Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. toptentuesday

This Week’s Topic :  Your All Time Favorite ____

 

This week we bloggers are tasked with highlighting our all time favorites within a genre of our choice. Because I’ve already rambled enough about fantasy, historical fiction, and comics, I’m going to go a little outside of my normal box and talk about…. Kid’s Books.

We’re talking board books, picture books, and anything really up to about a Middle School level. Some of these were things I read as a child myself, while others are titles I have encountered as an adult who is obsessed with buying books for kid’s birthdays and baby showers. I would be a horrible bookworm if I didn’t do that, right?

  1. Sideways Stories from Wayside School – Louis Sacher – 1978 – This book (and the others in the series) chronicle a crazy school with 30 floors, elevators that only move in one direction, and students who are actually dead rats. It’s absurd and wonderful.
  2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling – 1997 – Come on, you knew this was making the list. Let’s not joke around. It’s the first book in one of the greatest series of all times and is one of those titles that just screams for bedtime reading with mom and dad. Instant. Memories.
  3. Matilda – Roald Dahl – 1988 – There are so many Dahl classics that could’ve made this list, but Matilda is the one that I loved the most. I think it is also one of the first times I read something that made me incredibly irate. Her parents were SO AWFUL.
  4. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien – 1937 – Another obvious entry on the list. Tolkien wrote this text for his young son, and the simple adventure story launched the mythical world of Middle Earth.
  5. The Wonderful Things You Will Be – Emily Winfield Martin – 2015 – This is the newest entry on the list, and I could’ve just as easily listed Martin’s other books, Day Dreamers and Dream Animals. The art is just beautiful and you discover something new every single read.
  6. Dragons, Dragons – Eric Carle – 1991 – This isn’t the most famous Carle book, but it’s the one I paged through so many times that my copy nearly fell apart. It influenced my love of mythology… and I’m still freaked out by the Kappa.
  7. The BabyLit Classics – Jennifer Adams – Dates Vary – This entire series takes classics of literature and turns them into simple primers for the littlest of kids. They are my go-to baby shower gift, because there is something hilarious about children’s versions of Moby Dick  and Anna Karenina.
  8. Misty of Chincoteague – Marguerite Henry – 1947 – This book was my #1 jam throughout elementary school and I have no idea how many kids these days even know about it. Is it only for the uniquely horse obsessed? I, to this day, dream of buying my own Misty at Pony Penning Day.
  9. The Lorax – Dr. Seuss – 1971 – Another author that could’ve had a million books on this list. Dr. Seuss was everything to me as a kid, to the point that my dad would regularly rhyme silly things just for the heck of it.
  10. The Book With No Picture – B.J.  Novak – 2014 – Another recent title, but a book that is amazing in its simplicity. Novak (of The Office fame) uses typography combined with silly words to craft a book that must be read out loud. It’s all about the delivery.