Holiday Gift Guide - Children's Books

I love to read.  I have loved it since I was a child.  I keep hoping that my children will someday unlock the magic that is being consumed by a book, and love it as I do.  So I encourage them to read by introducing them to some favorites from my childhood.  If you're looking for some good books to give this Christmas, you've come to the right place.

Heckedy Peg by Don and Audrey Wood.

I suppose this book could be a bit scary if your kids are the mamsy-pamsy type, but if they can handle a witch story that comes out all right in the end, then they'll love this.  The pictures are amazing, and the story is phenomenal.  A poor woman leaves her seven children alone while she goes to town to buy them each a gift.  The children are tricked by a witch and she turns them all into food for her feast.  The poor mother must save her children by figuring out which child is which food.  Now that I've written that, it sounds a little odd.  But trust me, it's good.  Click the picture to read the Amazon.com reviews.  (For all these books.)

Roxaboxen by Alice Mclerran.

This book is pure, simple imagination. Childhood without gadgets.  Remember when kids had imagination?  Yeah. This book is about a group of kids who make an imaginary world in the hills near their houses.  It's completely told in a narrative from one of the women who lived it in real life. Just makes ya feel good.

For the Reluctant Reader, I recommend Shel Silverstein.  His big books of silly poems are perfect for a child's humor.  Unfortunately, my sons do not like to read - especially chapter books.  My oldest is discouraged just looking at page after page of words and long chapters.  But he will sit down with Where the Sidewalk Ends and devour poem after poem after poem and not realize that he has read the equivalent of a chapter from a larger, more daunting book.  And that's just fine with me.

And finally, ANYTHING by Roald Dahl.  Seriously, that man wrote for children.  He was a gift to the world of children's literature.  My boys LOVE his stories.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, Matilda, The BFG, Danny Champion of the World, The Twits, George's Marvelous Medicine - you honestly can't go wrong.  To further prove the brilliance of Mr. Dahl, I present to you his poem about Television....

Television

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotized by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

Roald Dahl

And now, I'm headed over to check out more childrens book recommendations on Mama M.'s Holiday Gift Guide.

*If you haven't already, be sure to enter my giveaway from Get Hooked Designs!*