Once Upon Books Which Are Youer than You

Once in a while, upon a time,
a weighed-down thinker,

needs to take a surf-break
from 800-page tomes of history, science,
and philosophy


TO (yes, you)

Roll down a high green hill
of grassy words and pictures,

letting their ticklish humor
and ridiculous stems tickle your face:-),

swirling your mind
into dizzy
laughter...

Especially when you and a young grammy have 4 adorable grand kids to read to, (you who!)

So without further ado, let's
you and I list our favorite children's books
from long ago

and faraway flying up to ever--
ever land present:

In no certain order-

#1 The Berenstain's B Book by Stan and Jan Berenstain

In those immortal;-) words: "Big brown bear, blue bull, beautiful baboon blowing bubbles biking backward,
bump black bug's banana boxes and Billy Bunny's breadbasket and Brother Bob's baseball bus..."

#2 Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

#3 Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman

#4 The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss

#5 Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss

#6 Oh, Were They Ever Happy! by Peter Spier

#7 Gobble, Growl, Grunt by Peter Spier

#8 Bored--Nothing to Do! by Peter Spier

#9 What Do People Do All Day? Richard Scary

#10 Old Hat, New Hat by Stan and Jan Berenstain

#11 He Bear and She Bear by Stan and Jan Berenstain

#12 People by Peter Spier

#13 The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

#14 The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

#15 Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola


#16 Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel

#17 Curious George by Margret Rey

#18 Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish

#19 The Dot & the Line by Norton Juster

#20 I Spy by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick

#21 The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce

#22 Max and the Big Fat Lie by Michael Waite and Gary Trousdale

#23 Handy-Dandy Helpful Hal by Michael P. Waite and Gary Trousdale

#24 Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by All Perkins and Eric Gurney

#25 The Chicken and the Pony by Doug ? and Terrence McConnell

ADDED by others:

#26 Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and Sheila McGraw

#27 Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

#28 One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

#29 The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

#30 The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco and William Nicholson

#31 Hot-Air Henry by Mary Calhoun and Erick Ingraham

#32 The Girl Who Never Made a Mistake by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein

#33


Please add to this short list, less we miss the best:-)

To kids of all ages.

In the Light-hearted wonder,





From grampa to children everywhere,


Daniel Wilcox

"The Grinch and the Grouch," a Friendly Christmas Story

Heard the story of a modern Quaker mother telling her bright young son how important reading is?

The mother helped her child onto her lap and asked, “Remember when we read The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr.Seuss?”

“Yes!” and the small boy grinned. Christmas was one of his favorite vacation days along with 4th of July. Little did he know that originally Quakers didn’t celebrate Christmas or any other holy days.

“Well…” said his mother, while he squirmed a bit trying to get more comfortable on her lap, “that’s more than a deep 'holy' water in the ground— “

“Mommie, you're so funny.”

"Guess what, there’s another writer who’s funnier than the Dr. His name is the Grouch, not the Grinch! The Grouch Marx said, ‘Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.’”

The boy got a confused look on his face, then burst out laughing.

His Friendly mother's eyes twinkled like stars, “So that’s why we also ask questions of each book we read, especially religious ones. We want the Light, not all that darkness."

He grinned wide, pondered, and then exclaimed, “Yeah, I remember, because of all that dark dog, Ma." ;-)

The mother herself laughed uproariously. Later, while her son took his daily nap, she pondered, Could warm family times, even ridiculous humor, be worthship?

Look up!

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox