This was a great thread from Babies and Toddlers that I thought I would put in the group section as an ongoing thread for inspiration. Kidlets love books to be read over and over again, so to maintain our sanity, it's great if we love the stories and artwork as much as the kids do.
Post your favourites here and add notes on why you or your LO likes them. It's really great if you found that a particular book was especially effective at teaching your LO something. If you have a specialty, like art or science or something like that and you know of great books on the subject for little ones to start off with, post them here.
Post about great library programs in your area.

This thread is all about Raising a Reader!!

I am going to start off with an author that I loved from my childhood: Tomi dePaola. I looooved the story of Strega Nona. I have the board book version for Simon and he already responds to the simple clear drawings even if he hasn't got a clue about the rest of it! I have the Mother Goose, as well.
Tomi dePaola has illustrated many many books. Here's a link to check some of them out:
http://www.tomie.com/books/index.html

I also think the Richard Scarry books are great for LOs. Every page has so many things to search for and explore. They are great if you want to limit the bedtime story to just one book because you can spend lots of time on finding all the details in the pictures as well as reading the story. Another link for those of you not familiar with Richard Scarry:
http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/richardscarry/

Another author that came up many times in the original thread was Maurice Sendak. I was intrigued to hear that they are making a film of his classic, Where the Wild Things Are. I have seen two operas (The Cunning Little Vixen and Hansel and Gretel) that used his artwork for sets and costumes - they were both magical. I also saw his Nutcracker ballet on film. Also gorgeous.
I have a lot of his books. They are all very magical and strange and totally intrigued me as a kid. I hope they do the same for my son.
http://books.google.com/books?as_aut...onal&resnum=11

MOUK : Marc Boutavant
I have just bought this book for Fin. It's not for reading per se, far too advanced for him. However, the illustrations and themes (world cultures) are great to grow into. It has everything in my opinion. Beautiful illustration, quirky ideas, funny, colourful and will grow, develop and offer so many different things through his early years. I LOVE IT.


I'm also a massive fan of anything Jan Pienkowski for early readers.

Gorgeous illustrations, alio!
I will have to check out Jan Pienkowski.
What do you think of some earlier illustrators like Arthur Rackham?
I've always found him really spooky and interesting.
Have you ever thought about illustrating a kids' book?
I am in the embryonic stage of writing one, but it keeps jumping back and forth between wanting to be a play and wanting to be a short novel.

Love this group, and I will def. be joining. Tonight, when my mind is running a mile a minute I will come in and post some books I loved.

GREAT idea!! I am HUGE on reading to LeeAnne! I LOVED reading as a kid (not as much time anymoe) and want LeeAnne to be an avid reader!!
So far my favourites are:
A Cuddle for Little Duck-by Claire Freedman
--It's a nice big book so the pictures are big and colourfull, really catches LeeAnne attention!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar-by Eric Carle
--This book is going to be GREAT once LeeAnne gets older! All about the cycle of life, counting numbers, etc. It's a small book but can teach kids sooo much! The pictures are bright and colourful!

When I have some more time I'll add to my list.

I love Arthur Rackham! I have a beautiful antique Brothers Grimm which has the most beautiful Rackham plates in it. I like Heath Robinson too.... As a child I used to be so disturbed by the crones and his Rumplestiltskin. He looked so perverted! I have about 4 kids books half written. My ultimate dream would be to illustrate a kids book. Most definitely. I sympathise with you about the style shifting between plays and novels. One of my kids stories ended up morphing into an adult radio play?!?!

Love this thread. Will be keeping a close eye on this. It's so very important to me that Fin adores books as much as I did. They were like doors into other worlds for me as a child and they completely opened up my imagination and creativity.

xx

my contribution:

Dr Seuss: The Cat in the Hat, Oh The Places You'll Go!, Green Eggs & Ham etc etc
I love the rhythm of his stories. Great for read-alouds.

Definitely a YES for Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.

Sam McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You is so sweet!

And when Elijah's older, Richard Scarry and Eric Carle books will be ready for him to explore.

Lots of us are Eric Carle fans. He has a really interesting process of making his art through cutting out different patterned papers.
One of my friends who works at the Smithsonian National Zoo in DC is a big Eric Carle fan. She told me about this amazing place:
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art!!
Check it out on the virtual tour. This place is sooooo on my list of places to bring my son!!
Has anyone been there?
It looks amazing.
http://www.carlemuseum.org/Visit/Virtual_Tour
pinkmac85 - I know what you mean about the multitude of things that can be learned from the Hungry Caterpillar. It's one of the reasons Eric Carle's books are so fabulous.
I was an avid and precocious reader as a little girl, so I used to read to my little brothers. My youngest brother would want the same story over and over again so I would make him find different things on every page or make up little stories about certain pictures - just to keep my 8-year-old self from going nuts. I still prefer the books that give you lots of possibilities like that.
alio - Books are a lifelong passion for me too. You should see my house! I decorate with bookshelves that are overflowing with books.
I also have some Arthur Rackham early editions. Jan Pienkowski's shadow illustrations reminded me of him a bit.
My grandmother gave me all her old Wizard of Oz books, too. Simon won't be getting his wee paws on those until he's old enough to understand about taking care of books.

So I have one more illustrator that I have recently fallen in love with:
Charlie Harper.
They just released two boardbooks using his work.
http://www.charleyharperprints.com/

My favourites that come to mind:

Something From Nothing by Phoebe Gilman
Dr. Dog by Babette Cole
The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier
The Mitten by Jan Brett
Purple, Green and Yellow by Robert Munsch
I Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Moira's Birthday by Robert Munsch
One Fish two fish red fish blue fish by Dr. Suess
Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Eric Carle