Speaking of reading, we do go through a decent amount of chapter books with Evie. Although Evie had the patience to sit through a multi-chapter non-picture book before age 2, Oliver really doesn’t. So we mostly only get a chance to read these at relaxing time. In between, though, she gets plenty of shorter books and picture books, with Oliver (although I have been sneaking in longer and longer books at bedtime to sort of ramp up Oliver’s tolerance). We often have two or even three books going concurrently, because usually Sara has one that she reads when she’s taking Evie to relaxing time, and I have one that I read when I’m taking her. Having more than one going doesn’t seem to bother Evie, in fact, the only thing that bothers Evie is when you close the book. She would prefer to listen to you read forever and ever and ever.

Anyway, here is the list of chapter books we have read to Evie as far as I can remember:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Through the Looking Glass
• Winnie-the-Pooh (x infinity)
• The House at Pooh Corner
• Little House in the Big Woods (x2)
• Little House on the Prairie
• On the Banks of Plum Creek
• By the Shores of Silver Lake
• Farmer Boy
• The Indian in the Cupboard
• The Enormous Egg
• The Tale of Desperaux
• The Door in the Wall <– Not very good
• Charlotte’s Web
• Stuart Little
• The Incredible Journey
• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (x2)
• Comet in Moominland
• Finn Family Moomintroll
• Moominsummer Madness
• Black Beauty
• Pollyanna
• A Light in the Attic
• Where the Sidewalk Ends
• The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Pantheon Edition – we’re talking 864 pages here)
• My Father’s Dragon (Currently Reading for the second time)
• The Long Winter (Currently Reading)
• Caddie Woodlawn (Currently Reading)

In addition to the above, we tried Heidi, but Evie never really got into it, so we quit. We’re waiting on the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe books until she’s a little older. (Also, as Sara pointed out, we want her to discover at least some of the classics and read them on her own)

Some other suggestions we’ve thought of are The Boxcar Children, Because of Winn Dixie, the Ramona books, Bunnicula, or The Little Prince (we already own the last two). We actually have Mr. Popper’s Penguins from the library, but we already have 3 books going, so I hate to start a fourth.

Any other suggestions on good titles to read young children? What are we missing? What were your favorites as a kid? What have you read your children?