It’s release day for You Can’t Be A Pterodactyl! I wasn’t sure if I’d live to see it, both because it took four years to come out and also because of everything that happened over the weekend. Fortunately, I’m still here, and so are you. To celebrate, I’m opening up today’s discussion thread to everyone.
What’s your favorite children’s book? I recently discovered that a few people had the idea to write one before me, somehow copying me in advance. My favorite children’s book was Goodnight Moon. When my kids tried to delay bedtime by asking for a last minute story, I could whip through that sucker in thirty seconds flat. I didn’t even have to read the words. After the first fifty times, I had the whole thing memorized. My least-favorite children’s book, on the other hand, was The Cat in the Hat. It was twice as long as Moby Dick and about as fun. Plus, the cat was a jerk. Helping a child make an even bigger mess should be considered a war crime.
So what’s your favorite children’s book? Sound off in the comments. Also, if you’re feeling generous, check out You Can’t Be A Pterodactyl, available in bookstores everywhere. Pick up a signed copy here. I doubt my book will be your new favorite, but it could be a funny conversation piece that lets you tell the story of that one unlucky author who keeps almost dying. See you in the thread.
When I was a child, my favourite book was “the monster at the end of this book.“ For my daughter, my favourite book for her was “love you forever“ by Robert Munsch.
From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg - I still read it almost every year. It’s been my all-time favorite book since I was little.
Before that I think my favorites were Amelia Bedelia and Ramona the Pest.
Massachusetts native here - so of course the favorite book was MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS. And I try to see the ducklings statue whenever I'm back in the state.
The Velveteen Rabbit has to be my favorite. I too was allowed to read pretty much whatever I could bring home from the library - we lived in England mid sixties when I was about 8-10. I’d take the bus there every Saturday to refresh my cache. Also like the Dr Doolittle series they had there.
Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I read it when I was around 8 y.o in Spanish. I reread it throughout my life, always discovering new layers of wisdom and ideas. I read it to my students in English and I bought a copy in the original French because I wanted “to feel” it the way it was written before the translations.
There are many other favorite children’s books, in general I like real stories about animals and I just read Nala’s World by Dean Nicholson ( the version for adults and the one for kids). Your book “You can’t be a Pterodactyl” is awaiting for me at home in Roswell, because I’m at the family cabin right now in Ruidoso. Of all Dr. Seuss’s books the only one I truly like is The Lorax, we even transformed it into a play with my students. We presented the play a few times in our school. Other books make me sad such as “The Giving Tree” because I feel like people don’t realize how selfish the boy is and giving without boundaries is not healthy, either. As a child I never read typical “children books”, I read novels as young as 7 years old: Jack London, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Luise M Alcott, The Brontë Sisters, etc. My mom never censured any books and I was free to read whatever was available in the library, at home and I awaited my birthdays to get yet another book.
There was a book called “Happy Birthday, Moon!” that I loved when I was a kid, but every time I said it, someone would say, “You mean ‘Good Night Moon’?” That’s how I learned to handle frustration at a young age.
I’m still a big fan of “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”
I bought 3 copies, 2 signed and one for the 2yo grand who may destroy it so it’s not signed. My all time favorite book was From the Mixed up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler. It’s upper elementary aged but I still love it at 64!!
The very first books I read to my kids when they were babies were the Sandra Boynton books. "The Going to Bed Book" and "Moo Baa La La La" were the best. My 20-somethings still recite them verbatim, and they're the first books I buy for any pregnant friend/relative.
Harold and the Purple Crayon was my favorite book as a kid. I knew exactly what shelf it was on in the library and could have found it blindfolded. My sister and I were avid readers but my brother was not as into it as we were. My mom took us to the library every week and really encouraged reading and writing. Years later, I was on vacation and stopped in a bookstore in Maine and was browsing. Low and behold, I see a birthday card with Harold and his Purple Crayon. I buy it for my mom for her birthday. I showed it to my brother and to my amazement he instantly said, "That's Harold!" That was all the proof I needed that 40+ years later that character was loved by all of us. My mom was absolutely delighted with the card and remembered Harold as well. I've bought it many times for baby showers because kids always need books!
Anything by Mo Willems. My granddaughter learned to read on the Pigeon books. When new ones come out I stand in the bookstore reading it. No little kids to buy them for.
There are too many to count, but Charlotte’s Web comes to mind. When I was in middle school, my junior high school had the complete Sherlock Holmes series. I was so disappointed when I found out there weren’t any more of them.
Oh, there were plenty, as I always read a lot. But my favourites from the times of my kindergarten and primary school were those three (translation of their titles in the brackets, mostly mine. And I'll give a short synopsis of some, because it's unlikely they were translated into English):
+ "Lion Day-by-Day Bible" (pol. "Biblia | opowiadania na każdy dzień", which can be translated back as sth like: "the Holy Bible: stories for each day").
+ "Porwanie Baltazara Gąbki" (pol. "The Kidnapping of Baltazar Gąbka"). This was a novel by Stanisław Pagaczewski, telling a story about how the Wawel Dragon and cook Bartolomeo Bartolini go on a journey from Kraków to find the former's friend, famous scientist Baltazar Gąbka, who was researching "flying frogs" and had gone missing in the "Land of the Rainers" (Kraina Deszczowców). They are followed by a spy from that land called "the Mysterious Don Pedro". After finding out he was kidnapped by the ruler of that country it becomes a rescue mission.
+ "Pan Samochodzik i templariusze" (pol. "Mister Automobile and the Knight Templars"), a novel by Zbigniew Nienacki. In the summer of 1964 the title character, alongside three boy scouts is searching for the Treasure of Templars, after hearing in the news rumours that a part of it could be hidden somewhere on current territory of Poland. His biggest adversaries also looking for it were Danish treasure hunters, cpt. Petersen and his daughter Karen, as well as their "translator" mr. Kozłowski. The nickname of the title character comes from his car, which was an amphibious vehicle with an engine taken from crashed Ferrari 410 Superamerica, built and recorded in the will to him by his uncle.
Received my copy yesterday... can't wait for the princess to visit tomorrow for our first read-thru. My personal favorite is Where the Sidewalk Ends. I would let the kiddos pick 2-3 poems at bedtime. A few were always on repeat (Sister for Sale was a favorite)
My favorite children's book is a real oldie. Pat the Bunny. I am not sure why, but I have always loved the book. I also like how interactive it is. I also really like Corduroy. That little bear is so cute.
Paper Bag Princess. As the mother of two girls, I did NOT want to indoctrinate them with the idea popular in my own childhood, that a girl or woman always needs a prince to rescue her. Instead, in this book, the dragon takes the young Prince she is betrothed to. Princess’s clothes all burned up in the dragon fire at the castle so she slips on a paper bag as a dress, finds the dragon, outwits it and rescues the prince. He criticizes her for not being dressed like a princess, she realizes he is a shallow jerk, breaks the engagement and lives happily ever after without him. Every little girl needs this book.
As a kid (a looong time ago), I, one summer, decided to read every book in the children’s section in the library. I might have been about 10+/-. I read so many that summer that I don’t remember any specific book except for Curious George. I hated that book when I first found it because it was printed in cursive. But when they taught us cursive, I was excited because now I could read the Curious George books! The only other children’s books that I remember are the Dr Seuss books that we thought were funny. And it didn’t teach us to mess up the house - we knew my mother would kill us! 😁🤪😁
My favorite is The Snowy Day. In 1974 my husband & I (Caucasian) adopted the first of 4 black kids. I struggled to find black children books. All my kids and grandkids had go out in the snow and do everything Peter did.
Congrats, James! I need to order for a friend’s little one… And my fave book as a kid was Heidi of course! I was named after a cousin, Heidi, whom we just visited while in Switzerland.
I just opened it today, and can't wait to give it to my grandson in a year or so (he'll just eat it right now.)
My favorite book was Fox in Socks, because we made my mom read it really fast. Not surprisingly, it was her least favorite.
My kids' favorite was probably Sandra Boynton's Barnyard Dance or The Going To Bed Book, both of which I can still recite by heart, 30 years after reading them for the first time.
The first book that I really remember was "Angel Unaware" by Dale Evans Rogers (yep, Roy's wife), that was about their Downs Syndrome daughter that died at a very young age. It was published in 1953 but I'm sure I couldn't read quite that well at age 4 so I'm guessing I read it when in the 3rd or 4th grade. It made a huge impression on me.
Our son loved any and all Richard Scarry books. We spent many a night reading and looking for Goldbug, who was hidden somewhere on each page. Our daughter loved the Berenstein Bears books and any book that mom or dad could make the characters make funny noises as we read along. MrP was better at that than me. Why is it the males can make all the cool noises like cars and planes and monsters and animals?
P..S. Got your new book yesterday and love everything about it. It will be gifted to our great-grand nephew since we have no g'children. And hope you are on the mend!
My absolute favorite was The Velveteen Rabbit. I made sure my niece had a copy when she was young, and took her to our local city's theater to see it performed live.
My mother always had a soft spot for The Giving Tree. It was a bit of a departure for Shel Silverstein but chock full of meaningful lessons.
As a preschooler: "Five Little Firemen" by Margaret Wise Brown* and Edith Thatcher Herd with illustrations by Tibor Gergely. I grew up to be one of the first women in the fire service all because my Dad read this book to me every night.
As a grade schooler: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster with illustrations by Jules Feiffer and the Tales of Magic by Edward Eager with illustrated by N.M. Bodecker.
As a young adult: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and all his related books as well as the The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.
As an old fart: I waste my life away playing solitaire and watching TikTok on my phone.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was a favorite, and The Golden Book of 365 Stories. I actually remember learning to read on the latter! Both read until they almost fell apart.
Picking a favorite children's book is like picking a favorite child - lucky for me I only gave birth to one. The others I got with a second husband.
Dr. Seuss is a favorite author and I really loved the Horton books. I love the TV special about The Sneetches. Berenstain Bears are great, too. As is Babar. For little kids I really love The Very Hungry Caterpillar - it was the first one my son read on his own. But for great storytelling, The Hobbit is one of the best out there and the illustrated version is fantastic! I still remember the first paragraph after reading it a million times. I can't believe I never read it until I was 20!
By the way, YOUR book is fantastic and my grandson loves it. He's big into dinosaurs and loves Pterodactyls!
My favorite children's book is "Make Way for Ducklings." Great story, great pictures. Every time my mama read it to me, I saw something new in those pictures. And then I loved reading it to my kids. It just never got old.
Monster at the End of This Book and Fox in Sox when I was younger, the latter became a challenge for me to attempt to read to the kids as fast as possible. I had it nearly memorized as a kid due to having it on a record, and I got it completely memorized after two kids.
Older, I loved the book The Enormous Egg, I still have my nearly destroyed copy and a library hardbound of it XD The other two were The Phantom Tollbooth and The Thirteen Clocks.
My daughters are in their late twenties but I could still recite Goodnight Moon. I always buy a copy as a shower/baby gift.
Are You My Mother was the one they loved to be read to them, complete with mom using silly voices for each new character.
I read everything I could get my hands on as a kid, so I really can’t remember many specific books as favorites. I do remember loving the Three Investigators series from Alfred Hitchcock(??) when I found them. I tried to like Nancy Drew but instead found Trixie Belden books more to my liking.
Good luck with your recovery and with the book release. I love your writing!
I had so many! The Berenstain Bears were a huge favorite. My son loves any book about trucks. My son also has a huge collection of banned and challenged books. He's not old enough for most of them, but they'll be there when he's ready!
I’m in my mid 50s and still buy children’s books (which my kids have outgrown)....so my favourite from when? My all time favourite kids book (which I still read regularly) is A Wrinkle in Time. But I was quite a fan of Fortunately, the Milk (Neil Gaiman) when my kids were younger, and fondly recall Goodnight Moon both from my own childhood and my children’s.
And I’m looking forward to read my newest children’s book acquisition by my favourite author who fortunately hasn’t died yet (despite multiple apparent attempts!).
Each Peach Pear Plum as my kids learnt to join in the poem, even without the book being around. Also, I Really Want The Cake as my son used to correct adults who would read it to him as he knew it all at 2.
When I was a child, my favourite book was “the monster at the end of this book.“ For my daughter, my favourite book for her was “love you forever“ by Robert Munsch.
The very hungry caterpillar!
My absolute favorite, and one I try to re-read every few years, is The Phantom Tollbooth. Also The Secret Garden.
From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg - I still read it almost every year. It’s been my all-time favorite book since I was little.
Before that I think my favorites were Amelia Bedelia and Ramona the Pest.
And of course I still love the Nancy Drew books.
Ooh! A Gift of Magic by Lois Duncan!
So many favorites!
Massachusetts native here - so of course the favorite book was MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS. And I try to see the ducklings statue whenever I'm back in the state.
The Velveteen Rabbit has to be my favorite. I too was allowed to read pretty much whatever I could bring home from the library - we lived in England mid sixties when I was about 8-10. I’d take the bus there every Saturday to refresh my cache. Also like the Dr Doolittle series they had there.
Mine is Where the Wild Things Are
Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I read it when I was around 8 y.o in Spanish. I reread it throughout my life, always discovering new layers of wisdom and ideas. I read it to my students in English and I bought a copy in the original French because I wanted “to feel” it the way it was written before the translations.
There are many other favorite children’s books, in general I like real stories about animals and I just read Nala’s World by Dean Nicholson ( the version for adults and the one for kids). Your book “You can’t be a Pterodactyl” is awaiting for me at home in Roswell, because I’m at the family cabin right now in Ruidoso. Of all Dr. Seuss’s books the only one I truly like is The Lorax, we even transformed it into a play with my students. We presented the play a few times in our school. Other books make me sad such as “The Giving Tree” because I feel like people don’t realize how selfish the boy is and giving without boundaries is not healthy, either. As a child I never read typical “children books”, I read novels as young as 7 years old: Jack London, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Luise M Alcott, The Brontë Sisters, etc. My mom never censured any books and I was free to read whatever was available in the library, at home and I awaited my birthdays to get yet another book.
My favorite book as a kid was "Madeline". I love reading it to my boys now! They also really love "The Gruffalo".
I loved Pippa Longstocking books as a kid, but as a small child it was The Very Hungry Caterpillar tied with Where the Wild Things Are.
There was a book called “Happy Birthday, Moon!” that I loved when I was a kid, but every time I said it, someone would say, “You mean ‘Good Night Moon’?” That’s how I learned to handle frustration at a young age.
I’m still a big fan of “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”
My favorite was “ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” My kids loved the Goosebump books.
I bought 3 copies, 2 signed and one for the 2yo grand who may destroy it so it’s not signed. My all time favorite book was From the Mixed up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler. It’s upper elementary aged but I still love it at 64!!
The very first books I read to my kids when they were babies were the Sandra Boynton books. "The Going to Bed Book" and "Moo Baa La La La" were the best. My 20-somethings still recite them verbatim, and they're the first books I buy for any pregnant friend/relative.
Harold and the Purple Crayon was my favorite book as a kid. I knew exactly what shelf it was on in the library and could have found it blindfolded. My sister and I were avid readers but my brother was not as into it as we were. My mom took us to the library every week and really encouraged reading and writing. Years later, I was on vacation and stopped in a bookstore in Maine and was browsing. Low and behold, I see a birthday card with Harold and his Purple Crayon. I buy it for my mom for her birthday. I showed it to my brother and to my amazement he instantly said, "That's Harold!" That was all the proof I needed that 40+ years later that character was loved by all of us. My mom was absolutely delighted with the card and remembered Harold as well. I've bought it many times for baby showers because kids always need books!
Anything by Mo Willems. My granddaughter learned to read on the Pigeon books. When new ones come out I stand in the bookstore reading it. No little kids to buy them for.
Any of the Winnie the Pooh stories.
There are too many to count, but Charlotte’s Web comes to mind. When I was in middle school, my junior high school had the complete Sherlock Holmes series. I was so disappointed when I found out there weren’t any more of them.
"Bread and Jam for Frances" by Russell Hoban. And I already received your new book in the mail and I am looking forward to giving it to my grandsons.
Here's to your speedy recovery!!!
Oh, there were plenty, as I always read a lot. But my favourites from the times of my kindergarten and primary school were those three (translation of their titles in the brackets, mostly mine. And I'll give a short synopsis of some, because it's unlikely they were translated into English):
+ "Lion Day-by-Day Bible" (pol. "Biblia | opowiadania na każdy dzień", which can be translated back as sth like: "the Holy Bible: stories for each day").
+ "Porwanie Baltazara Gąbki" (pol. "The Kidnapping of Baltazar Gąbka"). This was a novel by Stanisław Pagaczewski, telling a story about how the Wawel Dragon and cook Bartolomeo Bartolini go on a journey from Kraków to find the former's friend, famous scientist Baltazar Gąbka, who was researching "flying frogs" and had gone missing in the "Land of the Rainers" (Kraina Deszczowców). They are followed by a spy from that land called "the Mysterious Don Pedro". After finding out he was kidnapped by the ruler of that country it becomes a rescue mission.
+ "Pan Samochodzik i templariusze" (pol. "Mister Automobile and the Knight Templars"), a novel by Zbigniew Nienacki. In the summer of 1964 the title character, alongside three boy scouts is searching for the Treasure of Templars, after hearing in the news rumours that a part of it could be hidden somewhere on current territory of Poland. His biggest adversaries also looking for it were Danish treasure hunters, cpt. Petersen and his daughter Karen, as well as their "translator" mr. Kozłowski. The nickname of the title character comes from his car, which was an amphibious vehicle with an engine taken from crashed Ferrari 410 Superamerica, built and recorded in the will to him by his uncle.
Received my copy yesterday... can't wait for the princess to visit tomorrow for our first read-thru. My personal favorite is Where the Sidewalk Ends. I would let the kiddos pick 2-3 poems at bedtime. A few were always on repeat (Sister for Sale was a favorite)
My favorite children's book is a real oldie. Pat the Bunny. I am not sure why, but I have always loved the book. I also like how interactive it is. I also really like Corduroy. That little bear is so cute.
Paper Bag Princess. As the mother of two girls, I did NOT want to indoctrinate them with the idea popular in my own childhood, that a girl or woman always needs a prince to rescue her. Instead, in this book, the dragon takes the young Prince she is betrothed to. Princess’s clothes all burned up in the dragon fire at the castle so she slips on a paper bag as a dress, finds the dragon, outwits it and rescues the prince. He criticizes her for not being dressed like a princess, she realizes he is a shallow jerk, breaks the engagement and lives happily ever after without him. Every little girl needs this book.
As a kid (a looong time ago), I, one summer, decided to read every book in the children’s section in the library. I might have been about 10+/-. I read so many that summer that I don’t remember any specific book except for Curious George. I hated that book when I first found it because it was printed in cursive. But when they taught us cursive, I was excited because now I could read the Curious George books! The only other children’s books that I remember are the Dr Seuss books that we thought were funny. And it didn’t teach us to mess up the house - we knew my mother would kill us! 😁🤪😁
The Beverly Cleary books were some of my favorites. Henry Huggins, Ramona & Beezus Quimby were all great characters.
Harold and his Purple Crayon will always be my favorite. It’s always a part of my baby shower gifts.
My favorite is The Snowy Day. In 1974 my husband & I (Caucasian) adopted the first of 4 black kids. I struggled to find black children books. All my kids and grandkids had go out in the snow and do everything Peter did.
Three Billy 🐐 Goats Gruff (the original story).
Happy to hear you made it through the week without anymore ER visits.
Congrats, James! I need to order for a friend’s little one… And my fave book as a kid was Heidi of course! I was named after a cousin, Heidi, whom we just visited while in Switzerland.
I just opened it today, and can't wait to give it to my grandson in a year or so (he'll just eat it right now.)
My favorite book was Fox in Socks, because we made my mom read it really fast. Not surprisingly, it was her least favorite.
My kids' favorite was probably Sandra Boynton's Barnyard Dance or The Going To Bed Book, both of which I can still recite by heart, 30 years after reading them for the first time.
The first book that I really remember was "Angel Unaware" by Dale Evans Rogers (yep, Roy's wife), that was about their Downs Syndrome daughter that died at a very young age. It was published in 1953 but I'm sure I couldn't read quite that well at age 4 so I'm guessing I read it when in the 3rd or 4th grade. It made a huge impression on me.
Our son loved any and all Richard Scarry books. We spent many a night reading and looking for Goldbug, who was hidden somewhere on each page. Our daughter loved the Berenstein Bears books and any book that mom or dad could make the characters make funny noises as we read along. MrP was better at that than me. Why is it the males can make all the cool noises like cars and planes and monsters and animals?
P..S. Got your new book yesterday and love everything about it. It will be gifted to our great-grand nephew since we have no g'children. And hope you are on the mend!
My absolute favorite was The Velveteen Rabbit. I made sure my niece had a copy when she was young, and took her to our local city's theater to see it performed live.
My mother always had a soft spot for The Giving Tree. It was a bit of a departure for Shel Silverstein but chock full of meaningful lessons.
As a preschooler: "Five Little Firemen" by Margaret Wise Brown* and Edith Thatcher Herd with illustrations by Tibor Gergely. I grew up to be one of the first women in the fire service all because my Dad read this book to me every night.
As a grade schooler: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster with illustrations by Jules Feiffer and the Tales of Magic by Edward Eager with illustrated by N.M. Bodecker.
As a young adult: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and all his related books as well as the The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.
As an old fart: I waste my life away playing solitaire and watching TikTok on my phone.
*Margaret Wise Brown also wrote "Goodnight Moon"
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was a favorite, and The Golden Book of 365 Stories. I actually remember learning to read on the latter! Both read until they almost fell apart.
Brian Lies Bat books are my favorite. I asked my library to pick yours up and they got 19 copies. 🙂
Happy to have a great book written by a fellow Hoosier. Congratulations! I’ll be reading it to my grandchildren this evening.
Growing up I was in love with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Showing my age…. 😉
Picking a favorite children's book is like picking a favorite child - lucky for me I only gave birth to one. The others I got with a second husband.
Dr. Seuss is a favorite author and I really loved the Horton books. I love the TV special about The Sneetches. Berenstain Bears are great, too. As is Babar. For little kids I really love The Very Hungry Caterpillar - it was the first one my son read on his own. But for great storytelling, The Hobbit is one of the best out there and the illustrated version is fantastic! I still remember the first paragraph after reading it a million times. I can't believe I never read it until I was 20!
By the way, YOUR book is fantastic and my grandson loves it. He's big into dinosaurs and loves Pterodactyls!
James and the Giant Peach, the Phantom Tollbooth, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Nancy Drew mysteries. All wonderful books!
The Secret Garden, The Velveteen Rabbit, Hans Christian Andersen stories
My favorite children's book is "Make Way for Ducklings." Great story, great pictures. Every time my mama read it to me, I saw something new in those pictures. And then I loved reading it to my kids. It just never got old.
Monster at the End of This Book and Fox in Sox when I was younger, the latter became a challenge for me to attempt to read to the kids as fast as possible. I had it nearly memorized as a kid due to having it on a record, and I got it completely memorized after two kids.
Older, I loved the book The Enormous Egg, I still have my nearly destroyed copy and a library hardbound of it XD The other two were The Phantom Tollbooth and The Thirteen Clocks.
Horton Hears A Who, and I still have my childhood copy!
My daughters are in their late twenties but I could still recite Goodnight Moon. I always buy a copy as a shower/baby gift.
Are You My Mother was the one they loved to be read to them, complete with mom using silly voices for each new character.
I read everything I could get my hands on as a kid, so I really can’t remember many specific books as favorites. I do remember loving the Three Investigators series from Alfred Hitchcock(??) when I found them. I tried to like Nancy Drew but instead found Trixie Belden books more to my liking.
Good luck with your recovery and with the book release. I love your writing!
Bunnicula, hands down!
Miss Rumphius" (thr "lupine lady")
I had so many! The Berenstain Bears were a huge favorite. My son loves any book about trucks. My son also has a huge collection of banned and challenged books. He's not old enough for most of them, but they'll be there when he's ready!
I’m in my mid 50s and still buy children’s books (which my kids have outgrown)....so my favourite from when? My all time favourite kids book (which I still read regularly) is A Wrinkle in Time. But I was quite a fan of Fortunately, the Milk (Neil Gaiman) when my kids were younger, and fondly recall Goodnight Moon both from my own childhood and my children’s.
And I’m looking forward to read my newest children’s book acquisition by my favourite author who fortunately hasn’t died yet (despite multiple apparent attempts!).
Mine were the Richard Scarry books. Fantastic artwork and characters in those
All time favorite - Watch Out for Chicken Feet in Your Soup. Close second - The Stupids Step Out
Each Peach Pear Plum as my kids learnt to join in the poem, even without the book being around. Also, I Really Want The Cake as my son used to correct adults who would read it to him as he knew it all at 2.