What are your top ten most re-read books?
September 17, 2024
This post first appeared as an answer to one question in a larger Ask Me Anything from March 2021 — I’ve edited it and updated it here, but my children were 6 and 4yo at the time, and I’ve decided not to change the content, as it’s all still mostly true.
What are your top 10 most re-read books?
After an initial frenzied scribbled brain dump in response to this question, I spent at least a week browsing our shelves trying to determine, “Did we read this one 300 times or 400? If we read this one 300 times, did we read this other one 300 times too, or only 275?”
Alas, as you may have noticed, economy of words is not my strong suit, and it turns out, this also applies to lists. So while I wasn’t able to whittle down to top 10, I did manage a top 15. (It was excruciating and great fun.)
I intentionally did not include titles that landed in that super-obsessive period of approximately 14mo-24mo — The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton, Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, Mommies Say Shhh! by Patricia Polacco. We read those books day and night for probably a year, and while I think they most definitely count in this list-making enterprise, I also considered which ones we read outside that fanatical stage that have had staying power: that is, the titles that appealed to my ardent, ever-lovable baby-toddlers but also please my children as they’ve grown out of that, and older.
It turns out I’ve covered almost all of these books in this newsletter at one point or another (not surprising, given how well I know them), so when applicable, I’ve included a link to my review.
Other than #1 — Feast for 10 is without a doubt our most re-read title of all time and I can never recommend it highly enough — the rest are in no particular order:
Feast for 10 by Cathryn Falwell
Mrs. Biddlebox by Linda Smith
Bee-Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park
Baby Goes to Market by Atinuke
Tasty Baby Belly Buttons by Judy Sierra
Old Mother Hubbard by Alice and Martin Provensen
When Sophie Gets Angry — Really, Really Angry… by Molly Bang
Midnight Babies by Margaret Wild
Go Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman
Doctor DeSoto by William Steig
Taking Care of Mama Rabbit by Anita Lobel
The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman
Eating Up Gladys by Margot Zemach
A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kaska
Jamberry by Bruce Degen (Sometimes I like to randomly scream out, “Strawberry ponies, strawberry lambs, dancing in meadows of strawberry jam!” and it truly never gets old. At least for me. My family might feel differently.)
Your turn! What are YOUR top ten most re-read books?
Read good books and take good care 😘
Sarah
I will base it on age 4-6ish as well, my 7 yo has added a lot of new graphic novels this year but I think I can be more accurate if I look back at his kindergarten year when he was still being read to the majority of the time.
Go Dog Go! is one of ours- we spent a year quoting “Do you like my hat? I do not! Goodbye! goodbye!”
Are You my Mother is another P.D. Eastman that’s up there!
Love the World by Todd Parr
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
I Love You to the Moon and Back by Amelia Hepworth
On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman
The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld
How Do Dinosaurs Play with their Friends by Jane Yolen
Llama, Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
No David and It’s Christmas David by David Shannon- they were both very popular with my kids when they were learning first words and the last page of No David when he hugs his mom, my oldest at 2ish would say he sleeping, Mommy hug, Mommy love. But we read this one like 2 nights ago to my 5 yo so it’s still a good crowd pleaser!
Oh my goodness, I know a Sophie (who does get really, really angry) and I just saw Molly Bang has a few more in that vein. Totally snatching some of those up for my best friend, who has a daughter with Big Feelings <3
My kids really gravitated towards books that are wildly like who they are NOW as teenagers, which is so interesting.
My son's favorite book we read over and over was BOOM Bah! A musical adventure with a LOUD orchestra parade of animals. He's now a phenomenal musican (piano, violin, learning drums and guitar) and loves FAST music and LOUD music.
Another one he always chose was "Rugby and Rosie" - a story about a family training a puppy to be a service dog. It's no wonder that our own family pet finds his bed every night to sleep <3
My daughter's favorite book was "Kitten's First Full Moon", which is quiet, sweet, a little bit scary with a lovely ending. She has always loved cats, and is a pretty quiet and gentle soul. She also loved Ponyella (think Cinderella, but horses), and she now volunteers many hours at a horse farm each week.
That was fun to reflect on - I don't know that I've ever made that connection before.
There's lots here I've never heard of, so I'm off to put some on hold...