TBSL Picture Book Recommendations

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TBSL Picture Book Recommendations

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1fuzzi
Apr 18, 2016, 9:21 pm

As some of you may have heard, I am now officially a Grandma!

I'd like to get my granddaughter some picture books, especially favorite TBSL stories, let's say pre-1960 or so.

What would you recommend?

I already have mentally put a few old favorites to my list:

The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller (ok, not technically a TBSL)

2SylviaC
Edited: Apr 18, 2016, 10:30 pm

I could recommend heaps of newer ones, but to keep it strictly pre-1960:

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
What Do You Say, Dear? by Sesyle Joslin (illustrated by Maurice Sendak)

3fuzzi
Edited: Apr 18, 2016, 10:48 pm

Oh, I loved Madeline!

I mainly want to stick with the good older books, at least to start with, but am open to newer stuff as well.

The Ruth Heller books are an example of good newer stuff

4aviddiva
Edited: Apr 18, 2016, 11:09 pm

I could make a very long list, but here are a few of my favorites that are a bit off the beaten path, so you might not come across them otherwise:

Pitschi by Hans Fischer
Petunia by Roger Duvoisin
The Box with Red wheels by Maud Petersham
Arthur by Rhoda Levine (author touchstone is right but title isn't)
One of my absolute favorites as a child. I couldn't remember the title and have been looking for it for years. I just ran across it looking up one of these others!

and, just to bump you into the 70's,

Nothing Ever Happens on My Block by Ellen Raskin.

5SylviaC
Edited: Apr 18, 2016, 11:30 pm

>4 aviddiva: I love Nothing Ever Happens on My Block, and also Spectacles. She has such an amazing talent for visual jokes.

6aviddiva
Apr 18, 2016, 11:41 pm

>5 SylviaC: Even though her best known book is The Westing Game, I actually like her picture books more.

7MarthaJeanne
Edited: Apr 19, 2016, 12:38 am

>4 aviddiva: You know that you can force Touchstones?

2362543::Arthur gives Arthur

You can also include the author in the brackets. Arthur, Levine That shows the right book quite far down the choices, but at least it's there.

8MarthaJeanne
Edited: Apr 19, 2016, 1:04 am

Each Peach Pear Plum is a bit younger, (1978) but too good to miss.

Make way for Ducklings

Caps for Sale

9.Monkey.
Apr 19, 2016, 5:13 am

Bedtime for Frances (along with the other Frances books by Russell Hoban) were big favorites of mine. Anything by Maurice Sendak as well, and Shel Silverstein (okay his are less pictures and more verbal but I think every child ought to grow up hearing his words!), and of course Dr. Seuss ought to go without saying. Oh how could I almost forget Ezra Jack Keats!! The Snowy Day has stuck clearly in my mind since I first read it as a wee one, his collage style illustrations always grabbed me, they were so different and so evocative.
Ferdinand and Goodnight Moon were already mentioned. I will return if I think of any others. :P

>6 aviddiva: I was never familiar with her picture books, but Westing Game is a top favorite of mine to this day.

10harrygbutler
Apr 19, 2016, 9:38 am

A real favorite of mine was and is The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane. This blog post I found has a good description of the story, with scans of some of the pages: http://perfectlyprinted.blogspot.com/2012/05/little-mailman-of-bayberry-lane.htm...

112wonderY
Apr 19, 2016, 9:59 am

I second MarthaJeanne's suggestion - most any book by Janet Ahlberg and her husband Allan. You've mentioned Maud Petersham; do look for a good copy of The Christ Child, as you'll want to read it each year with little Ruth.

Several others I adore are Jan Pienkowski, Monique Felix, Jill Barklem and Helen Ward.

A family favorite with us (3 generations so far) is The Little Mouse, the Red, Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. Ha! I didn't know there was a sequel!

And I'm ordering some of the others mentioned above from the liberry.

12MrsLee
Apr 19, 2016, 10:01 am

So many of my favorites have already been listed. I have a tag for "children" in my catalog, most of those are picture books, I think.

Pirates, Ships and Sailors, a Big Golden Book, has poems, pictures, stories and songs. A favorite of our family
Lots of the Little Golden Books, The Pokey Little Puppy, Tootle and others were my kid's favs.

In my catalog is my favorite Mother Goose version by Marguerite De Angeli.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit and all the other little Beatrix Potter books.

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by Thomas Kinkade is lovely, too.

13fuzzi
Apr 19, 2016, 12:01 pm

Woo! What great suggestions, thank you!

142wonderY
Apr 19, 2016, 12:12 pm

Gotta have a copy of The Pokey Little Puppy!

16BonnieJune54
Apr 19, 2016, 10:08 pm

The Five Chinese Brothers was one of this baby boomer's favorites.

17fuzzi
Jun 24, 2016, 8:10 am

Update: I ordered a copy of The Reason for a Flower through Amazon Marketplace, but the seller sent a paperback copy in fair condition instead of a hardback "like new" edition as advertised. Grr. It's been returned, and I found another new hardcover edition (I hope!) through Alibris. If it arrives before we visit, I'll bring it to read to Ruth.

I already bought and sent a copy of The Monster at the End of This Book, which both my children loved. My dh bought a young reader's version about Marvel heroes for her, too.

I remembered another book that my mother (Ruth) used to read to my children, Where Does the Butterfly Go When it Rains?, but have not yet found a new or like new copy within my budget. I'll keep looking.

We'll be driving to Chicago right after the July 4th holiday, and I have added bookstores to my driving directions.

Fun!

And thank you, all!

18fuzzi
Sep 1, 2016, 12:17 pm

The saga continues...

The hardcover copy of The Reason for a Flower never arrived, so the Alibris bookseller sent me a replacement, and it was ANOTHER PAPERBACK. The invoice said "hardcover".

Do these people not know how to read? :sigh:

So I finally, FINALLY found a hardcover, library edition, NEW copy of this childhood favorite, through Ebay. Whew.

Also, on the way home from Chicago we stopped at a used bookstore (imagine that?) and found a "like new" Winnie the Pooh collection, in a lovely edition. It is now in Chicago, and Ruthie's mom is happy.

19fuzzi
Edited: Nov 1, 2016, 7:37 pm

We are heading for Chicago on Friday, and my daughter has sent a spreadsheet of what books have already been given. Madeline is not on it, so that will be making the trip, along with Sheep in a Jeep.

Many of your suggestions already reside on Ruthie's bookshelves, but do offer more as you think of them.

Addendum: two other books flew to Chicago: Go Dog Go and the aforementioned The Reason For a Flower.

202wonderY
Jan 2, 2018, 12:54 pm

One of my grands acquired guinea pigs this year, and I keep meaning to dig out my copy of Pigs is Pigs to share with her. A wonderful classic.

21Darth-Heather
Jan 2, 2018, 3:36 pm

Hats and Coats, Cows and Goats was my brother's favorite.

222wonderY
Jan 2, 2018, 3:47 pm

>21 Darth-Heather: That looks very cute. Would you be willing to write a description for the work page?

23fuzzi
Feb 8, 2018, 10:55 pm

I saw for sale online a new copy of one of my daughter's favorites Rumplestiltskin by Paul O Zelinsky. If you've never seen illustrations by this author, you need to check him out!



24Sakerfalcon
Feb 9, 2018, 2:18 am

>22 2wonderY: I love Zelinsky's illustrations! I need to find more of his work ( I think I have his Rapunzel).

25fuzzi
Feb 9, 2018, 7:18 am

>24 Sakerfalcon: oh, I forgot to mention that I ordered it, and will present it to my granddaughter in the future.

26Sakerfalcon
Feb 9, 2018, 8:46 am

She is very lucky to have a grandmother with such excellent taste!

27fuzzi
Feb 9, 2018, 8:54 am

>26 Sakerfalcon: my mother worked in a library, and on a daily basis saw the wonderful books available. This book, and others, were purchased and given to her grandchildren. My children and I were enriched by reading many of these volumes.

28Sakerfalcon
Feb 9, 2018, 8:57 am

That is such a wonderful legacy. Glad you are carrying on the tradition!

29MrsLee
Feb 9, 2018, 9:33 am

>27 fuzzi: My grandmother did that too. I still have the lovely books she gifted me with.

30MinuteMarginalia
Feb 9, 2018, 7:59 pm

Virginia Lee Burton's The Little House is one I always think of as the perfect picture book. It's a lesson in visual literacy folded into a beautiful book. The pictures are rich in details (and some absolute gems -- as the countryside changes to suburbs over time, watch the pond, liquid refreshment for horses, be replaced by a gasoline station, liquid sustenance for horseless carriages); the idea of city growth is echoed in the illustrations' spread across the page, and the concept of natural cycles is reinforced by the curves in the pictures showing the country.

>15 MDGentleReader: mentioned Burton's Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, another great book (and Mike and Maryanne even have a cameo in The Little House).

(Some people feel Little House might make a child uncomfortable with the city; an easy way to counter that is to pair it with a book showing an opposing view. Lois Lenski's Sing a Song of People illustrated by Giles Laroche pairs a pre-1960 text with newer illustrations; Bryan Collier's Uptown is past your 1960s timeframe but has vivid illustrations and a text filled with similes and metaphors celebrating city life; Lauren Castillo's Caldecott honor title Nana in the City is much more recent, but has a gentle feel. In it, a young boy visits his grandmother in the city and initially doesn't like his environment but, aided by his wise grandmother, changes his mind.)

31fuzzi
Mar 12, 2018, 7:30 pm

Not a TBSL, brand new, but a wonderful book for the very young: Counting With Barefoot Critters by Teagan White.

The illustrations and rhyme of this book are cute, but not sappy. I really liked how the number of animals on the right side page was the same number of leaves, or flowers, or bugs on the left side. Very nicely done, going straight to my granddaughter!