Thursday, July 23, 2009

Maya and Sage's Book Recommendations

A while back some kind person asked if I had suggestions for books that I thought were especially good for kids. I figured the best source to reference were my own kids, so I asked them.

Maya (10) and Sage (8) came up with the following list. It starts with picture books and moves forward up to the stuff they’re reading now.

The Gruffalo,by Julia Donaldson
Pumpkin Soup, by Helen Cooper
Where's My Mom?,
Room on the Broom, by Julia Donaldson
I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato (Charlie & Lola), by Lauren Child
Catwings (4 Volume Set), by Ursula K LeGuin
Hachiko Waits, by Leslea Newman
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread, by Kate DiCamillo
Dragon Rider, Cornelia Caroline Funke
Varjak Paw, by SF Said
The Outlaw Varjak Paw, by SF Said
Amazing Story Of Adolphus Tips, by Michael Morpurgo
Pirate Curse (The Wave Walkers Book One), by Kai Meyer
Stardust, by Neal Gaiman (Yeah, they read the saucy stuff too.)

At the moment, Maya is reading Keys to the Kingdom, by Garth Nix. Sage is reading
Redwall (Redwall, Book 1), by Brian Jacques.

This is by no means a comprehensive list. But these are the titles that came to mind when I asked.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Steven Till said...

What age group is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak? That was always one of my favorites growing up. I also liked Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree being my favorite by him.

10:37 AM  
Blogger Bryan Russell said...

Ah, the Gruffalo. My kids are four and two... so I know the Gruffalo well indeed. I'm pretty sure my daughter has it memorized. She corrects me if I miss a word. Julia Donaldson in general does really great picture books, so I'll second a recommendation for her.

Bryan

10:38 AM  
Blogger David Anthony Durham said...

Yes, we certainly did Sendak and Silverstein too. We've still got them and always will. Interesting, though, that they didn't come up on the kids shortlist. Maybe generational?...

At the Stonecoast residency recently there was a night of reciting poetry from memory. If I'd thought of it I might have tried the Gruffalo. I could probably get through it. Not as well as your daughter, though.

1:08 PM  
Blogger Kate Elliott said...

I don't know The Gruffalo. Perhaps it was published after my children were the appropriate age? (they're college age now).

My sons (and many of the boys in their 4th grade classes at the time) ripped through the Redwall books. My daughter refused to read them on the grounds that it was unfair that rats and weasels were the bad guys.

3:20 PM  
Blogger David Anthony Durham said...

Kate,

Yes, Julia's work is a bit more recent than that. The author is from Scotland, though, so it's possible we got it over there and were exposed to her work a bit earlier than folks in the US. She's very established now, though!

Your daughter is a fan of rats and weasels? Interesting...

12:41 PM  
Blogger Kate Elliott said...

At age 3, my daughter identified with the marauding t-rex in Fantasia. She graduated to velociraptors and orcas. In the film WALL-E she really liked EVE because EVE shot first and asked questions later. I'm just saying.

4:50 PM  

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