Books for the Little Ones

I had a bit of extra time today so I decided to go through and make a slightly categorized list of the books I have in the basket for the little ones. The categories are VERY approximate.

I didn't put the easy readers into the list -- that is, the Little Bears and Frogs and Toads and Dr Seuss's and Corduroy and that kind of thing. Though sometimes the distinctions grew blurry, there are some books that are quite accessible, even though charming and high quality. Some books, Paddy has been listening to since he was 2 or 3 and can now pretty much read on his own, though he still likes me to read them. I didn't put them on this list. Maybe next time I'll make a "ready to read" list that includes these old tried and trues.

Anyway, I'm hoping that making a list, and making it pretty, will make my reading with my little ones a bit more intentional.

While going through his baskets, I also got rid of quite a sizeable percentage that I just have read so many times I can't stand to look at them anymore, or that I decided were too much on the twaddly side to keep any longer. Here's the list in blog form.

Folk and Fairy Tales from different countries

o Hansel and Gretel
o Three Fox Fables
o Rapunzel
o Chanticleer and the Fox
o The Elephants and the Mice
o The King with Six Friends
o The Talking Eggs
o Strega Nona
o Lon Po Po
o Ming Lo Moves the Mountain
o Arrow to the Sun
o Annie and the Wild Animals


o Shan’s Lucky Knife
o The Forbidden Forest
o The Runaway Flying Horse
o A River Dream
o Boris and Amos

Christian Stories

o St Francis and the Proud Crow
o A Gift for Grandpa
o The Twins’ Picnic
o Two Surprises
o Little Jewel Bird

Mice and Madeleine

o The Church Mice Adrift
o Anatole and the Piano
o Madeleine
o Madeleine’s Rescue

Regional Children's Stories

o Little House: Deer in the Wood
o Winter Days in the Little House
o Billy and Blaze
o Blaze and the Lost Quarry
o Cranberry Thanksgiving
o The Sun, the Wind and the Rain
o The Goodnight Circle
o Least of All
o The Rag Coat
o All I See
o Little Leo
o One Morning in Maine
o Burt Down, Deep Water Man
o Blueberries for Sal
o Babar and Zephir

Hundred Acre Wood

o Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees
o Piglet Does a Very Brave Thing
o Eeyore Finds the Wolery
o Tigger is Unbounced
o Tiggers Don’t Climb Trees
o A House is Built for Eeyore

Beatrix Potter

o The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck
o Tailor of Gloucestor
o Tale of Mr Tod
o Tale of Samuel Whiskers

I also have "Germs Make You Sick" but I couldn't find a place to put this very timely book in these categories! SO it goes in the Easy Reader section since Paddy likes to listen to it occasionally.

You probably remember that I had decided to gradually move into Ambleside's Year 1 with my little ones. Aidan is delayed and still at the Are you My Mother? stage in interest level. Paddy is just a very young first grader. ... he won't be six till December. There are so many great picture books. I do not want to hurry through, since this iss the last time through, probably.

I wrote once on my other blog how I journey through the land of picture books.

My goal is to move towards anthologies, by mid-winter, when the snow and glowing hearth encourage us to linger longer over read-alouds. But there will still be a place for picture books -- even my 15 year old and 12 year old were listening to me read to Paddy yesterday while playing a computer game ;-).