Letters from Pemberley

Anderson, C. W. Billy and Blaze

Asch, Frank Bear’s Bargain

Asch, Frank Bear Shadow

Base, Graeme Animalia

Base, Graeme The Water Hole

Bedard, Michael Emily illust. Barbara Cooney

Bemelmans, Ludwig  Madeline

Bluedorn, Johannah Little Bitty Baby Learns Greek

Bluedorn, Johannah Little Bitty Baby Learns Hebrew

Borden, Louise The Greatest Skating Race

Boynton, Sandra The Going to Bed Book

Brown, Margaret Wise Goodnight Moon

Brown, Margaret Wise Seven Little Postmen

Brown, Marcia Stone Soup

Burton, Virginia Lee Choo-Choo

Burton, Virginia Lee Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

Burton, Virginia Lee The Little House

Caines, Jeannette Just Us Women

Carle, Eric and Bill Martin Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Carle, Eric The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Cauley, Lorinda Bryan Clap Your Hands

D’Aulaire, Ingri and Edgar Parin Abraham Lincoln

De Paola, Tomie Pancakes for Breakfast

Dr. Suess Hop on Pop

Dobbs, Rose Anderson’s Fairy Tales

Eastman, P.D. The Alphabet Book

Eastman, P.D. Go, Dog. Go!

Flack, Marjorie The Story about Ping

Freeman, Don Corduroy

Friedman, Ina How My Parents Learned to Eat

Fujikawa, Gyo 10 Little Babies

Fujikawa, Gyo A Child’s Book of Poems

Fujikawa, Gyo Baby Animals

Fujikawa, Gyo Mother Goose

Gaspard, Helen Doctor Dan, The Bandage Man

Gili, Phillida The Lost Ears

Hall, Donald Ox-Cart Man

Helm, David The Big Picture Story Bible

Hoban, Russell A Baby Sister for Frances

Hoban, Russell A Bargain for Frances

Hoban, Russell Bedtime for Frances

Hoban, Russell Bread and Jam for Frances

Hodges, Margaret Saint George and the Dragon

Hoff, Sid Danny and the Dinosaur

Jackson, Kathryn Nurse Nancy

Keats, Ezra Jack Peter’s Chair

Keats, Ezra Jack The Snowy Day

Keats, Ezra Jack Whistle for Willie

Kent, Jack Round Robin

Lobel, Arnold Frog and Toad are Friends

Lobel, Arnold Owl at Home

Low, Joseph  Mice Twice

Macauley, David Castle

Macauley, David Cathedral

McCloskey, Robert  Make Way for Ducklings

McCloskey, Robert Blueberries for Sal

McCloskey, Robert One Morning in Maine

Merberg, Julie Sharing with Renoir

Minarik, Else A Kiss for Little Bear, pictures by Maurice Sendak

Minarik, Else Little Bear’s Visit, pictures by Maurice Sendak

Numeroff, Laura Joffe If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Patience, John The Seasons in Fern Hollow

Patience, John Adventures in Fern Hollow

Payne, Emmy Katy No-Pocket illust. H. A. Rey

Peet, Bill Cowardly Clyde

Peet, Bill Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent

Peet, Bill Hubert’s Hair-Raising Adventure

Peet, Bill The Caboose Who Got Loose

Piper, Watty The Little Engine that Could

Plume, Ilse The Bremen-Town Musicians

Potter, Beatrix The Tale of Benjamin Bunny

Potter, Beatrix The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck

Potter, Beatrix The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher

Potter, Beatrix The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Potter, Beatrix The Tale of Tom Kitten

Rey, H. A. Curious George Flies a Kite

Rey, H. A. Curious George Learns the Alphabet

Rey, H. A. Curious George Takes a Job

Rylant, Cynthia The Relatives Came , illustrated by Stephen Gammell

Scarry, Richard Cars and Trucks and Things that Go

Scarry, Richard Good Night, Little Bear

Scarry, Richard I am a Bunny

Scarry, Richard The Polite Elephant

Scarry, Richard What Do People Do All Day?

Schenk de Regniers, Beatrice May I Bring a Friend? illustrated by Beni Montresor

Seder, Rufus Butler Gallop!

Seder, Rufus Butler Swing!

Sendak, Maurice Where the Wild Things Are

Sharmat, Marjorie Nate the Great

Slobodkina, Esphyr Caps for Sale

Steig, William Doctor DeSoto

Stevenson, Robert Louis A Child’s Garden of Verses illust. by Tasha Tudor or Gyo Fujikawa

Swift, Hildegarde H. The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge

Tudor, Tasha A Time to Keep

Tudor, Tasha And It Was So

Tudor, Tasha Corgiville Christmas

Tudor, Tasha Corgiville Fair

Williams, Vera B.  More More More,” Said the Baby: Three Love Stories

Zion, Gene Harry and the Lady Next Door

Zion, Gene Harry the Dirty Dog

Christina asked me to expand on our thought process behind selecting books for our kids right now–almost 4 and almost 2.  Here are some things we do:

What Do We Look For?

We still ask, Does this accurately represent God’s creation? and Is this a work of literary and artistic excellence? For picture books, the “moral” question is usually pretty broad–where we often see trouble is if parents are portrayed in an unflattering light.  As we evaluate the second question, we look at how it fulfills Lewis’ description of good literature: “descriptions that really describe, dialogue that can produce some illusion, characters one can distinctly imagine.”  There’s a lot of room for personal taste here–Anna shared that she can’t stand Madeline, while I love the way the pictures evoke Paris for me.  I personally can’t stand The Runaway Bunny, though it’s as much of a classic as Goodnight Moon!  And while I love the text of the Jesus Storybook Bible, I don’t care for the style of the illustrations.  I tried to make this point with Derek’s and my taste in adult literature, too–there is plenty of literature in the morally-good-aesthetically-good camp, and the beauty is that we can select from within that category to find the books that most appeal to us.  For us, hand-drawn or painted illustrations are more satisfying (Tommy can stare at a page in a Tasha Tudor book for 10 minutes at a time); seldom do computer-generated pictures hold our interest.  By and large, books based on or inspired by licensed characters or movies lack the detail and illusion we’re looking for.  Since we want our children to LOVE reading, we want to present them with the most engaging picture books from the very beginning!

Here are some examples of books we’ve had to think about.  The Berenstain Bears books were wildly popular in my childhood, but in almost every one, Papa Bear is stupid, lazy, or foolish, and Mama Bear is always right.  This conveys a message about the role of parents that we don’t want to communicate to our children, so we would put them in the “morally bad” category of children’s books.  In Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, Pa Pig skips the sunblock and gets a nasty sunburn that makes him crabby for several pages.  This, however, is a small incident in a book that’s jam-packed with many other details.  (In other parts of the book, Pa shows his ability to change tires, put on snow chains, pick out awesome presents, and other things that portray him as capable and caring.)  We don’t think Tommy has ever come away from reading the book thinking, “Daddies are always dumb,” so we read this one.  (A lot.)  In Curious George, “curious” seems to mean “naughty”.  Should we celebrate that?  We’ve decided that in the original 6 or so H.A. Rey books, George has unpleasant consequences stemming from his disobedience to the Man in the Yellow Hat.  He realizes that his “curious” behavior was wrong and repents of his actions.  And then he usually has a chance to redeem himself  after this realization.  In the newer books “based on” the character, this full process doesn’t usually occur.  So we have decided to read the original ones but tend to skip the newer ones (which often are computer-generated pictures, anyway).  I mentioned before that Tommy loves trains and cars–so in waiting rooms and such, he gravitates towards Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Tank Engine licensed books.  While these are usually morally fine, I find their quality lacking, so I try to direct him towards other, high quality books with real plots and better illustrations that are going to engage his mind and imagination.  In all of these cases, I want to emphasize that I don’t judge parents who come down differently than us.   Those are just decisions we’ve made for our family.

How Do We Find Good Books?

Children’s literature IS a hobby of ours, so many of our dates involve wandering around the children’s section of a bookstore or library, finding new titles or sharing old favorites.  We regularly investigate the libraries of our friends and love getting suggestions from them in person (or via blog posts!).  I talk to veteran homeschooling moms about their families’ favorite books and love reading and marking up homeschool book catalogues (Veritas Press, Sonlight, and Bethlehem Books are my favorites).  I try to keep up on new releases by checking out The Horn Book at the public library, and we keep tabs on books honored by the Caldecott and Newbery awards each year because they recognize books of literary and aesthetic excellence (we do have to be discerning about the moral aspect).  I think I’ve mentioned my favorite books about books before: Books Children Love and The Book Tree.  (I’ve also had Honey for a Child’s Heart and Read for the Heart recommended to me by people I trust; I just haven’t gotten my hands on them yet!)

How We Handle Our Standards Conflicting With Others

I want to be careful not to convey to Tommy and Elizabeth a judgemental spirit about books, but I do want them to learn to form good judgments for themselves.  When we’re in a situation with what I’d consider junk, I don’t criticize it, but rather search for good alternatives.  If we were at a friend’s house or library where someone offered Tommy something that I morally object to (like the Berenstain Bears), I’d try to change the subject and look for an alternative.  If it was just mediocre art, I’d let it go for the sake of being polite, but I wouldn’t let Tommy borrow it.

We try to be really explicit about books we’d like so our friends and family can buy our kids books that we’ll keep around.  We started an amazon wishlist for Tommy as soon as I had a positive pregnancy test, and we add to it constantly.  Our goal is to own only books that we find morally and aesthetically excellent, so if someone gives us a morally unacceptable book (which I actually think has not yet happened), we will dispose of it right away.  If it’s just dumb or poorly-done (this kind of gift happens occasionally), we might keep it around for a couple weeks before getting rid of it, because it’s not dangerous, just a waste of time.  In general, we find that such books don’t hold the kids’ interest for long, anyway.

Tomorrow I’ll post a list of 100 of our favorite picture books that we find morally and aesthetically excellent!