Happy memories of five family favorites

I bought piles of picture books before I ever had children. And well before I wrote my own books.

I read those books myself, of course, reveling in each word. And, when my two daughters — who are now 27 and 23 — arrived, I read to them.

When Gwen and Sonia were small, my husband and I read them our favorites. As they got older, they each had their favorites, as well.

This list is my best attempt at remembering the books all four of us liked. They are the favorites I remember from a very specific time in our lives. Some of us have strong personal favorites that do not appear on this list. And, there are amazing picture books published after my kids passed traditional picture book reading age. Those will not appear on this list either. I feel like writing formal apology letters to those authors whose works are, also, wonderful.

But … life is full of decisions and choices.

So, here are the five picture books I remember us loving the most.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury

This was the go-to book for our family when the girls were little. Our oldest was very concerned about  one of the character’s muddy foot in the book and we always had to spend time on that page reassuring her that she’d go home and have a bath and be just fine.

My husband also added a line of his own to the end when the bear walks off alone, saying: “And then the bear went home, dejectedly.” Our girls would always say it with him. I think they thought it was part of the book. My best memory of this book is when my youngest woke everyone up in the middle of the night crying. We all sat on the floor of her bedroom and recited this book from memory until she was calm and ready to go back to sleep.

The Snowy Day
by Ezra Jack Keats

This is one of the first board books I ever bought for my kids. I got it at an adorable children’s bookshop in Appleton, Wisconsin, that sadly no longer exists.

And, this is another story that my family can mostly recite from memory. When I was fortunate enough to win an Ezra Jack Keats New Author Honor in 2014 for Sophie’s Squash, my kids greeted the news by saying: “Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. His feet sank into the snow.”

We’ve also been known to say, ‘It was a stick. Just right for smacking a snow-covered tree.”

That, my friends, is the mark of a classic. And the art? Amazing.

The Lion’s Bed
by Diane Redfield Massie

We found this book, which was originally published in 1974, at a church rummage sale.

Our copy was kind of beat up, but that didn’t diminish our enjoyment of the story about a bunch of forest animals that creatively work together to convince a wandering lion that he does NOT want to sleep in their part of the forest.

The book gets bonus points for increasing all of our vocabularies by introducing us to peccaries, a pig-like mammal, that I had never heard of before. I’m still not sure I pronounce the name properly. If you’re unenlightened like I was, peccaries are piglike mammals found in the southern deserts of the United States and southward through the Amazon basin and South America.

A quick internet search shows Massie wrote at least 25 books, but this is the only one I’ve read. I obviously have more work to do.

Brave Irene
by William Steig

Even though I would never send my child out in a snowstorm to walk alone through the woods to deliver a dress to a duchess in a castle, no matter how ill I was, I’ve always loved the girl power exhibited in the book.

Irene is loving and committed and strong. There is no way she is not accomplishing her goal.

She overcomes cold, a snowstorm, unclear pathways through the forest and an injured ankle to get the job done.

(Although I do think the palace could have sent a footman or a coach to pick up the dress in the first place. I mean, seriously.)

A line from this book has also worked its way into our family lexicon:

“Go home, Irene! Go ho-o-ome!”

Talking Like the Rain: A Read-To-Me Book of Poems
Selected by X.J. Kennedy and Dorothy M. Kennedy
Illustrated by Jane Dyer

I received this book from a librarian friend as a new baby present for my first daughter, and instantly fell in love with all the poems.

The art is exquisite, and it was the perfect read-aloud, because my daughters had their favorites and loved to ask for “Queen Nefertiti” or “I Eat Kids Yum Yum!” or “Disobedience.” (Which will always be better known to me as “James, James, Morrison, Morrison, Weatherby George Dupree.”)

Best of all, the poems are the perfect mix of lengths, so you can pick and choose depending how close or far away bedtime is.

Now it’s your turn.

Which picture books were family favorites when your kids were small?

Or, if they’re small right now, which books does your whole family love?