I’ll let you in on a little secret…one great thing about having four kiddos is that I have a really, really good excuse for my enormous collection of picture books. It’ll be a lot harder to explain when the kids are grown and gone and the books remain – at least until the grandchildren come along!

These are the tried and true favorites that my kids and I have enjoyed over the years. As I was putting the list together a couple of them took a peek, and it was like a sweet walk down memory lane – like meeting good friends we hadn’t seen in far too long, and were delighted to bump into. I hope you’ll make friends with some of them, too!

 

1. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

by Judith Viorst

 

2. Amelia Bedelia

by Peggy Parish

 

 

3. A Bad Case of Stripes

David Shannon

 

 

4. Bear Snores On

by Karma Wilson

 

 

5. Bread and Jam for Francis

by Russell Hoban

 

 

6. Camilla the Cupcake Fairy

by Tim Bugbird

 

 

7. Chester’s Way

by Kevin Henkes

 

 

8. A Chocolate Moose for Dinner

by Fred Gwynne

 

 

9. Chrysanthemum

by Kevin Henkes

 

 

10. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

by Judi Barrett

 

 

11. Corduroy

by Don Freeman

 

 

12. The Day the Crayons Quit

by Drew Daywalt

 

 

13. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

by Mo Willems

 

 

14. Elephant and Piggie Series

by Mo Willems

 

 

15. Farm Flu

by Teresa Bateman

 

 

16. Fly Guy series

by Tedd Arnold

 

 

17. Frog and Toad Series

by Arnold Lobel

 

 

18. The Giving Tree

by Shel Silverstein

 

 

19. George and Martha

by James Marshall

 

 

20. Go Away, Big Green Monster

by Ed Emberly

 

 

21. Green Eggs and Ham

by Dr. Suess

 

 

22. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

by Laura Numeroff

 

 

23. I’ll Be Me and You Be You

by Jim Howard

 

 

24. The Incredible Book Eating Boy

by Oliver Jeffers

 

 

25. Ira Sleeps Over

by Bernard Weber

 

 

26. It Looked Like Spilt Milk

by Charles Shaw

 

 

27. It’s Not Fair

by Amy Kraus Rosenthal

 

 

28. The Kissing Hand
by Audrey Penn

 

 

29. Little Bear Series

by Martin Waddell

 

 

30. The Loudness of Sam

by James Proimos

 

 

31. Madeline

by Ludwig Bemelmans

 

 

32. Miss Nelson is Missing

by James Marshall

 

 

33. Miss Rumphius

by Barabara Cooney

 

 

34. The Mitten

by Jan Brett

 

 

35. Not All Princesses Dress in Pink

by Jane Yolen & Heidi Stemple

 

 

36. Officer Buckle and Gloria

by Peggy Rathmann

 

 

37. Olivia

by Ian Falconer

 

 

38. Owen

by Kevin Henkes

 

 

39. Pinkalicious

by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann

 

 

 

40. Red is Best

by Kathy Stinson

 

 

41. Ruby the Copy Cat

by Peggy Rathmann

 

 

42. The Rules

by Marty Kelley

 

 

43. Stellaluna

by Janell Cannon

 

 

44. Thomas’ Snowsuit

by Robert Munsch

 

 

45. Tikki Tikki Tembo

by Arlene Mosel

 

 

46. Too Princessy

by Jean Reidy

 

 

47. The Velveteen Rabbit

by Margery Williams

 

 

48. The War Between the Vowels and the Consonants

by Priscilla Turner

 

49. Water Hole Waiting

Jane and Christopher Kurtz

 

 

50. When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry

by Molly Bang