Reading Rainbow

[firstmutant]

The hospital is opening a small library for the children's ward in two months, and I'm in charge of finding books for the kids (ages range from infants to 16 years old). Some of my own early childhood favorites are already in the bag: Charlotte's Web, the Ramona Quimby books, Bridge to Terabithia, The Chronicles of Narnia, Where the Wild Things Are

Comments

Re: Big huge kids' literature brain dump

[firstmutant]

Wow, that's quite a list! Anything with wizards, enchantments, and dragons is definitely up my alley. *writes furiously*

I was wild about The Secret Garden when I was a kid. And I can't believe someone else knows about the Francis books! We only had one growing up, A Birthday for Francis, but I can still visualize the cover and the illustrations. Fantastic memories. Thank you so much, Tigger. :D

[amyheartssiroc]

Anything by Lloyd Alexander.

The Chronicles of Narnia.

Captain Underpants! (I started reading that series at the age of 17 and love it to death.)

[firstmutant]

Another Lloyd Alexander enthusiast, how marvellous! My love for those stories dates back to grade school, honestly.

Captain Underpants? I'm intrigued...

[amyheartssiroc]

Captain Underpants.

[firstmutant]

Thank you for that link; it really looks like a great series. I'll go look for it today. :D

[firstmutant]

Right on, girl! Would you believe I'm actually holding The Trumpet of the Swan in my hands at this very moment? I don't hear people talk about it much these days, but I was in love with this book as a child. My copy still has words like "cob" underlined in pencil from the days when I was beginning to learn my vocabulary, lol. And I grew up on Superfudge, and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and The Phantom Tollbooth. Excellent choices!

[a_blackpanther]

Well Harry Potter has already been suggested, so has Ender's game...Anything by Jules Verne should work for kids, also Great Expectations, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and the classic fairy tales: Cinderella, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid & Comp. (the original versions not the happy-happy Disney versions), and I'd suggest some of the Romanian tales i doubt there were ever any translations.

Hope this helps!

[firstmutant]

The action/adventure of Verne, Dickens, and Twain, good call! Jules Verne is one of my earliest; my sister and I had memorized a tape of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea before we even knew how to read. Now that you mention it, I did have a book of Grimms' Fairy Tales once upon a time. I'll have to see if I can find it. Thank you!

[heliophobe]

For picture books:
*Walter the Farting Dog books, they'd be great. Humour that is totally up the alley of small kids.
*Anything by Robert Munsch. I don't know how much he's available in the US, but if you can find him, get him.

Don't forget non-fiction. Books of animals, the stranger the better, things that are gross like bugs and slimy things are usually a hit. Books of jokes and silly riddles. If you can get ahold of books like Ripley's Believe it or Not or the Guiness Book of World Records, kids love those things.

Other chapter books include:
*the His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. Starting with The Golden Compass, they're really awesome books, even for the adults.
*The Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket
*Eragon and its sequel Eldest by Christopher Paolini

more will come later when I think of things.

[firstmutant]

Fantastic ideas. I got a chance to read the first 12 of Lemony Snicket's series a few months back. What an odd collection! But certainly entertaining.

Don't forget non-fiction. Books of animals, the stranger the better, things that are gross like bugs and slimy things are usually a hit. Books of jokes and silly riddles. If you can get ahold of books like Ripley's Believe it or Not or the Guiness Book of World Records, kids love those things.
You're absolutely right. I probably would have forgotten all about them, but science books were great too when I was growing up. Biographies as well--I remember having biographies of Louis Pasteur and Cochise. Thank you for this advice!

Walter the Farting Dog? Now that I have to see for myself...