At that age, we read lots of Jack and Annie books (which really deeply sucked to read as an adult), lots of Ronald Dahl (I don't care how he spells it), and even worse stuff that I managed to suppress.
He did better with the BFG and Fantastic Mr. Fox than with other books we've read. Wasn't exactly thrilled, but was solidly following along.
Have you done My Father's Dragon? Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle? Half Magic?
My Father's Dragon yes - about the same as Roald Dahl. Half-Magic we're reading right now - Hawaii loves it, Pokey isn't paying much attention.
Joyce Carol Oates is supposed to have a novelization of the new TMNT movie. That might work when it comes out.
We literally just this week finished reading Half Magic to Jane (and started in on Magic by the Lake), and My Father's Dragon was a success a few months ago.
Maybe some graphic novels? Mara was afraid of BONE but then sought it out herself, but they love Raina Telgemeier's SMILE and SISTERS, which would presumably not be Pokey-approved. I got a Calvin & Hobbes book for Christmas for them and have done periodic read-alouds, though it's more awkward than I remember from my childhood.
We've had good luck (meaning I don't hate them and the kid listens) with the Castle Glower series and the Hero's Guide books. But I don't think we tried them on a four-year-old.
I'm not sure Mara can handle the suspense and they may just be a bit young for it, but I'm wanting to read them Princess Academy because it's Paolo Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed but with magic and a little bit of romance. Actually I might do that anyway because it will resonate with Nia and is about why it's important to learn to read, and she sometimes finds the rewarding part of that hard to grasp.
(She was reading Frog & Toad to me the other night as I did her hair and she kept laughing at the absurdities right before Frog or Toad would realize them, and it was the most adorable thing ever. "You can tell Frog is sick because he looks green? But he's ALWAYS green!" and then Frog would say, "But I am always green. I am a frog!" or whatever and she'd laugh twice as hard.)
Pippi Longstocking? The Hobbit? It's not a chapter book, but how about D'Aulaire's Greek Myths to get in some swords and monsters to inculcate a future love of D&D and/or heavy metal?
Paddington, the chaos might be popular. And then later I think Swallows & Amazon, over and over and over and over and over...not that I was scarred by this I anything.
The creepy dude who wrote the re-imagined Arthurian books wrote a rather strange one, Mistress Mashum's Repose, that we loved, particularly an extended scene in the lord lieutenant's study.
The Hobbit was good for us also, but I had to skip the parts where nothing happened. When you read it aloud, there are long periods where not a whole lot happens.
Speaking of longer books, there's Harry Potter. We read the earlier ones to ours at that age and everybody was happy.
When I was that age (or probably a little older) my parents recorded a number of storytelling records from the library and I could listen to those myself (in addition to them reading a bedtime story). They were mostly classics like Johny Appleseed, John Heny, Stormalong, etc . . .
I wonder if something like Rabbit Ears radio would be a good source of stories (to supplement whatever you want to read aloud).
The Magic Pudding, maybe? Lots of fighting and eating.
Mistress Masham's Repose is THE BEST, including an important message about why you don't get to mess with other people just because you can. I don't know that it's super ninja turtle friendly though.
Mistress Masham's Repose is indeed weird and fascinating, though I'd guess for slightly older than the HPs. Heebie, I'd guess the early Prydain books (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr) might appeal to Pokey if the scariness isn't too much for them. Mara can't handle anything scary at all, which limits us a lot. They really liked Gurgi and Fflewddur Fflam, of course, but it just got to be too much even before the creepy undead warriors got involved.
And I should be coming up with more diverse stuff than the white things I read when I was little, but we've actually had a hard-ish time with that and I just let them keep assuming that various characters they like are black. (Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has nut-brown skin, you know! etc.) We do read stories from The People Could Fly a lot and a lot of them would be big hits with little boys, I'd think.
11 - T.H. White's personal life was a shambles because he was a deeply unhappy gay man born in Edwardian England, but I don't know of any particular reason to call him creepy.
Mistress Masham's Repose is indeed weird and fascinating, though I'd guess for slightly older than the HPs.
Agreed. It's roughly in the same category/likely to appeal to the same audience as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, I feel.
This love for MMR is restoring my faith in humanity, even in the face of knowing deep down I'll never have my very own Swiss Brown Cow and donkey.
I think the books (and a lot of these I haven't read) have to be...very accessible. Like he doesn't necessarily get immersed enough to tolerate much in the way of non-essential writing. My Father's Dragon was very good about jumping right in. Pictures help.
The original King Arthur stories are more than a little creepy. They are also horribly dull and impossible to read to a child.
John Steinbeck helped a bit, but still, too slow for a kid.
I'm vaguely worried that the writing on some of these sci-fi fantasy-sounding suggestions is going to be ornate.
If he won't read Ralph S. Mouse, I suggest leaving him at a nice mall somewhere and contenting yourself with 3 good kids.
It was the age disparity thing that creeped me out, same as with Dodgson. Other than that I agree sadness spread all over everywhere. Writing his bio certainly seems to have been a tea downer for Townshend Warner.
26: I didn't force it for very long, and couldn't remember it very well - does it pick up after they're at the hotel?
Robin Hood stories are good though. And you don't even have to read them, you can just make up bullshit about Robin Hood and Little John walking through Sherwood Forest and then the sheriff started chasing them and yadda yadda yadda they used their bows and arrows and got away. My kid loved those.
Ohmigawd no one has said Moomintroll books. Moominsummer Madness has great pictures and lots going on! But Finn Family Moomintroll is the one we started with and that would probably be more of a hit with him.
Robert Munch? Not I'll Love You Forever obvs. Maybe the one about the mud puddle or the one with the subway stop appearing in the livingroom. I never liked Paperbag Princess but others did.
I adore Moomintroll, but Jane finds a lot of it too scary/stressful. And then other bits are a bit slow for a kid who really really needs to hit the ground running.
The Errol Flynn Robin Hood is awesome, you could use that as the entry level drug!
John Steinbeck helped a bit, but still, too slow for a kid.
Tom Joad was walking through the Central Valley and the mean landowners started chasing him and yadda yadda yadda wherever there's a cop beating a guy, he'll be there.
I'm vaguely worried that the writing on some of these sci-fi fantasy-sounding suggestions is going to be ornate.
I think that's probably true.
11, 19: Yeah, he has never seemed creepy to me. A bit melancholy, at times.
What about the Freddy the Pig books and the Dr. Dolittle books?*
* W/r/t the latter, bowdlerizing or simply not reading certain chapters relating to African characters if you know what I mean and I think you do.**
** I mean racism.
35: He re-wrote the Arthurian legends for a modern audience.
. . . the white things I read when I was little
I was having the same thought. I thought of Anansi, but not that much else.
I vaguely remember "Moomin" as something that they mentioned French children liking in our French classes. Apparently it's not French.
Looking at the illusrations makes me think... What about Babar?
34: I tried that and it didn't work. I blame the fucking Power Rangers and Pokemon.
37: Yes! Freddy the Detective is the best one! Again, great pictures!
Not I'll Love You Forever obvs
Grandma bought this for Hawaii, when she was about 3. After the first time through and realizing that I was crying at the stupidest book in the world, I refused to read it. She begged Jammies to read it. Finally he relented. He and I got the giggle-fritzes with the utter absurd-ridiculous-sentimentality, and were in stitches - Jammies could barely read, we were crying with laughter, etc.
Hawaii misunderstood the whole thing (of course) and concluded that this book was really hysterical, and started to tell people about this really funny book she had.
The poignant part is that then she would want us to read the book and get to the funny part, and she clearly wanted to re-live the warm fuzzy good feeling of having chosen a book that caused her parents to laugh until they cried and hug afterwards, and we just couldn't regenerate it.
So I think of that and feel a little sad, on top of the fucking manipulative-sadness of the original book.
I tried Muppet Robin Hood, but apparently kids today aren't impressed by The Muppets.
Man that is such a drag Moby, very sorry. The Dawn Patrol also tremendous Flynn/Rathbone movie, the print you can stream from the evil river right now is fantastic. David Niven is so young in it he's got plump cheeks.
Perhaps look at some of Margaret Reed MacDonald's books? They postdate my childhood, so I don't have personal memories of them, but they seem very good.
Her middle name is even more on point than you have it.
The Pater read me the Penrod Schofield books by Booth Tarkington (I think he skipped or edited chapters like "[Not the Most Racist But Still Pretty Racist Term for African-Americans] Troops in Action") when I was a wee lad, because of our ongoing campaign to be the honkiest honkies who ever honkied he had liked them when he was a kid back in the early 18th century, but I can't imagine a child of 2015 enjoying them as much as a television-deprived young Flippanter.
Depending on the parents' taste, it may be possible to read the Chronicles of Narnia while leaving out the stuff about Susan and the Calormenes that pisses everybody off.
Flippanter and I had the same childhood, surprising no one.
There's some more recent series of books where Santa Claus, Jack Frost, the Easter Bunny, and all that kind of thing are in an action-hero style show down with some evil spirit guy. Can't think of the name, but they made a movie of it.
49 to 10, which makes me think it's a hit in the household. Here too, along with the stupid movie version on streaming Netflix. (Selah only likes the theme song and will just request that.)
I thought Pippi Longstocking was an arrogant jerk, but fortunately the author also did a great and fun book called "Karlsson-On-The-Roof".
Is The Phantom Toll Booth right for that age level?
No, Babar stories are very very long and worthy. Hated reading them. I read Roald Dahl and Narnia and "Five Children and It" and "The Hobbit" ... although I definitely lose track of which was when and who was what age. I gave them pens and pencils and paper and let them move quietly around the room as long as they didn't talk. If they had a question or comment they had to put their hand up and I would answer it at the end of the sentence or even paragraph. And no looking at the pictures until the end of the chapter. I was quite strict, but it made it nicer for me, and I think that's the main thing.
54: Me too, but my children like arrogant jerks. I preferred Ronia the Robber's Daughter.
Oh, and poetry collections, especially ones with pictures, can be fun reading too.
Lindgren also wrote some books about a naughty little boy - one is "Emil in the soup tureen". (Between those and Emil and the detectives, I was ridiculously excited when at 16 I actually made a friend called Emil.)
We loved Penrod too. Has Horrible Henry made it across the Atlantic?
Ha, I didn't even notice! We have volumes that are reprints of the (contemporaneous) comic strip version of Pippi that are quite delightful. I concede that arrogant jerks like Pippi tend to be more popular with the children than with the adults, but anyway in general Astrid Lindgren is a winner, I think.
I liked the one where the guy gets penguins in the mail. Maybe that was Dahl.
Would the Great Brain books be too old for a 4-year-old? I think perhaps better for 7-8 years.
Ursula Le Guin's Catwings books are short and sweet, with well-drawn characters and a bit of danger and secrets and alienation.
Huh? Did you read a different barbar that didn't involve the old lady buying barbar a flashy check suit and spats and setting him up as a kept elephant and lots and lots and lots of really uncomfortable imagery even setting aside the origino colonial stories? (as opposed to neo colonial.)
There's a William Steig book called Dominic about an anthropomorphized dog who has all sorts of exciting adventures. I loved that. My dad travelled a lot and brought me home American books.
Mr Popper's Penguins! Far too nice-hearted to be Roald Dahl.
61: Nope, Mr. Popper's Penguins is American, Richard & Florence Atwater.
62.2: Yes. They're on my mental list to get to soon, when I feel up to talking about the religious parts.
Also, the Eloise books are fun, especially for children destined to become NYT-subscribing one-percenters.
67.1: That was it. I never did get to the end as mommy finished it. I think they were all in jail when I left, but I assume it worked out.
Was 64 to me? But after the old lady died, he went back to Africa and had a family with Celeste and the children learnt lots of morals I'd the stories, from what I remember. Which may not be much because I hated them.
And don't forget The Giving Tree.
I really, really loved Emil and the Detectives.
There was an ultra-simple, picture-book version of Robinson Crusoe that my son really enjoyed. Who left that footprint in the sand?
And we had a good time reading Talking Like The Rain, a poetry anthology for kids. I can still recite some of the poems:
The polar bear doesn't have a bed
He sleeps on a cake of ice instead
etc, etc
Burma Shave.
Somehow all of this seems vaguely related to AWB....
52 is referring to Guardians of Childhood unless I'm mistaken. We read the first one (about the Man in the Moon) to our daughter when she was about Pokey's age but she didn't get that into it so we never went on with the series. It features a few battle-type scenes so that might fit his tastes, and the art is pretty good. (The main character's parents do die, though, which might bother some kids that age; others might take it as a pretty standard thing that happens in stories.)
I don't know why Erich Kästner isn't more universally adored.
(Also, while I'm being a humorless pedant, it's not universally accepted that Lewis Carroll was attracted to one of the Liddell sisters, and Carroll's diary from the period when he had his falling out with the Liddells isn't available, and we don't even know who wrote the "cut page" summary that suggests gossip about Dodgson and both the Liddell's governess and Alice's older sister Lorina.)
Seconding Horrid Henry for that age group. As well as the books, we had CDs of Miranda Richardson reading some of the earlier ones that are wonderfully done and saved my sanity on many a car journey.
Also Dick King-Smith (The Sheep-Pig*, The Hodgeheg).
*Babe
I'm not reading all the comments now but I'm sure someone mentioned Magic Treehouse series as your OP description is almost a precise plot summary.
It was in the first comment, except I forgot what it was actually called.
Magic Tree House does seem to fit the bill, but it might be a case of being careful what you ask for. There are like 50 of those things now and it could be a pretty long slog through them if they're a big hit.
For us, they transitioned from "read aloud" to "audiobook purchase for long car rides" after the first dozen or so.
My favorite Dick King-Smith was Pigs Might Fly.
I do like the idea of being able to climb into a tree, open a book, and get the fuck out of Pennsylvania.
Hasn't Magic treehouse become such a thing that they have otherwise famous guest authors who will drop in to do an installment?
I think she just cut a couple of relatives in on the action.
The Phantom Tollbooth?
I'm not good on this, though -- I hardly read them chapter books. They wouldn't sit still for it. The first half of the Hobbit, some Narnia, half of The Phantom Tollbooth, but it was never a habit, more something that would happen on the occasional long car trip.
mumintroll I think is too old for a four/five year old, but Beatrix Potter? Lots happening, and plenty of language to learn, too.
The Church Mouse books are absolutely and completely wonderful, gorgeously illustrated, too. Whether they would make sense in Texas I have no idea.
Here is the flavor of monster we are: when we read chapter books to Jane it is typically in a strict dose of six pages a night.
Mrs Frisbee and the Rats of Nimh? That's got technological vermin in it. And I liked it a lot.
78: On the other hand, dude, those photographs are far from defensible.
What about the Chronicles of Prydain? They're more fairy-tale than Pokey sounds as if he's into, and maybe too mature (violence, emotions) for the age group, but they are great.
Lemony Snicket? For some reason traumatic mistreatment of kids is hilarious to 4-7 year olds, maybe because that's how they treat their parents.
Can I pop in an unrelated bleg? My stepdaughter is getting hitched this summer in Portland OR. They've asked me to make a cake and in a fit of complete derangement I'm considering it. We need to rent an at least 2 bedroom house for a week to help out with (and attend!) various celebrations, in my dreams it would have a decent enough kitchen so I don't have to rent commercial space. At least my better half will drive and bring all the moveable cake equipment and the accordion but I need at a minimum a reliable reasonable size oven, decent size refrigerator and counter space. My experience with houses that at only ever rented out short term rather than actually lived in is the appliances tend to be at best more about looks than performance. Does anyone know enthusiastic home cooks in Portland who might be out of town and willing to rent their house out at the end of July beginning of August? Alternatively, any recommendations for commercial kitchen rentals?
Kid A listened (still listens) to lots of audio books. When she was 4 she listened to Alice in Wonderland so much that when I eventually showed her the paper book she would look at the pictures and start reciting chunks of it. Then she moved on to LOTR - the tapes of the BBC dramatised version with Ian Holm - and for months every evening it seemed to be either orcs fighting or elves singing wafting out of her bedroom.
Snicket big time bombed for us, my mom was so disappointed. None of us could stand him.
Phantom Tollbooth and the Hobbit are both lifelong favorites of mine but both would be a push for most four-year-olds I think.
Another thought: our daughter was very fond (and still remains somewhat fond) of the Cam Jansen books. No fighting, no ninjas, but she does solve mysteries and catch criminals. Occasionally there is a suggestion that she might have gotten in over her head. They are not unpleasant for adults on a first read-through although they did start to wear a little bit on the fifth or sixth read-through each.
We also really enjoyed Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and the Tuesdays at the Castle series over the summer. Those probably run a bit older, though (our daughter was almost six).
Now that my son is older, I should think about trying something more grown-up, like Twain or Proust.
94: I'm not even dead sure I have the right city because I'm easily confused, but doesn't Emerson's sister-in-law run a bakery in Portland? I don't know why exactly I think that would help -- do bakeries rent out kitchen-space to internet acquaintances of their family members? But I thought of it, so I said it.
They must be about the same because they are contemporaneous.
Up until a year and a half ago my son still occasionally listened to cassettes of EB White reading Charlotte's Web, but hg's are too young for that.
96: Oh, that BBC version is great, isn't it? I never knew about it as a kid, only discovered it as an adult.
Proust is especially good for bedtime reading because the beginning part is about his bedtime ritual, and then tells story about going to bed as a little boy.
94: Can you rule out that the bride's bio-mom is behind this as a way of punishing you for some slight or winning some sort of maternal war?
Just asking.
100: if they have any sense no they wouldn't want someone taking up space in their kitchen BUT they might have thoughts on commercial kitchen rental options ...
Ha! That would be wonderfully Pym-esque.
I don't even know whose mother Pym is.
No one's, she left naught but novels.
You should make the cake in advance and rent a refrigerated vehicle to transport it. Then make your better half drive while you stay with the cake to make sure it doesn't get damaged. The only question left is what director you should get to film this.
88.2: I can vouch for their having made sense to at least two New Mexican children, so quite possibly. Wonderful books.
We have been reading these graphic novels endlessly to our daughter, who loves them and "wants to be in them." The biggest problem is that book 7 might take over a year to appear. Also, not for the fearful. I recommend them, though, and wanted to ask alameida if she had other graphic novel/manga recs from her Miyazaki-loving, late-reading daughters.
The whole thing is madness. Hopefully the venue will nix a non-professional cake and I can go back to looking for new dresses and shoes etc.
Slightly older kids are into 39 clues which I find insufferable- actually I think that's the series I was thinking of with celebrity guest authors (Rick Riordan did a couple.) I find it insufferable, about 20% of the narrative is spent in self-reflection about how the family involved is the awesomest most intelligent most powerful family in history. Seriously, any time I listen in on the kids audiobooks that's what it's saying.
Just order a professional cake and tell them you made it. Then send them the bill as if it were from you.
I'm not going to follow the link in 112 and just assume it's referring to Song of Ice and Fire.
DQ, after being at a home-catered wedding, my first reaction is don't do it. But my second reaction is, even if you can't get the professional kitchen, can you hire help to do the dishes and keep the home kitchen primed? Guests shouldn't be doing the annoying clean-up, only the fun baking. Paid kitchen labor for the washing seems like the way to go for a couple who wants to do this.
(I say this as the person who would almost certainly be doing the clean-up because the salad people can't work until the knives and bowls are washed and the counters cleared and somehow other people don't seem to see this until they want to start work when they are surprised yet again that they have half an hour of clean-up to do before they can begin to cook.)
Don't have time to read the thread, but the older boy enjoys Greece! Rome! Monsters!, and although it's over his head, really likes Big Nate. He also likes Judy Moody. A friend's four-year-old liked Shackleton's Journey so much that he made a paper boat and put it in the freezer. Neat book.
To counter the trend, I'll suggest something that he might be too old for. How about the poems of Eugene Field (e.g., The Gingham Dog & the Calico Cat; Wynken, Blynken, & Nod; The Sugarplum Tree)? You could get the version with the Maxfield Parrish illustrations.
dq, email me at the linked address. I might be able to help.
Ha. My niece is getting hitched in Portland in October. I will bake no cakes.
But I will impose on JMcQ. Plan on it.
I'm making a list based on this thread. You guys are great.
Is Seryn a thing? Also, have I asked this before?
Hey, if we're doing blegs and we're well past 40 comments:
I'm on a committee looking at how to improve child care benefits. Working people with kids, what would your wish list be? More daycare contributions? On-site daycare? Flexibility to work from home? Longer parental leave? Give me something outside the box people.
Some kind of subsidy for emergency care for sick children. Some kind of referral network for emergency caregivers. I don't think any one employer, unless colossal, could do this alone, and I'm not sure how you could staff an on-demand caregiver service for, you know, a large number of small children with infectious illnesses... but man, anyone who solved this problem would transform the lives of working parents of young kids. As far as I can tell.
Reliable emergency daycare coverage -- your kid's sick and daycare won't take them/your daycare center closed unexpectedly for the day/your SAH spouse has a family emergency and has to fly to Botswana, you have some kind of emergency childcare that will cover.
My first lawfirm had this in theory. It failed the one time we tried to use it in practice, but it still seemed like a great idea.
But seriously, folks, finding daycare is a huge pain, so even just having good resources for it, or negotiating a "cut the line" deal with local facilities would be a huge help. On-site would be amazing.
My company has an emergency backup daycare program that some people swear by. (I haven't successfully used it.)
I am pwned by lurid, but that goes to show what a good idea it is.
Flextime, in the sense of adjusting the beginning and end of the workday.
Wow, jinx on "emergency backup care." My company's program is administered by B/right H/orizons. In my experience, it doesn't work that well when your kids wakes up sick at 7am and you need to drop them off by 8:30 (they might not call you back right away and the center with an open slot may by inconvenient). People seem to like it better for oddball days where you know you need coverage in advance (e.g., your kid's not in daycare and your spouse has jury duty).
124: Will you re-post the list? And can that be the start of recap threads, along the lines of business book summaries for executives on the go?
There's also Ursula Vernon's Dragon Breath books. Those are great.
And Hank the Cowdog, by John Erickson. Especially since y'all live over there in TX. It's a whole series of books, you can read them forever. Kids love them because Hank is such a doofus, they can feel smarter.
I assume you have already discovered Junie B Jones?
Dragon Gets By, and the rest of that series, by Dave Pilkey, is probably perfect for Hokey. Maybe a little young for Hawaii, though my kid loved them until she was about 12. The pictures are wonderful.
Dav Pilkey also does the Captain Underpants books, which supposedly little boys like. They were too crowded and busy for me to read, so I don't know.
Didn't we recently have this thread? I'm remembering some thread not long ago where I dug up some memory about books about children in grade school who are also monsters.
Wind In the Willows might be worth a go if you're running short of Proust.
127: My first thought was back-up daycare as well. I've read about other places that offer some kind of deal through care.com (discounts or something? certain number of days of care?). Having drop-in capability at somewhere sounds great, but seems difficult in practice, as Yawnoc says in 133. Though come to think of it, we have often known the day before when Zardoz would be out of daycare for sickness because she gets sent home, and then has the mandatory minimum of 24 hours before she can go back.
Speaking of which, has anyone noticed that the "Sheep, Wolves & Sheepdogs" speech in American Sniper is metaphorically identical to the "Dicks, Pussies and Assholes" speech in Team America: World Police?
For older kids, having stuff for kids to do on days/weeks when school is out but work is in.
140- That is what we have, 15 days per year, but it's not ideal. The sitters are hit or miss, lead time isn't great, price is ok by coastal standards. They used to offer drop in spots at a nearby place which was great but apparently wasn't used enough to keep it. On site or center doesn't work for sick kids though. My philosophy is that the highest return for not enormous cost (free daycare for all has been ruled out) is giving people automatic options when they're dealing with other stress like a sick kid or snow day. I don't want to have to also figure out when a sitter is coming, how many hours should I pay for, etc. just give me automatic When X happens, we will pay for Y to solve it.
Will you re-post the list?
You mean I have to make two lists, one comprehensive and one where I omit all the bad ideas? Just kidding! Sort of!
141: I say the same thing to the sheepdog speech that I say to the rumor that a random famous person is gay: it is statistically vanishingly unlikely that everyone who claims to be a guy sheepdog on the Internet is a gay sheepdog. Some of them are just regular old heterosexual chinchillas or something.
145: Oh, sweetie, they're all sheepdogs.
Ack! A children's book thread when I was busy. I hate that.
OK, some thoughts:
The Enormous Egg. I am sure I have recommended this before. Slightly annoying sexism vis-a-vis the mom being dumb, but really, any book that has to do with a hen laying a dinosaur egg, which then hatches into a triceratops named Uncle Beasley, is unbeatable.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH is fantastic, but whether Pokey likes it is a toss-up given his age. AIMHSHB, I ended up doing a homemade audiobook version for my sobrinos. Four of them liked it moderately, and one of them is going on three YEARS of total obsession (age 3-6).
Domenic is actually quirkly, endearingly fun, though a bit dark in parts.
The Trumpet of the Swan is the under-appreciated EB White book of the three (Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little being much better known). I have a huge soft spot for it, but it IS rather leisurely in pacing and may not work for younger kids.
My sobrinos loved Flat Stanley and insisted on hearing the museum thieves chapter ad infinitum. I find it mildly annoying, but the original is really not that bad. The modern sequels -- bleh.
A lot of people love, love, love Beverly Cleary. I dunno, just never really clicked for me.
In general I find that pirate books are winners. There are several good nonfictional ones out there now.
Mummies Made in Egypt by Aliki is nonfiction but IME a huge winner with kids. They LOVE the gross-out factor of hearing how mummies' brains were extracted through their nostrils etc.
Gail Gibbons nonfiction in general is quite good. I'm a bit more partial to her older titles, but that may just be fond nostalgia on my part.
-al
Bruce McMillan's photography is really captivating for a certain kind of child. One of my nieces loved Days of the Ducklings, which follows an Iclandic girl step-by-step through her summer of caring for eider ducks.
147.Aliki does indeed identify the most memorable part, as I recall myself! I need to find the girls a copy of her Medieval Feast instead of just recounting the best parts like I have been.
148 reminds me that as a kid I really liked Jacques Cousteau's book "The Soft Intelligence" about Octopuses. Should be in every kid's library, or maybe 1% of kids'.
I've mentioned before that this book made a big impression on me: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-m-mcclung-2/shag-last-of-the-plains-buffalo/
Shark books. I was consumed by shark books for most of my childhood. Most of the ones I really loved were adult books, though. Eugenie Clark's autobiography -- whoa. Loved it so much. Still remember her descriptions of diving in a deep cavern (quarry??).
Not sure how dated The Courage of Sarah Noble and The Bears of Hemlock Mountain are, but both are still in print and might be exciting enough to hold a four-year-old's interest.
Ack! A children's book thread when I was busy. I hate that.
BTW, I wanted to thank your for the links you posted for both Octavia's Brood and Brown Girl Dreaming. I passed both of those recommendations along to my friend whom you met at unfoggedcon who is starting a "social justice" bookgroup. I don't know if either will be a good fit, but they both looked interesting.
The Lady and the Sharks! Now in its 4th edition, I see.
I had my grandfather's editions of Robin Hood and Hans Brinker. Not sure either would work for your kids at their current ages. The best Robin Hood is Outlaws of Sherwood, anyway. Marian actually gets to do stuff.
Shark books. I was consumed by shark books for most of my childhood.
I was into dinosaurs as a kid (speaking of which this looks like a fabulous book on dinosaurs), but I have a fondness for sharks specifically because in 6th grade I was assigned to work on a cooperative report with one of the less academically inclined students in the class. It had to be about an animal (perhaps it had to be a marine animal), I remember that I wanted to do starfish (fascinating!) and the teacher gently suggested that sharks might be a better subject to engage both of us and that turned out to be a perfect direction.
Oh, excellent, NickS, glad to hear. Mildred Taylor is very good on social justice, although she is more a Young Adult author. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is her best-known.
And Walter Dean Myers is kind of the dean (heh) of his realm -- Monster gets a lot of press, as well as many of his other books.
Chris Crutcher is startlingly, bracingly honest. More on gender and weight issues than race as far as I remember. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes is extraordinary.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie) gets a lot of love for its frankness and accessibility. Not sure it's very good on gender, though.
... all the bad ideas
There's always Gustave. The description says for ages 4-7, and the action (such as it is) does occur within the first couple of pages). . . .
I thought it was really well done, and I actually would recommend it, I'm just not sure to whom. It's so intense.
156 should be good for when HP turns 12 in 2023 or so.
153: I'd be glad to offer suggestions to you or her if you'd like to email. Sounds like it's off to a very good start!
144: Or just add it to the comprehensive book threads thread, which I believe exists although I can't find it in the hoohole.
151: why? You won't get a breeding population that way.
The word doesn't mean the same thing on this side of the pond.
... and there I was thinking that a shag pile carpet was something like a cat pile, but more fun.
154: oddly, Thomas Love Peacock's Marian also gets to do stuff.
56. Nesbit is brilliant, but I suspect a bit advanced for Pokey, though Hawaii should be up for it. I think I first read them at about 7 and they were fine for a few years.
If you don't know them, Nesbit's books are wonderful evocations of Edwardian England as seen by LMC and working class children,
Nonfiction is a good one if you are willing to break the story rule. Boy was massively engaged in nonfiction at four. I never realized there was so much kids nonfiction on very specific topics, like octopi or cartography or volcanos or turtles or exoplanets. Library was a revelation. I don't know whether it was always there and we just never read it when I was a kid or whether we are in a kid nonfiction boom.
Maybe this is the place to plug an eBook written by an obscure relative of mine, although its actually geared toward 10-year-old girls who are into basketball, rather than 4-year-old boys into ninjas.
What about Pinkwater? He covers a pretty wide age range, I think -- a lot of his books are really aimed at sort of twelve-year-olds, but some skew younger. The Hoboken Chicken Emergency springs to mind (largely because a friend's father produced an operatic version of it when I was in high school. But it's quite good regardless).
Some thoughts, having skimmed the thread:
1) Definitely the Emils! Both Emil and the Detectives (but maybe not for a four year old), and Lindgren's Emil (e.g. Emil and the Soup Tureen, Emil and the Piggy Beast). Naughty little boys should love Lindgren's Emil series, and it's written for very young children.
2) Books with nonwhite protagonists that would work for little boys: Stories Julian Tells, More Stories Julian Tells: cute stories about two African-American brothers growing up in NY, probably age appropriate for Hokey. Ezra Jack Keats has some excellent picture books (Snowy Day, Whistle for Willie, Peter's Chair, etc.) When I was a kid I liked the book Thirty-One Brothers and Sisters, about a Zulu girl in a polygynous family, but my grandparents gave it to us and in retrospect I'm not sure how offensive it is. My parents were pretty good about that thing, but stuff from my grandparents could slip through the cracks. Google tells me it was published in 1952, so it is probably heavy on the exotification. African Child by Camara Laye is good but too advanced for Hokey. There's a lot of Asian American lit, but most of it is YA/late childhood stuff, like Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson; Child of the Owl; Journey to Topaz/Journey Home, about the Japanese internment camps. When I was young I loved All-of-a-Kind Family, which is about a Jewish family of 5 girls on the Lower East side at the turn of the 20th century. Hawaii might love it, but Hokey might find it dull.
On a completely different note, I loved the Tintin books, but they obviously have a lot of issues if you're looking for non-racially problematic children's literature. The plots might be a bit mature for Hokey, but the graphics are still lots of fun.
43
We had a picture book version of Heidi, aimed at very small children, and for some reason one time my mother read it to us she broke down sobbing at the part where Heidi gets homesick and couldn't continue. From that point on, she developed a Pavlovian response to reaching that page, and was physically incapable of reading the book out loud. Everyone else in the family found it quite strange, and as kids we would ask my mother to read us Heidi just to see if she would be able to finish or if she would start sobbing loudly.
Also, as a kid I loved folk and fairy tales. If you can find a good version of folk tales from around the world, you might find ones that interest Pokey.
I read my kids Astrid Lindgren's "The Brothers Lionheart" which has the most ridiculously tear-jerking first chapter. I have never read it without crying (I used to read it when I was feeling ill/crap and have a nice cathartic weep), and reading it out loud just got silly really. The rest of the book is perfectly cheery.
165 - I must have had at least one under-five when I started reading them Nesbit. Think I managed not to cry at "Daddy, my daddy" when I read TRC. Never got round to The Treasure Seekers, which is my personal favourite.
Best unreliable narrator ever.
172: Bastables 4eva!!!
169.2: I loved and second all but the Zulu polygamy book, which I don't know but which sounds way up the girls' alley. (Nia announced, in response to my explanation about Megan Trainor not wanting to share the boyfriend who lies to her with another woman, that she and her best friend are sharing a boyfriend because that's what friends do. I mostly reiterated that she's not allowed to have a boyfriend yet but we also talked about how some people prefer that kind of sharing or other kinds and some people get jealous and so honesty is important. I didn't add my main responses to the song which are stopping it with the cutesy bass stuff already and if your boyfriend is getting perfume on his collar, maybe he should just wise up and strip before making out with the other girl, no?)
Anyway, we may read In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson next. I was a little older when I read it, but that may have been when it was released. I think the HPs are way too young.
Heebie, he might like Lois Lowry's books about Anastasia Krupnik's brother Sam. The girls liked the one where he made perfume better than Zooman Sam, but both were hits.
Heebie, check out books4yourkids.com. She lists chapter books at level 1.5 or 2, a few at 3.
Books we've read that would appeal to boys, I think: Galaxy Zack, Kingdom of Wrenly, Dragon Masters, Bunnicula (easy reader version, the other is supposed to be much scarier), Mush the Dog from Space (which is Pinkwater for younger kids). Down Girl and Sit (like Bunnicula, this is narrated by a dog, who thinks her name is Down Girl).
I've seen some kind of baseball-oriented chapter book. The first one is Fenway something-or-other, haven't read it yet. Alexander McCall Smith has some longer chapter books about Precious Ramotswe, girl detective, and shorter ones about a boy and various animals, haven't read those either.
Also The Borrowers, though they're an older series and I think they're a little slow-moving.
"Daddy, my daddy"
I cannot read this line aloud without losing it. I may not actually weep but my voice breaks, etc. It's the best/worst.
Not The Borrowers, I meant The Littles.
And Nate the Great, though it's not exactly ninja turtles.
We didn't have good luck with Nate the Great, unless maybe he grows up to have a thing for women named Rosamond.
My kid loved the Bunnicula books a lot.
There's also the How To Train Your Dragon series (much better than the movies) by Cressida Cowell. The dragon in that is great, and it's about a kind of hapless but intellectual young Viking and his cohort of friends. Also lots of pictures. Also lots of sequels.
181: There's no overstating (understating?) the hilarity of a talking dog with contempt for the intelligence level of other animals.
177 - I once made myself cry just thinking of that line. There's a playground near us that is along the side of a railway line. Down there one evening with my lot and a couple of extras, a Pullman with a steam engine stopped right there at the signals, for about 5-10 minutes. The kids were all up on the climbing frames waving, and eventually there were hands waving back at almost every window. As it finally moved away, Kid A shouted, "Send my love to Father!" *gulp*
did any of the Nesbitt fans read A.S. Byatt's Children's Book, a fictionalized biography? I really liked it, but I secretly want that life with aesthetic garb and maybe not the more fucked-up parts, but I even more secretly think I could navigate those.
I loved Children's Book! I kept hoping for a sequel, though I don't know what else she could have said.