30 Must Read Books for Kids

[Amy Z]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Tandy, Heidi" <heidit at n...> wrote:
> As Jen & Sheryll pondered - yes, all the books I loved are finding 
their way
> into Harry's library, with some allowances for his being a boy, and
> therefore, not likely to fully appreciate Eloise :)

I would have thought that misbehaving children of whatever gender are 
irresistible!  Though I never liked Eloise as a child.  I appreciate 
her a lot more now!

Reading all those books to Harry sounds like so much fun.  People 
should offer rent-a-kid to those of us who don't get this opportunity 
very often.

Which reminds me of a picture book that I absolutely love.  It has no 
plot, really.  It's called The Small, Small Pond and both I and my 
favorite child when I worked in day care (shhh, don't tell anyone I 
had a favorite) loved it.  I read it to him almost every day for a 
while there.  Each page was about some different aspect of a pond, but 
they all had a frog, usually sort of hidden--behind something, or 
swimming through the water so that he was kind of faint.  Looking for 
the frog on each page was one of the great pleasures of reading the 
book (naturally the child had each location memorized very quickly, 
which did nothing to diminish the pleasure).

That's why I love Jan Brett's picture books too--there is always 
another story going on in the margins or elsewhere.  E.g. all through 
her "The Owl and the Pussycat," there's a fish under the boat who's 
looking for a mate.  She keeps meeting up with different kinds of sea 
creatures, but finally finds a fish exactly like her.  It's like 
solving a puzzle when you notice the shadow story.

Amy Z