wool of his sheep. Lalo wants a sweater so he can look like the boy, so he sets out to turn his own wool into a sweater by going through the steps that turn wool into a sweater (while the wool is still on him...). It is a very funny and sweet book. Yes, I think you could do the steps with real wool and tie it into this story.

The Quiltmaker's Gift is a story about a quiltmaker who gives her quilts to poor, needy people, and a king who wants one of her quilts. I think my kids loved the artwork the most in this book, which is very colorful and beautiful. It doesn't really say too much about the details of quiltmaking, it is really about the joy of giving. DD and I did try quiltmaking for a project once (with a group that was doing it, so they had some expertise), it was quite challenging... she has a very cute small quilt that came out of it, though.

My little guy is 2.5 and he has many favourite 'torybooks'.

Go, Dog, Go
Come Down Now Flying Cow
The Potty Train
The Little Engine That Could
I Knew You Could! (Motivational story based on The Little Engine That Could.. a must read!! makes Mummy cry)
The Little Red Caboose
More Spaghetti, I Say!

We LOVE Robert Munsch books (I highly recommend Good Family's Don't) http://robertmunsch.com/good-families-dont/