Our Top 10 "Must Read" Classic Children's Books
This list is not in any specific order because there are just too many great children’s books that carry so many fond memories that it is almost impossible to rate one as being “better” than another. That having been said, there are definitely some children’s books that stand out from all the others. Some have been around for generations and others are fairly new additions, but all can be considered “classics”. Here's a great site to visit when you're through reading this list: www.iseeme.com for great personalized children's books.
1. “Where The Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak – Written in 1963, this is a story about a boy named Max, whose mother calls him a wild thing and sends him to his room without any supper where he imagines this whole other world that takes over his room.
2. “Mother Goose Rhymes” by – who else – none other than Mother Goose – no matter how archaic and hard to understand some of these rhymes may become, one cannot help but recite them. All of the classics are there including “Jack and Jill’, “Humpty Dumpty” and “Little Bo Peep”. A must have for any child’s library.
3. “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown is a beautiful rhyming book that has become the bedtime ritual for millions of children around the world. In the glow of a quiet, moonlit room, a baby says goodnight to everything around him. Ahhhh, goodnight.
4. Any “Amelia Bedelia” books by Peggy Parish. Amelia Bedelia books were published beginning in the early ‘60s. Amelia is the housekeeper to the Rogers family who takes everything literally. Every book is filled with situations that are so “over-the-top” that it will have any child rolling on the floor in laughter.
5. “The Little Red Hen” is an old folk tale that has become very well known. The story teaches the difference between hard work and laziness and the consequences of each. The story is repetitive, but in a good way, as the title character goes about asking each of her animal friends to help her to plant grain in order to eventually make into bread.
6. “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White is a wonderful book to read to children as their attention span matures. The story is a classic and one that every generation feels that they discovered. Read a chapter a day for the best 3 weeks you and your child will have had in a long time. Only after reading the story should they see one of the movie adaptations.
7. “Make Way for Ducklings” by Robert McCloskey was written in 1941 and has sold over 2 million copies. This is the classic story about a mama duck and her eight ducklings who have settled in a big city and make their way across busy places in order to meet their father who has been finding a permanent home for them in the city park.
8. “The Polar Express” written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg in 1985 has become a Christmas classic. Twenty years later an animated movie was based on the book, but the real magic is reading it together with a child at Christmastime.
9. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle written in 1969 is a book that is available in many languages and comes in many book styles such as hardcover, paperback and baby board book. Most parents can recite this book from memory. Children love seeing actual holes in the pages going through all of the items that the hungry caterpillar eats on his journey to becoming a butterfly.
10. And finally, most titles by Dr. Seuss – especially “The Cat in the Hat”, “Horton Hears a Who”, “Green Eggs and Ham”, and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. Hollywood has made them even more famous by making movies out of most of his books, but reading those silly words and viewing the pictures first-hand is what children’s literature is all about.
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