As Thomas Jefferson "I cannot live without books." I love books, and can for as long as I remember. I remember coming home from school grabbing a book and climbing our giant cottonwood tree, and nestling into the perfect branch to read. Dr. Nick likewise is a book lover, we have shelves and shelves of well worn books. So far our children have inherited our love of books. We gift our children books for every holiday.
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” Walt Disney.
We gift our children books for every holiday. They love getting new books. We also hit the library weekly since I do not have the space or budget to stock an unlimited home library for them. My seven year old learned to read right before he turned four, and devours books, he loves picking a series and reading the entire collection, and of course reading anything that has to do with space! My girl is currently obsessed with Fancy Nancy, Lola Dutch, and any adventurous girl story. And baby O, he loves all the animal books.
Let's kick off our most loved books, with books for babes & tots. One of our favorite authors is Sandra Boyton. Her books are so silly, they are sure to make everyone smile. These sets are great, there isn't a dud in any of the collections, if I have to choose I would say our two favorite individual books are
Doggies and
Moo, Baa, LaLaLa
We also love all of the JellyCat books, all the different textures, colors, and cute stories.
And a few of our favorite classics...so many great reads, seriously I could list hundreds of books we love!
And my personal favorite, and the first book I read to each of my babies,
Nancy Tillman
's On the Night you were born. All of her books are beautifully illustrated, heartfelt, and for a very unsentimental gal like me, they really get ya, in the best way.
I know this isn't a board book - but all three of my littles have loved these
JellyCat Tales books!
Picture Books are my favorite books to buy. I love beautiful illustrations, and unique stories. Let's start with some of our favorite books for girls.
My hero growing up was Sandra Day O'Conner, first woman on the Supreme Court of the United States, I remember my dad teaching me about her, and telling me I was going to be like her someday. As a first generation college graduate, those words stuck, I may not ever be a Supreme like SDOC & my girl RBG, but at least I can say I've written a brief (2 to be exact) to the Supreme Court. I digress, this book is fantastic, and is the book we bought for our daughter for her first birthday. I have always been drawn to stories of strong, brave girls, the type that I was always encouraged to be, hopefully am, and what I want my daughter to emulate.
I love the classic Rainbow Fish, such a great story with an excellent moral
Lift the flaps are huge hits in our house, from board books all the way up to the bigger ones - this line is one of our favorites. Usborne also has a great line of lift the flap books.
And if you have a little one who is as space obsessed as my oldest (who at 3 1/2 years old asked for "a Stanford magazine so I can be an astronaut-doctor") here are some excellent reads.
We also love the entire line of
Ordinary People Change the World series, there are so many awesome biographies told in fun such a fun way with great illustrations.
My kids also love seek and find books, here are a few of our favorites.
Books for elementary aged kids range from picture books to chapter books in varying degree of difficulty, but again there are so many good books out there! We love both stories and reference style books. These
Smithsonian books are amazing, we have several, including Science, and the Human body, and of course for our space obsessed son we have this one.
We love this whole line of
National Geographic books; we have the Dinosaur, Ocean, and People ones as well as this
We love all of these books, beautifully illustrated and filled with so much amazing information.
My daughter is getting this book for Christmas from my parents, it is so beautiful and powerful.
This is one of the books we got our 7 year old for Christmas, I can't wait to read it with him.
As much as I love picture books, there's something special about those first chapter books, my son and his friends love semi-graphic novel books like
Captain Underpants,
DogMan, and
Bad Guys is a fantastic series, it's part graphic novel, part chapter book and so fun.
For those who prefer a female lead, great series include
Junie B Jones,
Ivy and Bean,
Princess in Black, and the classic
Romona
Geronimo Stilton is another super fun series, my son is so close to finishing the series, he can't get them fast enough.
I love
Roald Dahl, I still remember reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in second grade, my son's class just read it and he couldn't wait to finish it with his class so he rushed home and finished our copy!
Other series we love are
My Weird School,
Magic Tree House,
Bear Grylls Adventure Series , and
The Last Kids on Earth to name a few. There are so many amazing books out there, I can't begin to name them all, but these are some great ones. Happy Reading!
's On the Night you were born. All of her books are beautifully illustrated, heartfelt, and for a very unsentimental gal like me, they really get ya, in the best way.