150 Children’s Books recommended by Moms

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I love reading and gifting books but I am always confused which ones to buy for my daughter. We are also big book-hoarders at home and I personally like to have copies of my favorite books in hand whenever I feel the fancy to revisit them again. But which books to buy? Since this was  a task that I could not do alone, I asked our favorite Book-Crazy Moms to list 10 (or more) Children’s Books that have stayed with them and their children.

 

These are not the best books ever, but just books that hold happy memories for them reading with their child. There are also some repeats.. I haven’t changed what the mothers hold favorite..

 150 Children's Books recommended by moms

 

Swathika Anandan

Mom-in-learning of a 3-year-old, jill of arts and crafts, loves hoarding kids books, in the verge of becoming a fitness freak, chocoholic and the sane part of her is a green building consultant.

This is her list of toddler-friendly books.

  1. Counting Kisses: A Kiss & Read Book,
  2. The Runaway Bunny
  3. The Eric Carle Set
  4. Sandra Boynton Board Books
  5. peek-a-boo,
  6. Toes, Ears, & Nose! A Lift-the-Flap Book
  7. Berenstain Bears Books
  8. Adventures of Curious George
  9. The Barefoot Book of Faeries
  10. Petr Horacek – Silly Suzy Goose

Sandhya Renukamba

Sandhya was a doctor in a faraway lifetime but quit setting bones for delving into tomes. Her daughter is the centre of her universe. Together they have had many adventures of the bibliophilic kind, which she writes about at My Handful of the Sky.

This is her list of 10 Children’s Books

  1. Are You My Mother? by P.D.Eastman
  2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
  3. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram
  4. Harry Potter  Series
  5. Naughtiest Girl Collection by Enid Blyton
  6. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
  7. Holesby Louis Sachar
  8. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
  9. Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories
  10. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Shruthi Rao, lists her favorite Children’s Books

Shruthi Rao writes stories and articles for adults and children. She blogs at Hallucinations!

Kid and I are more into storytelling when it comes to good times -reading books together comes second (as of now) – anyway, these are the ones off the top of my head –

  1. Julia Donaldson Gruffalo Collection
  2. Little Miss and Mr. Deluxe Paperback Book Set By Roger Hargreaves
  3. Dr. Seuss’s Book Collection
  4. Alice in Wonderland,
  5. Moin and the Monster series
  6. Noddy,
  7. If you decide to go to the moon
  8. Bumbletown Detectives
  9. GP Rajaratnam’s book of Kannada poems for children
  10. Animal Record Breakers

Anitha Ramkumar

Anitha Ramkumar has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from India.  When she chose to switch career, she did a degree in Early Childhood Education in America. She has been an active teacher for six years. She is extremely passionate about children’s literature and reading to children. She contributes at Saffron Tree and writes articles on child development and her personal experience raising her children at www.utbtkids.com. She is based out of Hyderabad, India

Her favorite Children’s Books – 

  1. Hop On Pop
  2. Are you my mother
  3. To kill a mocking bird
  4. Harry Potter series
  5. A view from Saturday
  6. From the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil.E.Frankweiler
  7. Where the mountain meets the moon
  8. Cinderella ate my daughter
  9. All books by David Elkind
  10. Amelia Bedelia Books

 

Sangitha Krishnamurthi, lists her favorite Children’s Books

  1.  Little Women,
  2. Butterfly Lion,
  3. Sunu Sunu Snail,
  4. Charlotte’s Web,
  5. Green eggs and Ham,
  6. Wind in the Willows,
  7. The BFG,
  8. The Moon (non-fiction for little kids),
  9. Dr. Dolittle and
  10. The Giving Tree.

 

Arthi Anand 

Arthi Anand Navaneeth is a marketing professional with a fragrance MNC. Her two daughters inspire her to write. She likes travelling, music, reading and dancing. She can be found at Art’s tales

Here is her list of picture books as her younger kid is only 4yrs old-

  1. Handa’s Surprise,
  2. The Hungry Caterpillar,
  3. Mountain who loved a bird,
  4. Sarah’s Story,
  5. Jalebi Curls,
  6. Gruffalo,
  7. Krishna Sudama,
  8. Anushka’s Puppets of India,
  9. Ranganna, – Buy directly from Tulika’s Site 
  10. Have you Seen this?

 

Choxbox

Choxbox (a.k.a.Namrata) lives a life that leaves her out of breath every so often, but would not trade it for anything else. She volunteers for an NGO that works for girl children, runs carpentry workshops for little ones in the summer and can be perennially found in used books shops searching for fodder for her book-mad kids. Her day job is in the social enterprise space and in her previous life she worked in the hectic world of consultants and multi-national companies, where she landed after a picnic at an IIT followed by one in an IIM.

This is her list of favorite Children’s Books

  1. Dr.Seuss (aaargh),
  2. Charlotte’s Web,
  3. Little Women
  4. Simon Singh.
  5. Humphrey series (she was absolutely obsessed),
  6. You Choose (still have a tattered copy).
  7. Amelia Jane,
  8. Little House series,
  9. Elements with Style by Adrian Dingle,
  10. Fantastic Flying Journey by Gerald Durrell,

 

Tanu Shree Singh (Favorites of her 10 year old ):

Dr. Tanu Shree Singh is a parent to two preteen boys, a lecturer in Psychology, and has a keen interest in the area of Positive Psychology. Most of her theories of bringing up children, however, have been violently challenged and reshaped by her two sons. She is surrounded by three clueless men (one by virtue of wedlock and two by virtue of womb), has five dogs with distinct non-canine personalities, and has an ever growing bookshelf to hide behind.

  1. Oops the Mighty Gurgle- Ramgopal Vallath
  2. Demon Thief-Darren Shan
  3. Inkheart- Cornelia Funke
  4. Tiger by the tail – Venita Coelho
  5. Maggot moon – Sally Gardner
  6. Year of the Rat, Year of the Dog, Where the mountain meets the moon – Grace Lin
  7. Diary of Amos Lee – Adeline Foo
  8. Moin and the Monster, Moin the Monster songster – Anushka Ravishankar
  9. How to Train Your Dragon series – Cressida Cowell
  10. Marley: A Dog Like No Other – John Grogan

 

Vibha Sharma

Computers and management are merely the degrees she acquired. What Vibha lives her life by though, is the Karma philosophy. She put corporate life on hold to enjoy her childrens’ growing years, and revel in the colour they bring to each day. Every day with them is a learning process for her and she can see herself evolve with them, adding cooking, drawing, knitting, painting, reading and writing to her interests.

Vibha Sharma , lists her favorite Children’s Books

  1. Flat Stanley,
  2. Charlotte’s Web,
  3. Frindle,
  4. Harry Potter,
  5. The Butterfly,
  6. Last Holiday Concert,
  7. Giraffe Pelly & Me,
  8. The Hidden Pool,
  9. Magic Finger,
  10. Flute in the Forest

Arundhati Venkatesh

She thinks books for children are marked N+ with a reason – there is no upper limit on the age of the reader! Someday, she hopes to have her own books up on the shelves and see children enjoying them. She also writes atwomensweb.in/ – an online magazine and community for the thinking woman. Arundhati is thankful she has had a second chance at life, she records her adventures with her son athttp://arundhativ.blogspot.com/,

She  lists her favorite Children’s Books

  1. The Cat in the Hat,
  2. the Fudge books,
  3. Humphrey series,
  4. Stupendous Timetelling Superdog byHimanjali Sankar,
  5. all of Julia Donaldson,
  6. Scaredy Squirrel (he totally related to this one),
  7. Runaway Bunny,
  8. The Giraffe, Pelly and me
  9. Roald Dahl
  10. the Roger Hargreaves books

Praba Ram,

Founder of Saffron Tree, is a children’s writer, story-time specialist and an early literacy advocate. This chai & travel-loving mother is happy to be raising her two daughters in the culturally rich, but known near and far for its forever-hot-and-humid weather that is the city of Chennai.

Praba Ram, lists her favorite Children’s Books

  1. Harold and the Purple Crayon,
  2. The Giving Tree,
  3. The Sneetches,
  4. Are you my mother?
  5. True Story of Three Little Pigs
  6. Charlotte’s Web,
  7. Wind in the Willows,
  8. Grace Lin’s Year of the Dog series,
  9. Harry Potter,
  10. (of course!) Colour Colour Kamini

 

The Mad Momma

The Mad Momma loves words – both, reading as well as writing. She also loves chocolate, her garden, steaming mugs of something comforting and the company of friends.  She likes to think she’s lead an interesting life and that this is just the beginning. She lives in Gurgaon with her husband, and babies – the Brat and the Bean. And writes about her life at themadmomma.wordpress.com.

This is her list of favorite Children’s Books

  1. Harry potter? And this list is going to be about me, not the kids. So,
  2. All the Enid Blytons ever.
  3. Wind in the willows, love!
  4. Black Beauty
  5. Treasure Island
  6. Dr Seuss – most of his stuff
  7. King Solomon’s Mines
  8. hunchback of notredame
  9. the velveteen rabbit
  10. A lot of Roald Dahl

 

Sheela Preuitt

Sheela is essentially an incurable dreamer. She wrestles with the world on and off refusing to be boxed in a well-defined category. When she is not dreaming or wrestling, she manages to develop software for a frugal living, indulge her passion for cooking via Delectable Victuals, read assorted books and do some crochet and crafts, and gain some interesting perspectives while escorting her kids through the tough initial phase of their journey, which she jots down at Joy of My Life.

  1. Harry Potter
  2. The Witches (Dahl),
  3. Struwwelpeter (Heinrich Hoffman),
  4. What do you do with a tail like this (Steve Jenkins),
  5. Alphabeasts (Wallace Edwards),
  6. The Little Mouse,The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear (by Audrey and Don Wood),
  7. Down Down Down (Steve Jenkins),
  8. I had trouble in getting to Solla-Sellew (Dr.Seuss),
  9. All Elephant & Piggie books (Mo Willems),
  10. Flap your wings (PD Eastman)

 

Tanu Shree Singh

lists her Children’s Books for Younger Kids

Dr. Tanu Shree Singh is a parent to two preteen boys, a lecturer in Psychology, and has a keen interest in the area of Positive Psychology. Most of her theories of bringing up children, however, have been violently challenged and reshaped by her two sons. She is surrounded by three clueless men (one by virtue of wedlock and two by virtue of womb), has five dogs with distinct non-canine personalities, and has an ever growing bookshelf to hide behind.

  1. Harry Potter Series- J.K.Rowling
  2. Bud, not Buddy-Christopher Paul Curtis
  3. Belle Prater’s boy – Ruth white
  4. Unhooking the Moon- Gregory Hughes
  5. Coraline; Fortunately, The Milk- Neil Gaiman
  6. Tamburlaine’s Elephants-Geraldine McCaughrean
  7. The girl mechanic of wanzhou- Marjorie Sayer
  8. The Coram Boy- Jamila Gavin
  9. Where the mountain meets the moon – Grace Lin
  10. Bridge to Terabithia- Katherine Paterson

 

Tanu Shree Singh, lists her Children’s Books for Older Kids

  1. Mortal Instrument Series
  2. Infernal Devices Series
  3. Percy Jackson Series
  4. Mirror Worls Series
  5. The Wordkeepers Trilogy
  6. Persepolis
  7. Shadow
  8. Cherub Series
  9. Zombiestan
  10. Ingo

That is one exhaustive list isn’t it?? How many of these do you own? Are these your favorites too? Which ones would you like to add to this list given a chance??

I’m going to permanently bookmark this list .. Share this list with your friends.. on your blogs, FB, G+ & pinterest. and a BIGGGGGGGG thanks to all the moms who took the time to list their favorite 10 Children’s Books. 

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  1. “lists” ka baap!! 😛 hehe.. pinned it for reference…
    personally, my daughter loves the flap, pop out kinda books… the step into reading series is also loved…

  2. Awesome list…. I am a mum who support extensive reading with my 4 year daughter, always looking for likeminded parents’ recommendation. LOved this.. 🙂 Bookmarking..