Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Children's Books We Love and Recommend

We've had so many families in our practice asking us for a list of children's books that we recommend and love, so we decided to go through all the books in the office and compile a list. And we are sure that there are many other beloved books that we have forgotten to include or haven't discovered yet.  But this feels like a good start. 


With that in mind, following is a list of some of our most beloved children's books that are in our office and/or that we loved sharing in our family.  We love these books because they all are so gentle, most with soft muted illustrations, and of course many stories of fairies, elves and gnomes to fill the imaginative world of your little ones.  

We highly recommend reading out loud to your children for as many years as you can. Reading together is a beautiful way to have snuggle time together, to instill a love of books and stories in your child, and it is incredibly calming and grounding to children. If you child is not one to sit still and read, just being in the room and reading aloud while they are playing, coloring or doing other activities still brings that nurturing quality to their inner being. Reading at bedtime is another wonderful time to help children calm and slow down from the activities of the day. Once they are older, you can graduate to age appropriate chapter books, even reading to them while they are doing simple homework. Happy reading!


Age 5 and under


  • Guess How Much I love You, Sam McBratney
  • Animals are SleepingSuzanne Slade
  • Mama MamaJean Marzollo
  • Polar Bear, Polar Bear what do you hear? & other books by by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
  • Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown
  • On the Night You Were Born, Nancy Tillman
  • The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly, Reg Down
  • The Root Children, Children of the Forest and other books by Elsa Beskow
  • In Every Moon There Is a Faceby Charles Mathes and Arlene Graston
  • The Star Child, Jacob Grimm
  • Moo, Moo Brown Cow, Jakki Wood
  • Fairy Tales Suitable for Younger children include: Elves and Shoemaker, Frog Prince, Gingerbread Man, Little Red Hen, Stone Soup, Star Money

 Age 5 and up


  • The Mountains of Tibet, by Mordicai Gerstein and Sogyal Rinpoche
  • The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly, Reg Down
  • Buddha at Bedtime: Tales of Love and Wisdom  by Dharmachari Nagaraja
  •  All I See Is Part of Me by Chara M. Curtis
  • The Three Questions [Based on a story by Leo Tolstoy] by Leo Tolstoy
  • Inside Out, by Wendy Stofan Halley 
  • The Paperbag Princess, by Robert Munsch
  • The Wise Enchanter: A Journey through the Alphabet , Shelley Davidow
  • House About the Trees, Ethel Elliot
  • Magical Wonderful Tales,  The 7 Year Old Wonder Book,  and all others by Isabelle Wyatt
  • The Jewel Heart,  Barbara Helen Berger
  • Stellaluna, Janell Cannon
  • Fairy and Folk Tales: from all over the world


For a more inclusive list and recommendations by ages, a wonderful resource is: 
One Thousand and One Wonderful Books, A Guide to Childrens Literature by Heather Altfeld and Carol Fegte.