Jules passed along an interesting topic from Jen today. Children's books are one of my weaknesses, so here are my choices:
3 favorite children's series:
* Berenstain Bears
For the life lessons and making Mama the smartest of the bunch.
* Curious George
Because George is "always curious!" (the response I've taught my DGD to say). He does what we might do if we didn't have to be good all the time.
* Frances (the badger)
Because Frances is such a funny little girl, so independent, and she sings such funny made-up songs.
Honorable mentions:
* Beverly Cleary's Beezus and Ramona and Henry Huggins books
"Beezus" was for Beatrice, which in my little girl's head was "Beat-rice," so I didn't fault the nickname.
* Judy Blume's "Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing", "SuperFudge", etc.
3 favorite non-series children's books:
* Goodnight, Moon
For wonderful pictures that prompt interactive play between baby and mommy—"Where is the mouse now?" and "Where is the bowl full of mush?"
* Runaway Bunny
For teaching the constancy of a mother's love.
* The Secret Garden
For the pleasure my girls and I received from my reading them a chapter every night till we finished—they still say it is a favorite book, but I think it's the memory of the reading rather than the book that they love.
3 favorite children's book characters:
* Nancy Drew
Because she was so independent, curious, logical and capable.
* The Bobsey Twins
For the novelty and adventure of four siblings who are two sets of twins.
* Jo March in Little Women
For the obvious—her rebellion against stereotyped female roles.
Thanks, Jules. This was fun and gave me an excuse to call both my daughters this morning to ask their opinions. They seemed to enjoy the little mental Sunday drive as much as I did.
1 comment:
I love Curious George. And the man with the yellow hat. Can you imagine someone writing a book today about stealing a wild animal from the jungle, though?
I also adore Judy Blume. She is very controversial down here, though. She lives in the area. I was talking to the man who runs our bookfair who said she got a ton of flack, and still does, over "Are You There God, It's Me, Margeret" and "Then Again, Maybe I Won't." The bookfair guy stopped doing bookfairs at Christian Schools because they insisted he take Judy Blume's books out of the bookfair. He refused to censor her. I thought that was pretty cool of him. I should probably get those books.
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