Diana Huss Green, Founder of Parents' Choice, called upon a group of longtime Parents' Choice friends—critics, teachers, librarians, moms and dads for help giving families some "time out" from the world. Her criteria for the group's suggested list of Read Aloud Together Comfort Books follow:
*Each book must have a sustaining skeleton of universal moral values. Kindness, truth, love, and decency—all the life basics you learned from the one or two people you've most respected in your whole life.
*After that the stories need a beginning, middle and an end, a satisfying end. Humor of course will add to the richness but not before or even up close to fully rounded characters, a narrative voice of unwavering goodness and a tone of unwavering courage.
A tidy little world in which virtue is rewarded and evil is punished? Not necessarily. We, and our children are too sophisticated for that. But not too sophisticated for a rollicking good story to divert our overburdened souls.
We hope you enjoy the results.
Ages 4-8 Years
A Child's Garden of Verses
By Robert Louis Stevenson
A Hatful of Seuss
By Dr. Seuss
Frog and Toad are Friends
By Arnold Lobel
George and Martha
By James Marshall
Mama Elizabeti
By Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen, Illustrated by Christy Hale
Mailing May
By Michael O. Tunnell, Illustrated by Ted Rand
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
By Virginia Lee Burton
Millions of Cats
By Wanda Gag
Nessa's Fish
By Nancy Luenn, Illustrated by Neil Waldman
Not So Fast Songololo
By Niki Daly
Now One Foot, Now the Other
By Tomi de Paola
Pinkerton Behave
By Steven Kellogg
Tales of Peter Rabbit
By Beatrix Potter
The Tenth Good Thing About Barney
By Judith Viorst
The Birchbark House
By Louise Erdrich
The Nutshell Library
By Maurice Sendak
The People Could Fly – American Black Folk Tales
By Virginia Hamilton
The Real Mother Goose
By Blanche Fisher Wright
The Stories Julian Tells
By Ann Cameron
The Story of Ferdinand
By Munro Leaf
Ten, Nine, Eight
By Molly Bang
String Bean’s Trip to the Shining Sea
By Vera B. Williams
The Velveteen Rabbit
By Margery Williams Bianco
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears
By Verna Aardema
Ages 9-12 Years
Adventures of Pinocchio
By Carlo Collodi
A Wrinkle in Time
By Madeleine L'Engle
Betsy-Tacy
By Maude Hart Lovelace
Charlotte’s Web
By E.B. White
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
By Ian Fleming
How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have?: And Other Tales
by Julius Lester
Mary Poppins
By P.L. Travers
MC Higgins the Great
By Virginia Hamilton
See You Around, Sam!
By Lois Lowry
The Book of Three
By Lloyd Alexander
The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie the Pooh
By A. A. Milne
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
By C.S. Lewis
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
By Chris Van Allsburg
The Phantom Tollbooth
By Norton Juster
The Princess and the Goblin
By George MacDonald
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
By Christopher Paul Curtis
Through the Mickle Woods
By Valiska Gregory
This list is not the original works of Peta-Gay Lewis. Parents' Choice Foundation created this list.
*Each book must have a sustaining skeleton of universal moral values. Kindness, truth, love, and decency—all the life basics you learned from the one or two people you've most respected in your whole life.
*After that the stories need a beginning, middle and an end, a satisfying end. Humor of course will add to the richness but not before or even up close to fully rounded characters, a narrative voice of unwavering goodness and a tone of unwavering courage.
A tidy little world in which virtue is rewarded and evil is punished? Not necessarily. We, and our children are too sophisticated for that. But not too sophisticated for a rollicking good story to divert our overburdened souls.
We hope you enjoy the results.
Ages 4-8 Years
A Child's Garden of Verses
By Robert Louis Stevenson
A Hatful of Seuss
By Dr. Seuss
Frog and Toad are Friends
By Arnold Lobel
George and Martha
By James Marshall
Mama Elizabeti
By Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen, Illustrated by Christy Hale
Mailing May
By Michael O. Tunnell, Illustrated by Ted Rand
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
By Virginia Lee Burton
Millions of Cats
By Wanda Gag
Nessa's Fish
By Nancy Luenn, Illustrated by Neil Waldman
Not So Fast Songololo
By Niki Daly
Now One Foot, Now the Other
By Tomi de Paola
Pinkerton Behave
By Steven Kellogg
Tales of Peter Rabbit
By Beatrix Potter
The Tenth Good Thing About Barney
By Judith Viorst
The Birchbark House
By Louise Erdrich
The Nutshell Library
By Maurice Sendak
The People Could Fly – American Black Folk Tales
By Virginia Hamilton
The Real Mother Goose
By Blanche Fisher Wright
The Stories Julian Tells
By Ann Cameron
The Story of Ferdinand
By Munro Leaf
Ten, Nine, Eight
By Molly Bang
String Bean’s Trip to the Shining Sea
By Vera B. Williams
The Velveteen Rabbit
By Margery Williams Bianco
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears
By Verna Aardema
Ages 9-12 Years
Adventures of Pinocchio
By Carlo Collodi
A Wrinkle in Time
By Madeleine L'Engle
Betsy-Tacy
By Maude Hart Lovelace
Charlotte’s Web
By E.B. White
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
By Ian Fleming
How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have?: And Other Tales
by Julius Lester
Mary Poppins
By P.L. Travers
MC Higgins the Great
By Virginia Hamilton
See You Around, Sam!
By Lois Lowry
The Book of Three
By Lloyd Alexander
The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie the Pooh
By A. A. Milne
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
By C.S. Lewis
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick
By Chris Van Allsburg
The Phantom Tollbooth
By Norton Juster
The Princess and the Goblin
By George MacDonald
The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
By Christopher Paul Curtis
Through the Mickle Woods
By Valiska Gregory
This list is not the original works of Peta-Gay Lewis. Parents' Choice Foundation created this list.
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