Children's books recommendations
One piece of advice for parents: whenever you’re choosing activities for your children, pick things you also enjoy doing. Then, spending time with your children is fun, not a chore. A corollary is that you should read to them books that are fun for you too.
With that in mind, here are some of my children’s favourite books (as always, add them to Bertie!):
Jon Klassen’s Hat series
In I Want My Hat Back, a bear is trying to find their lost hat. In This Is Not My Hat, a small fish attempts to get away with theft. And in We found a hat, two turtles navigate the moral complexity of finding a single hat that looks good on both of them.
The books are hilarious and beautifully illustrated. You might find them a bit dark, but honestly, children have no problem with that. (Another unsolicited piece of advice: children can process and enjoy more than you expect.)
Chris Haughton’s series
A little owl is looking for its mummy, a dog fails to practice self-restraint while its owner is away, and three ninjas try to capture a wild bird. These books are meant to be meant for younger children, but they can be enjoyed by all ages. Sweet and funny and great to act out as you’re reading them. Wonderful design.
The Little Yellow Leaf
A bildungsroman about a leaf that does not feel ready to let go. I like this one for its illustrations. Not funny like the previous two, but worth reading.
King Baby
Great book to introduce to a child the upcoming arrival of a sibling.
Jabberwocky
Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem. We have the Graeme Base edition, which some parents might find too scary, but which is absolutely gorgeous, and did not faze our children at all (despite the depiction of the decapitated jabberwock’s head).
Katie series
These books by James Mayhew feature a girl called Katie getting sucked into paintings while her lethargic grandmother falls asleep in galleries (which happens far too often and is, I hope, not an accurate depiction of what grandmothers do when they take children out).
The books aren’t that funny, but they have another advantage: you can use them to get children excited about art and museum visits. Read them, then plan a gallery visit and ask your children to try and find the pictures from the books.
Frog & Toad, Grasshopper on the Road, and Owl at Home
Classics by Arnold Lobel. Frog & Toad is about the adventures of, you guessed it, a frog and a toad, grasshopper is about a grasshopper on a walking holiday, and Owl is about about a contra-stereotypically dim owl.
The most marvellous thing about all three collections is how Arnold finds humour, poignancy, and humanity in exceptionally banal situations: going for a walk, growing a garden, tidying one’s room, waiting for a letter. It’s a reminder that there are meaning and pleasure to be found in our most unremarkable, business-as-usual, everyday moments.
(I also believe anyone who has to write a lot for work should read Frog & Toad, to learn how to get their meaning across with breathtaking clarity and simplicity.)
All the Places You’ll Go
Another classic, and my favourite of Dr. Seuss’s prodigious output. Moralising, but the morals it teaches (fortitude, agency) are good and worth reinforcing in a young age.
Some Julia Donaldson books
Julia Donaldson is the closest thing to children’s books Big Business. But her works are hit and miss: some are great, some just capitalise on her brand name. I like both Gruffalo books (a mouse uses its cunning to avoid becoming lunch, tea, a feast, or a snack for a fox, an owl, a snake, and a gruffalo respectively), Room on the Broom (a witch makes friends who save her from a dragon), The Snail and the Whale (the eponymous animals travel around the world), and Zog (a dragon is terrible at being a dragon but finds his calling by becoming an ambulance).
Classic comic books
One thing I want to get to the bottom of one day is why comic books aren’t big in the UK. Most people here have heard but have never read Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, Uncle Scrooge, Asterix, Tintin, or Lucky Luke (‘graphic novels’ (which is what grown-ups who don’t want to admit to reading comics call comic books) are more widely read).
My kids have enjoyed all of those (though my daughter was decidedly less keen on Lucky Luke). Interestingly, the one that I found harder to explain was Calvin & Hobbes, even though Calvin is meant to be six years old: it turns out you need a lot of adult context to appreciate it. But my children still found it mesmerising.
The Jolly Postman
This is an addendum by my wife. I thought I had read all our children’s books (indeed, I had memorised many of the ones mentioned here!) but weirdly I don’t think I’ve ever read this one to them. It’s about a postman delivering letters from and to fictional characters, and is therefore funny in the way that all meta humour is funny.
6+ recommendations
My son’s now outgrowing picture books, and has begun reading chapter books by himself. So far, he’s enjoyed Enid Blyton (esp. the Magic Faraway Tree), the Hobbit, the Iron Giant, ‘Fortunately, the Milk’, and the BFG. If you have any recommendations for this age, please let me know!
And, if you’re looking for something to read yourselves, you can browse my reviews of books I read last year. And, if you know parents who are looking for books for their children, share this post with them.