Carin and I were talking the other day about how our memories fail us when we go to the library to look for books for us and for our kids-what author was I going to look for again?  So I made a list for myself and thought I’d share it here.  It’s a work in progress so I’ll be adding to it as we discover new great book.  The criteria are that it be great for my kids, not too preachy (in my opinion), and not drive me crazy reading it over and over again.  The lists are slightly skewed toward girl readers as I have 2 of them in my house but we have plenty of things that go books in our house as well…

For Lucy (1.5-4 years old):

Anything Search and Find or Look and Find, Where’s Waldo?

Any of the Priddy Books (especially First 100 Machines)

Margaret Wise Brown (of Goodnight Moon, and Runaway Bunny fame)

Anna Dewdney (author of the Llama Llama books)

Ian Falconer (author of the Olivia books)

Don Freeman

Kevin Henkes (our favorites are A Good Day and Birds)

Ezra Jack Keats

Bill Martin Jr.

Mercer Mayer

Alison McGhee (So Many Days, Someday, Making a Friend)

Jane O’Connor (Fancy Nancy books-teaches great vocabulary)

Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Little Pea, Little Hoot, Little Oink, Spoon, the Cookies books, The Wonder Book, Plant a Kiss-all wonderful books)

Richard Scarry

Jon Scieszka (Cowboy and Octopus is fabulous and very funny)

Rob Scotton-Russell the Sheep

Deborah Underwood (The Quiet Book is great)

Chris Van Allsburg

Rosemary Wells

Mo Willems

For Alice (under 1 yr):

Any of the DK board books

Eric Carle

Sara Gillingham and Lorena Siminovich (check out In My Den)

Karen Katz

Sam McBratney (Guess How Much I Love You)

Sesame Street Board Books