Favorite Children’s Books Roundup {Gift-Giving Alert}

11/13/2013 / Kathleen | Roots & Boots /

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Christmas is just around the corner (yikes!) and what better gift for the young friends in your life than an excellent book? If children’s books are on your shopping list this year, you’ll love this roundup of my family’s favorite children’s books.

Before we get to the list, this seems like the perfect opportunity to share a poem that I absolutely adore. It’s by Alice Low, and appears in The Family Read-Aloud Christmas Treasury.

A Merry Literary Christmas

When Christmas shopping time
draws nigh.
And I am faced with gifts to buy,
I think about one relative
Who always had one gift to give.

And every year her present came.
And every year it was the same.
While other gifts were round and fat,
(Their secrets hidden) hers was flat.

Rectangular, the corners square,
I knew exactly what was there.
I’d pass it by without a look—
My aunt had sent another book!

I’d only open it to write
A “thank you” that was too polite,
But every year when Christmas went
I’d read the book my aunt had sent,

And looking back, I realize
Each gift was treasure in disguise.
So now it’s time to write her here
A thank-you note that is sincere.

So—thanks for Alice and Sara Crewe,
For Christopher Robin and Piglet and Pooh,
For Little Nell and William Tell
And Peter and Wendy and Tinker Bell.

Thanks for Tom and Jim and Huck,
For Robinson Crusoe and Dab-Dab the duck,
For Meg and Jo and Johnny Crow
And Papa Geppeto’s Pinocchio

For Mary Poppins and Rat and Toad
King Arthur and Dorothy’s Yellow Brick Road,
For Kipling’s Kim and tales from Grimm,
And Ferdinand, Babar and Tiny Tim.

I loved them all, I’m glad I met them.
They’re with me still, I won’t forget them.
So I’ll give books on Christmas Day
Though I know what all my nieces say–
I know it from the way they write
A “thank-you” that is too polite.

–Alice Low

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A Book Makes a Great Gift

If you–like myself–enjoy gifting quality literature to the young friends in your life, you may appreciate the list below. As much as I love giving books as gifts, I also hate to waste my money on subpar titles. Especially when there are so very many excellent choices.

The following list contains every children’s book I’ve recommended to date here at Roots & Boots. It is by no means an exhaustive list; in fact, it continues to grow and evolve here in our own home. But it’s a good place to start!

My Favorite Resource for Picking Great Children’s Books

First of all, let me recommend one of my favorite resources for selecting excellent children’s books. While it’s not the only “book about books” out there, it’s definitely at the top of my list.

If there are children living in your home, or if there is a young family you know and love, I highly recommend adding this book to your (or their) personal library. Read all about it here: Honey for a Child’s Heart: How to Choose the Best Children’s Books.