We have an unbelievable number of books in our house. Paperback books that I’ve collected since high school, textbooks from college, fiction, science fiction, non-fiction…
I started buying books for Carrie before she was even born. I’d see a picture book that I had to have to read to her someday and I’d buy it. We have an obscene number of board books, and a growing library of “paper page” books for her. We also frequent the library, and when we bring home a new batch of books we have to read them over and over again until they’re practically memorized.
There are a lot of amazing children’s books out there. But there are so many, it’s hard to know where to start. So I thought I’d mention some of the books we really, really love in this house, in case anyone is looking for some ideas. Just as a warning, it’s a pretty safe bet that they’re either going to have dogs or sheep in them, or sometimes bunnies.
The first one actually doesn’t have animals as a main theme. We’ve gotten this book out of the library a few times now, and I think we may have to add it to our collection:
The Night is Singing by Jacqueline Davies.
The illustrations in this book are an amazing mix of collage and painting. Every time I read it I see a detail I’d missed before. I really love the main character’s knit bunny! It’s also a very readable book, with lyrical rhyming text (“Pip-pip popping/acorns dropping/on the roof above your head”). The book is about a little girl getting ready to go to sleep and identifying all the various noises of the night as lullabies. It is one of our very favorite bedtime stories.