Just because you have young children (Toddlers and “Pre-schoolers”) doesn’t mean you need to succumb to reading ‘twaddle’** to them. Even young children benefit from Living Books, and there are great Living Books that are shorter and have less complex ‘storylines’ for your younger children.
What is a Living Book? A short, off the cuff (not ultimate) answer is: A book that has literary value (excellence) and engages the reader, regardless the age. For our Christian family, that literary value is not judged by just “well written” style and such, but also God-honoring content – as per Phil. 4:8, that doesn’t go against Biblical values.
Here’s a few (besides the Bible of course) that my little ones have greatly enjoyed – and have been read over and over and over.
1) Books by Margaret Wise Brown – Big Red Barn, Good Night Moon, Runaway Bunny, etc.
2) Mother Goose nursery rhymes (judge which ones) – I’m looking for a copy of the Annotated Mother Goose (oop) that tells the story behind each – most were not written as “cute” children’s stories, but rather political comments.
3) Hush Little Baby (we have a board book, “nature” version with great illustrations)
4) Tale of Three Trees – by Angela Hunt – we have the board book
5) SOME of the CLASSIC Golden Books – Over in the Meadow, The Color Kittens, etc.
6) Some of the classic folk-tales – Henny Penny, Little Red Hen, Chicken Little (are they all chicken stories?) (we don’t do the “magic” type stories)
Just a little more complex:
7) by Beatrix Potter – Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Flopsy Bunnies, etc. This series was my older boys’ absolute fave when they were younger. Now they like – Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, Robinson Crusoe, etc.
8) some Aesop’s Fables
9) by Else Minarik – the Little Bear stories
10) The Little Engine the Could – by Watty Piper
11) Corduroy
12) by Robert McCloskey – Blueberries for Sal, Make Way for Ducklings
13) by Ezra Jack Keats – The Snowy Day, Whistle for Willy
14) by Virginia Burton – Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, the Little House,
15) by Russell Hoban – the Frances stories
16) by Arnold Lobel – the Frog and Toad stories
17) OxCart Man – by Donald Hall
18) Child’s Garden of Verses – by Robert Louis Stevensen
19) by AA Milne – the Winnie the Pooh stories
20) James Herriot’s Treasury for Children
I could go on and on, but here’s 20 of our favorite great books/series that will get you started reading Living Books to your Little Ones.
Let’s add another, just for fun. Not an old classic, but great for little ones: Sandra Boynton’s toddler’s books: Barnyard Dance, Moo Baa, LaLaLa, The Going to Bed Book, Blue Hat Green Hat, But Not the Hippopotamus, etc.
**twaddle = worthless, poorly written, dumbed-down, fluff
