Last Sunday we asked for your help.
We are both having baby boys very soon (Ricki in December, Kellee in February) and are looking to make sure they have the best books available. To make sure we didn’t miss anything, we asked you all to share with us the MUST HAVE classic and contemporary picture books we need for them.
Today we are so excited to share the results
Recommended Classic Picture Books
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Barn
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Wilson’s World by Edith Thatcher Hurd
The Going-to-Bed Book by Sandra Boynton
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr.
Recommended Contemporary Picture Books
10 Minutes Till Bedtime by Peggy Rathmann
Time for Bed by Mem Fox
Knuffled Bunny by Mo Willems
Bear Has a Story to Tell by Phillip C. Stead
May We Sleep Here Tonight? by Tan Koide
The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson
The Family Book by Todd Parr
Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli
The Snatchabook by Helen Docherty
Peas on Earth by Todd H. Doodler
Journey by Aaron Becker
Nathaniel Willy Scared Silly by Judith Mathews
The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson
Button Nose by Nina Laden
Sick Day for Amos by Phillip C. Stead
If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen
Little You by Richard Van Camp
There are many books on this list which we may have overlooked!
Thank you to everyone who shared their favorite picture books with us and we cannot wait to get these for our babies’ libraries!
and
This is a great list – but you are right – there are way too many good ones to put into a list. Good luck!
So many good picture books!
No matter how many books you have around the house, your child is sure to fixate on a book that you dislike. All three of my children were ridiculously enamored of the Baby Blue Cat books as well as Dragon in a Wagon, to the point where (pre internet!) I had to buy out of print copies so we could return the library ones. They weren’t bad books, but the 400th reading of Baby Blue Cat and the Smiley Worm Doll was hard! Congratulations to you both!
I know this because I was obsessed with Ten Apples on Top. We had so many books in the house, but that was the only one I wanted to read. We’ll just have to hope that ours fall in love with a series so we have at least a bit of a variety…
This list made me so nostalgic! I think Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was probably my favourite picture book of all time (closely followed by Guess How Much I Love You). But I absolutely loved all the books I’ve read on this list!
I read Chicka Chicka to my brother and he loved it (I can still recite part of it).
Our blog readers have great taste in picture books!