The Superfast Reader is having a baby! Congratulations from Upper Fort Stewart and all it’s bookish denizens. And on top of that she’s looking for recommendations, for boys and girls, to build up a library of essential books for children for Superfast Baby. Superfast Reader, I’m on the job.
Well, okay, actually, I’m filling out half a resume and still deciding if I’ll apply. I have no idea what I would read to a little girl. Probably adventure stories filled with swordplay, betrayals, and wrongs-righted. My daughter would probably wind up turning out like the pirate-loving Wendy Darling. Wait, Wendy Darling! – girls like Peter Pan, right? Aw, what do I know. Only what I liked as kid (plus a few books I wish I read as a kid). And what my son likes. Here’s two lists. A few items are already on the Superfast Reader’s list already but in a fit of nostalgia I went and listed them again anyway.
My list of Essential Books for Children
- Have Spacesuit Will Travel by Robert Heinlein
- Don Quixote
- Isaac Asimov’s Robot Stories
- Susan Cooper’s Dark Is Rising series
- The Iliad and The Odyssey
- The Hobbit
- Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four
- The Encyclopedia Brown series
- Doc Savage and The Avenger
- The Lord of The Flies
- Swiss Family Robinson
- Robinson Crusoe
- Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Invisible Man and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
- Pretty much everything by Edgar Rice Burroughs
- Ditto for Edgar Allen Poe
- Elliot Maggin’s Superman stories
- Eagle of The Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
- Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy from Mars by Daniel Pinkwater
- C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books (in the order they were published)
My son’s list of Essential Books for Children
- The Jungle Book and Just-So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
- The Book of Virtue
- Eric Carle Books
- The Hug Book by Jez Alborough
- Any fact book or kid’s encyclopedia with readable captions and headings (reading the whole thing out loud will kill you, trust me)
I hope that helps. If anyone else wants to participate check out SuperFast Reader’s list of Essential Books for Children.
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