Children's Books discussion

With the new year, we'll venture into some fun and exploration as we delve into the theme of "Children Going on Adventures/Exploring."

Please vote for the five books you would most like to read from the official nominations (messages 2-6) by posting a comment below.

Votes will be accepted until December 16th. Thank you! :-)

A few to start with:

The Trek

Henry and Mudge: The First Book

Where the Wild Things Are

Come Away from the Water, Shirley

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Lauren Child

Lucia and the Light

The Flying Dragon Room

My Dinosaur

Sector 7

High As A Hawk (true story)

Saving Sweetness

The Maggie B

Hansel and Gretel (version by Cynthia Rylant, illustrations by Jen Corace)

Does it count if the children have one or more adults with them? Because this topic immediately makes me think of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael Rosen, in which there's a father. Another similar one is A Summery Saturday Morning by Margaret Mahy.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Aki and the Fox also Known as Amy And Ken Visit Grandma

Play with Me

The Boy Who Wouldn't Go to Bed

I also immediately thought of We're Going on a Bear Hunt

My question is, Can the children be animals? because I think of books like
The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree

Thank you for the nominations.

In response to your questions, I believe that it is fine for the children to be accompanied by an adult, and also for the children to be animal characters. Another group member suggested this theme, so I am not sure exactly what she had in mind at the time, but I am happy for the theme to be interpreted widely for the nomination process and then members can decide on the books they would like to read when it comes time to vote. Thank you for asking :-)

Enchanted Lions

Small Saul

The Eraserheads

When I Wore My Sailor Suit

There's a Barnyard in My Bedroom

Pirate Pete Sets Sail

The Cat in the Hat

Not Inside This House!

Loud Emily

Return to the Sea

Here's a few thoughts:

Humphrey's Corner

Rainstorm

The Red Book

Sector 7

Slinky Malinki, Open the Door

Eloise

The Snowy Day

The Day the Babies Crawled Away

It is now time to VOTE! Thank you :-)

My votes go to:

Where the Wild Things Are

When I Wore My Sailor Suit

Enchanted Lions

Loud Emily

Not Inside This House!

Hard choices, but here goes:

Loud Emily

There's a Barnyard in My Bedroom

The Flying Dragon Room

Enchanted Lions

When I Wore My Sailor Suit

my votes:

Come Away from the Water, Shirley

Loud Emily

The Flying Dragon Room

Lucia and the Light

High As A Hawk

I vote for:
Lucia and the Light
Aki and the Fox
The Boy Who Wouldn't Go to Bed
When I Wore My Sailor Suit
My Dinosaur

I vote for
The Boy Who Wouldn to Go to Bed
Aki and the fox
Loud Emily
The flight dragon room
The eraserheads

Little Red Riding Hood by Trina Schart
Lafcadio She Silverstein
The Missing Piece Shel Silverstein (pushing the person/animal rule a bit but we LOVE it and the adventures the piece has)
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

Jasmine wrote: "Little Red Riding Hood by Trina Schart
Lafcadio She Silverstein
The Missing Piece Shel Silverstein (pushing the person/animal rule a bit but we LOVE it and the adventures the piece has)
Where the W..."

Jasmine, thank you so much for these great suggestions. We are actually in the voting process right now, so if you would like to choose five books from our official nominations list in messages 2-6 (that came in during the nomination period) you are welcome to vote :-)

*I have just deleted a post that was author self-promotion from Dr. LukeAM. No one from our group, so far as I know, but I just wanted to let you know in case any of you saw it and wondered what happened to it.*

Slinky Malinki Open the Door

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Sector 7

The Snowy Day

Humphrey's Corner

The votes are in and here are the books we'll read together in January:

Where the Wild Things Are

The Flying Dragon Room

Loud Emily

When I Wore My Sailor Suit

Sector 7

Sixth/Alternate:
Lucia and the Light

Thanks again for all the great nominations. This thread is now the MASTER LIST AND GENERAL DISCUSSION so if any of you read some of the books on this theme that aren't in our official six, feel welcome to post your reviews here.

I can definitely recommend Enchanted Lions.

Here is my review, http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I really liked this book, very magical, very imaginative and very fantastical. It kind of reminded me a bit of one of my favourite German children's fantasy stories, Peterchens Mondfahrt (Peter and Anneli's Journey to the Moon), which also deals with a fantastical voyage to outer space, to the moon. Of course, Enchanted Lions is a much shorter book, but it contains the same kind of magic, of fantasy, of the constellations coming to life.

Gundula wrote: "I can definitely recommend Enchanted Lions.

Here is my review, http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I really liked this book, very magical, very imaginative and very fa..."

Sounds very cool. Thank you for the recommendation :-)

Kathryn wrote: "Gundula wrote: "I can definitely recommend Enchanted Lions.

Here is my review, http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I really liked this book, very magical, very imagina..."

I really enjoyed the book, both the text and the illustrations.

For younger readers, and starring a baby/toddler and two preschoolers, King Jack and the Dragon is very cute. It's a fantasy adventure, involving making a castle (fort) out of found materials, then spending time defending the castle from dragons and beasts. The defenders are gradually taken away by giants, leaving just Jack. It made the 2012 Notables list.

David wrote: "For younger readers, and starring a baby/toddler and two preschoolers, King Jack and the Dragon is very cute. It's a fantasy adventure, involving making a castle (fort) out of found..."

Thanks! Sounds great.

Tove and the Island with No Address


Albeit I have very much enjoyed the parts of Tove and the Island with no Address where Lauren Soloy both verbally and visually (with her text and her images) shows young Tove and her family arriving on the island with no address (as per the book title) for their annual summer vacation and Tove exploring her surroundings and enjoying her freedom to roam and check out every proverbial nook and cranny of the island and what the sea washes up on shore (and which also seems to be what actually happened, what actually was the case during the Jansson family's summer holidays), I really do wish that Tove and the Island with no Address would be entirely non fiction in scope and not suddenly morph into a fantastical account of Tove Jansson the child (the real person, the future author and illustrator) making friends with some fantastical creature living in a rock cave and offering to care for and guard his five wild seashell-sized daughters. I do find the illustration enchanting and a really nice illustrative homage to Tove Jansson, but the text would be better as completely biographical, as completely non fiction.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...