When I was a kid I thought Dr. Seuss was the sh*t. Now that I'm a parent I still feel the same way. Who's your favorite author of children's books?
Is there a better author of children's books than Dr. Seuss?
by JimmyPage 18 Replies latest jw friends
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BabaYaga
...better?
No, probably not. He really is (was, rest in peace and light) absolutely amazing.
Others who are pretty awesome:
Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are)
Margaret Wise Brown (Goodnight Moon)
Arnold Lobel (Frog and Toad)
Shel Silverstein (Where the Sidewalk Ends)
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Leolaia
Virginia Lee Burton. She wrote two of my most favorite books of my young childhood: Little House and Life Story. I think Little House is what got me interested in historical urban geography, which I am still interested in to this day.
http://www.amazon.com/Little-House-Virginia-Lee-Burton/dp/039525938X
My other most favorite book was Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White. That book appealed to me so much because it spoke to my own experience of formerly being unable to communicate verbally.
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JimmyPage
my own experience of formerly being unable to communicate verbally.
Details, por favor?
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BabaYaga
Yes, Leo! E. B. White is perfectly fabulous... also for his Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web. I don't know Virginia Lee Burton, I'll have to check her out.
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Leolaia
I did not speak until I was about 5 (and then not fairly fluently until I was about 7, and then speech therapy till I was 11) and my parents often had to communicate with me via pictures and drawings, even to ask me if I wanted to go outside. It was very frustrating. They thought I was deaf and had my hearing tested many times, but it was perfectly normal; my problem was in learning how to use and understand spoken language (oddly enough, I learned to read before learning to speak -- my favorite toy was the dictionary). I had special education my first two years of school; I went to a center that specialized in teaching with visual means. That was when I made my breakthroughs and started to speak, and by the time I read "Trumpet of the Swan" when I was 9, I think I spoke pretty normally (aside from some phonetic issues). So the story really appealed to me in light of all that. Oh yeah, and it wasn't just verbal language -- it was also non-verbal expression like expressing emotions, or understanding body language and facial expressions.
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Leolaia
Oh how could I forget James Thurber's Many Moons!
http://www.amazon.com/Many-Moons-James-Thurber/dp/0152518738
Nobody could write like him! Such whimsical poetic prose.
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JimmyPage
Oh god I love Thurber! "My Life and Hard Times" is so funny. Compare his drawing style to John Lennon's. Very similar!
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Leolaia
You can tell I like my children's books; I started two threads on two other books I liked:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/73326/1/Rain-makes-applesauce
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/83705/1/Theres-a-monster-at-the-end-of-this-postUnfortunately, a broken image link kind of ruins the second thread.
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carla
What age are you talking here? I loved childrens books when my kids were little. I like Arnold Lobel books, the Toad & Frog series & his Fables book, Caps for Sale is a fun one for little kids (if you can make funny monkey sounds), Little Bear books are sweet, for the little ones go every week to the library and let them pick some out. All the ones Baba mentioned were all time favorites in my house. Runaway Rabbit is lovely too. When they are little you can also pick up some kids fun but educational books too. There is a series and I can't remember the name but a mouse and his friends (crow, etc..) either ask or help find scientific answers in a language kids can understand to questions such as 'why is the sky blue', about the moon, rainbows, etc.....
The Oz books (many people did not know there are a series of Oz books) are good and is interesting to see how different they are than the movie, try the original Pinnocchio too. C.S. Lewis series is great but in your jw house you may have problems with that, my kids enjoyed Trumpet of the Swan, The Borrowers, Indian in the Cupboard, there are 2 Little Stuart books, Tarzan (the originals, boys seem to enjoy them more), Alice & Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.....find some of the great classics that our grandparents would have read to help challenge the older child reader.
All the libraries by us have 2 book sales per year and books range from .10 to 1.00. On the last day you can go and fill a paper shopping bag for 1.00. Or become a friend of the library and you can go early before the general public.
Sidenote: I don't know any man who liked to read the Dr. Suess books. I wonder if it is a gender/language thing?
