Books Your Kid Should Read

Olivia
by Ian Falconer
2001

The Olivia books have quickly become such classics that they hardly need reviewing on this site, but since they are currently among our favorite books, I had to talk about them. Firmly in the Eloise tradition of miniature heroines, Olivia is a confident, imaginative, strong-minded little piglet, who reluctantly puts up with her younger siblings (most of the time) and keeps her parents on their toes with her antics. In the first book, we follow Olivia to the fine art museum and witness her love of Degas and her disdain for Pollock (she does a quite credible pollock-esque mural on the wall when she gets home, just to show that she can. A time-out understandably ensues). We enjoy her wardrobe variations; her love of playing dress-up, her amazing skills at sand-castle building, and the way she turns a lovely pinky color after a day at the beach. This is one of those delightful picture books where the text and the illustrations are equally well crafted, and work in tandem to create Olivia's vivid worlds. Kids will see Olivia as a kindred spirit, and parents will instantly recognize the tired-but-affectionate look on Olivia's mother's face as she tucks her exhausting daughter into bed. "You wear me out, but I love you anyway," she tells Olivia. "I love you anyway, too," Olivia responds. Truer words were never spoke.

The Annotated Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
illus. John Leech, George Cruikshank, Gustave Doré, John Tenniel, and "Phiz"
2003 (text orig. 1843)

Look: you gotta have Dickens at Christmas. IT'S THE RULE. And if you've never read the original novella, well, why the heck not? Get thee to a bookstore or library and just do it! There's a reason it's such a classic: the combination of humor, pathos, satire, and ultimate optimism about human nature never gets old. It's the perfect length for annual perusings: in our family we read it aloud every Christmas Eve (and Dickens is one of the best authors to read aloud). This edition includes both the original 1843 text and the 1869 version that Dickens himself used for reading aloud, along with a comprehensively researched introduction and a wealth of notes, anecdotes and illustrations to supplement the story. If you're a nerd like me, the annotations are truly handy for answering all those 'what the heck is THAT?' questions that come up when reading something from a different era.

Interested in this book? Get more details or make a purchase at the bookstore.

Little Bear
by Else Holmelund Minarik
Illus. Maurice Sendak
1957

Ah, Little Bear. I think these were the first books I ever read to myself, when I finally learned to read at age 6. But I'd fallen for their charm quite a bit earlier. Minarik's simple stories of a bear, his family and his friends are enduring because of their classic themes of friendship, family, and imagination. The books are now a popular animated series on Noggin, but I hope it goes without saying that there's no comparison to the books. Minarik's lifelike rendering of Little Bear as a determined, inventive, outgoing young child will ring true to both parents and toddlers, and if the stories are old fashioned, it's only in the best sense of the word. Sendak's illustrations delightfully capture the ambiguously late-Victorian era of the tales (I believe the technical term for the setting would be "long ago" or "in olden times"), and overall the books are the kid's lit equivalent of snuggling up in a comfy chair with a nice cup of tea.

Also recommended: Father Bear Comes Home (1959), Little Bear's Friend (1960), Little Bear's Visit (1961), A Kiss For Little Bear (1968)

In The Night Kitchen
by Maurice Sendak
Illus. Maurice Sendak
1970

A young boy, perhaps three years old, is in bed one night when he hears loud noises downstairs. Falling from his bed and out of his clothes, he mysteriously ends up in a surreal kitchen environment, peopled by three large chefs who bear a striking resemblance to Oliver Hardy. The chefs try to bake the boy into their cake batter, apparently mistaking him for the milk. The boy escapes, creates a plane from bread dough, and flies off to a ginormous milk bottle to get the requisite fluid. He pours the milk into the batter; the bakers finish making the cake; and the boy mysteriously finds himself back in his bed, back in his pajamas, with only the lingering memory of his night's adventure.

If In The Night Kitchen sounds like an extremely weird book, that's because, um, IT IS. Weird and wonderful in that way that only Maurice Sendak can completely pull off. The vivid dreamlike illustrations fill the page, with the text appearing in almost comic-book form, as part of the image rather than separate from it. And kids just EAT IT UP. The book has a history of controversy because Mickey (the boy) is naked in large parts of the book, and sometimes (gasp!) you can actually see his penis. It's a completely innocent and childlike representation, but apparently some people can't get over it, because it's consistently in the top 50 most challenged books. If you're easily offended by accurate (if cartoonish) representations of three-year-old anatomy, then this book maybe isn't for you. But for the rest of us, it's a weird, wonderful trip to the land of dreams.

Emily of New Moon; Emily Climbs; Emily's Quest
by L. M. Montgomery
1923-27

Almost everyone who's had or been a kid knows Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, but fewer know the Emily trilogy, which I - blasphemer! - actually like better. Don't get me wrong, I loooooooooove the Anne of Green Gables books, and I'm sure I'll feature them here at some point, but the Emily books are something special. They chart the life of Emily Starr, who is sent as a young girl to live with distant relatives when her father dies of consumption (her mother having passed away earlier). The theme of an orphan stranded in a strange and often unsympathetic environment is similar to Anne's story, but these novels are darker and less romanticized than the Anne books. Emily (who Montgomery claimed most closely resembled her) is a passionate person with enormous capacities for joy and sorrow. She is driven, always, by her innate urge to write, and by her desire to make intimate connections with the people and worlds around her. The first book chronicles her settling in at New Moon Farm, and the second and third detail her journey to becoming a professional writer, and her various romances. As with any Montgomery book, even the secondary characters are wonderfully drawn, and her ear for dialogue and sense of life's inherent tragicomedic qualities is as strong as ever. If you've read the Anne books, give these a try as a slightly more adult work; if you haven't, go on out and get them and these. You won't be sorry you did.

The House At Pooh Corner
by A. A. Milne
Illus. Ernest H. Shepard
1928

If your only familiarity with Pooh Bear comes from the Disney cartoons, hie thee to a bookstore and buy some of the original stories, pronto. Don't get me wrong: as a child of the 1970s I have as many fond memories as anyone of watching those Disney animations of a Sunday. But there's really nothing to compare with the language, imagery, and wit of Milne's words and Shepard's pictures. The House At Pooh Corner is the second storybook devoted to Pooh and his pals (Winnie-the-Pooh being the first), and it's got to rank as one of the all-time great sequels in literary history. No, really! Not only are we introduced to Tigger, a scene stealer in the fine tradition of such "secondary" characters as Sam Weller or Mr. Toad, but Owl's house gets blown down in a storm, Piglet and Pooh build Eeyore a "new" house, and the wonderful game of Poohsticks is invented. As usual with A. A. Milne's work, there's as much to entertain the adults who are reading the stories as the children listening to them. As I reread it recently (To myself, since you ask. At bedtime. You got a problem with that?) I was struck anew by the poignancy of the latter chapters of Pooh Corner. Christopher Robin is growing up, and though the assurances in the final sentence that "wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing" are sufficient to quiet any younger reader's fears, the older reader can't help but acknowledge how hard it is to find that enchanted place sometimes. Fortunately, there are always the Pooh books to help us out.

The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame
Illus. Ernest H. Shepard
1908

I read The Wind in the Willows for the first time when I was maybe 8 or 9, and I've re-read it every few years ever since. Grahame's characterization of life on an English river (and thereabouts) through the eyes of a mole, a water rat, and the inimitable Mr. Toad is by turns lyrical, mystic, clever, and laugh-out-loud funny. Will appeal equally to boys and girls, and animal lovers will be in pure heaven. You HAVE to get the edition with Ernest Shepard's illustrations - don't be fooled by imitations! Shepard's ink and watercolor drawings absolutely capture the tone and feel of Grahame's text (yes, that's the same Shepard who illustrated all the Winnie-the-Pooh books, so he knows from woodland creatures.) Splurge on a hardcover; trust me, you'll want a copy that withstands multiple readings.

Goodnight Moon
by Margaret Wise Brown
Illus. Clement Hurd
1947

Simple verse, lulling rhythm, and beautiful, cozy pictures detail a young bunny's bedtime routine.
The all-time, best-ever bedtime book. If you don't like Goodnight Moon, you may be dead inside.