Which books have you loved reading aloud to your children?

[Enid]

I love reading my 3 year old The Smartest Giant In Town

and I am actually looking forward to bedtime when I can read dd1 another chapter of Matilda - it is soooooooo brill to read aloud.

I found Enid Blyton utterly deathly. Any more faves?

Fruits: A Caribbean counting book. Wonderful rhythm that makes me slip into Jamaican patois!

with effin' Rachel and her sodding friend who transmogrify into fairies themselves...to get those effin' feathers back...
grrrrr

Sorry - By lowering the tone with those rubbishy Rainbow/Pet/Whatever-Money-Spinning-Series-We-Can-Dream-Up-Over-A-White-Wine-And-Spliff Fairies, I think I may have killed this very nice thread.

Go on, get back to your Julia Donaldson, Roald Dahl, Beatrix Potter and Dr Seuss recommendations and I promise to keep FairyLand out of it,

All of the Lynley Dodd's books to dd (2.9). Particularly Slinky Malinki and Catflaps.
She loves the Angelina Ballerina books, unfortunately. I think Angelina is a spoilt madam and fortunately dd can't read yet so have been known to add little comments about how badly A. is behaving and how lovely Alice is occasionally.
The Elephant and the Bad Baby is another favourite as is The Tiger who came to Tea and most of the Mog books.

Pollyanna -Don't forget Kylie the carnival fairy is out soon!(as repeated continuously by dd1 and dd2)

Another vote her for Roald Dahl and 'my naughty little sister' was reading 'Horrid Henry' to dd2 but dd1 has taken my job so I sit and listen!

Paddington Bear, Horrid Henry.

a french book called La Boite de The Rouge, it's stunning (fabulous illustation and wonderful evocative text)
i must see if it's available in english

The Tiger who came to Tea - I loved this book when I was little reminds me of good times and both my dds love it too...

OK.....though back to books for little ones and remembered....

Mog books - all of them
The very hungry caterpillar
I don't want to go to bed.
Beatrix p stories especially Jeremy Fisher and Mrs Tiggywinkle
Dr Seuss - all of them.
Mr Men stories - DD fell in love with them when she as about 3 and they are great first reader's books.

I've just found my ancient copy of the Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge and can't wait to read it to them.... Also recently discovered Green Smoke by Rosemary Manning (at my mum's house and am reading it to DD). Does anyone else remember that? Must be fairly old for me to have read it as a child

i love Room on the broom. DS fave, he's 20 months

Have just re-discovered Olga da polga with the DD's. Was my favorite as a child and DM says it is a favorite of hers.

In tentative defence of the rainbow fairies I have found they have improved DD's reading out of sight. They are difficult enough to challenge without being too hard so she gets disheartened. We take turns to do a page each.

Thanks for all the recommendations. I have just ordered lots of these from Amazon.

We do have an amazing library near us too so it is great to get books every week but sometimes it is nice to own 'good' books too.

killed the thread then

We like all the Duck in the Truck books

All Julia Donaldson books & Hairy McClary etc.

Hate, Hate, Hate Dr Seuss, banned in this house

Passionflower: You're right. If DD1 was just about at the stage of being able to read the Rainbow Fairies by herself, I'd happily see her consume the entire oeuvre of Ms Daisy (MadeUpName) Meadows several times over. I'm pushing her through those Kipper, Chip and Biff books and spending gruelling hours with phonetic flash cards with the single aim of never having to read about Kirsty and Rachel again.

BTW what year is your DD in, just so that I can envision my very own Rainbow Fairy Release Date?

gruffalo

Hairy Maclary et al.

Just discovered 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' - American classic about a boy who draws adventures with his crayon.

DD (who loves drawing) loves it. It is the first book she has claimed as her own. She is 25 months.

DD1 is in middle prep/year 1. At the moment we take turns at reading and I think that she will be reading them by herself by the summer. She will be 6 in August.

We read them rather than the books from the school shared reading because those all seem to be horrid disney based on the film books. Fairies are yuck but far less barf worthy than disney imo.

Not Now Bernard

Thanks Passionflower. Only a year of Rachel and Kirsty to go ........

Wombat Stew
What colour are your knickers?
Bums - another colour book
Koala Lou - Mem Fox - she is brilliant
Little Leon series
My dad - dd1 loves this one.

Suzy - you need to try some aussie kulcha for a bit