30 Children's Books I Don't Mind Reading Aloud For The 100th Time

It's story time at my house and I'm eyeing the books my almost four year old selected. He looks adorable in his fire engine pajamas with arms full of books, but all I see is that one book and all I can think is Oh man. Not that one again. ANY BOOK but that one. I groan inside as he brings an absolutely awful children's book and cuddles up next to me.

But I love my son and passing on a love of reading is important so with a smile and pained enthusiasm I reread that awful book for the hundredth time.  

Thankfully, there are also a ton of truly wonderful children's books out there. Looking back over the last year, here are thirty that we absolutely love. Most of these books were purchased as part of the P3/4 collection with Sonlight. If you purchase these books through Sonlight you need to know that many of the stories are included in treasury books. While treasury books are nicely compact, we've found that we miss out on illustrations which are often either much smaller than the original, or missing altogether.  

These 30 stories are our top parent cringe-free picks for bedtime reading that not only captivate my son, but that we actually enjoy reading aloud even for the hundredth time. If you're looking for more stories for your own kiddos or gifts of kids you love, check out this list. I bet you'll love them too.

1)  Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

2)  Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

3)  One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

4)  Lentil by Robert McCloskey
(Can you tell we love McCloskey?)

5)  Swimmy by Leo Lionni
6)  Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
7)  Curious George by H.A. Rey
8)  Titch by Pat Hutchins
9)  Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
10) Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
11) The Tub People by Pam Conrad
12) Bedtime for Francis by Russell Hoban
13) The Berenstain Bears and the Spookey Old Tree

14) What Do People Do All Day? By Richard Scarry
15) D.W. The Picky Eater by Marc Brown
16) Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
17) Owen by Kevin Henkes
18) The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman
19) If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff
20) George Shrinks by William Joyce
21) Crictor by Tomi Ungerer
22) Harold And The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
23) Pete’s A Pizza by William Steig
24) The Tall Book of Nursery Tales by Aleksey Ivanov, Olga Ivanov and Raina Moore
25) Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales retold by Val Biro
26) The Beginner's Bible: Timeless Children's Stories by K Pully
27) Busy Timmy by Eloise Wilkin
28) Horten Hatches the Egg by Dr Suess
29) Mr Happy (or any of the Mr Men and Little Miss books, really!) by Roger Hargreaves
30) Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs by Tomie dePaola

And there you have it folks! Our thirty favorite, and very rereadable, children's stories. Happy reading!