It’s hard to believe that it was over two years ago that I put out my first call to share children’s books you all love. I do believe it’s time for an update. Let’s do both children’s books and adult books. These don’t have to be what’s new on the shelves. In fact, I’d prefer if we might blow some dusty spines off and share classics, maybe the books you’d read again and again or the ones worthy of their permanent space on your bookshelves.
I’m finding it harder and harder to find modern day media that speaks to me. It’s been a long while in the brewing, but I’m certain that my disappointed peeks into movies and books isn’t just a reflection of my preferences. Why must everything be politicized into the glaringly obvious? Why does dysfunction and immorality have to be shoved down our gullets until they’re legitimized? What about the beautiful? The sound? The persevering goodness that asks us to be more and better and good?
Children certainly need these values to be demonstrated in their lives. That’s why I was so pleased with those many, many books you shared here two years ago. I printed out your suggestions and kept an eye on online used book sellers and my local brick and mortar stores and added to my library over the last couple of years. I now have almost every book mentioned and I’ve read them all. They were truly magical and I can’t wait to snuggle with my granddaughter (and those that follow) to delight in them with her.
Presently, I’m reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck with my husband and the 1946 book, Restaurant Bemelmans by Ludwig Bemelmans. If that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because he’s the author and illustrator behind the wildly successful “Madeleine” children’s books. This adult novel documents his lived experiences working in a grand New York City hotel in the early part of the 1900s. Fascinating stories about the opulence and excesses of the elite in those years run along with stories of the waiters, the kitchen staff, and the maintenance personnel of the hotel. One of the things that has amazed me is to read about how the waiters were all able to save up their money and buy homes and boats and take vacations to Europe. I can’t help but compare that to the lives of waiters and maintenance workers today.
I so enjoy reading books from a time when political correctness was unknown and the reader is assumed to have a modicum of common sense and intellect. I hope that the glut of books on the market today, many shaped around promoted ideologies, are a phase that won’t last. I have a friend who is an accomplished artist and a beautiful storyteller. She has the most lovely children’s book written, but a few literary agents told her that if the book isn’t a story that reflects “alternative families”, a gender focus, or include “marginal communities”, there is no appetite for it from publishers. I know enough parents to be assured that’s a mistake. There is a strong and growing appetite for books that remind us of bigger things than identity in this world. Beauty and innocence is the inherit right of a child. Both should be protected and enriched as much as possible. I also think tales of what it means to struggle and endure, to work for something and believe in something beyond ourselves are some of the greatest stories we can give to a child.
Now, I’d love to hear from you. What are some of the formative books you’ve read to your children that you think everyone should have on their shelves? These can even just be books they absolutely delighted in! Silly stuff allowed! And you? What are you reading now? What will you read again? What is the book you tell the people in your life that you really like that they really outta’ read? You’re an awfully wonderful group of people and I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Please share your recommendations in the comments below.
I just remembered a series I loved when I was little, the ‘All of a kind family’, a Jewish family with 5 kids living in New York I think. Some of the stories lived on with me as if they were my own memories. Just like Tuppence to cross the Mersey. ❤️
My favorite (and most remembered books from my childhood) were the Jan Brett books, as as it would go, those are my favorite to read to our 3 year old now. My favorites are 'The Mitten" "Annie and the Wild Animals" "The Hat" and "Gingerbread Baby" She not only writes them but does the artwork too, and as someone who loves architecture, clothing, and all the little details of other places and culture, her artwork is just incredible. It feels special to read the actual books to my kids that I read as a kid, so glad my parents saved them all these years.