📚 How This Book Landed in My Lap
This book, Children of the Book; a Memoir of Reading Together by Ilana Kurshan, came to me as a gift from my mother-in-law. She described it simply: a memoir of a woman in Jerusalem, raising five children, who loves reading aloud and recommends tons of books throughout her story. That was enough for me.
It arrived in the mail, and I’m actually so glad it was my own copy — because I promptly highlighted, marked up, scribbled in margins, and basically treated it like a personal workbook.
🖍️ Why I Read It With a Highlighter
About 50 pages in, I realized: Oh — she’s casually recommending amazing children’s books every few pages. So I went all the way back to page one, highlighter in hand, and reread the entire memoir, marking every book title I didn’t want to forget.
After finishing, I typed the whole list up, fed it into ChatGPT to sort by author, remove duplicates, and separate children’s titles from adult ones…only for my mother-in-law to inform me that the complete list is printed in the back of the book.
🎧 Listen Here
The Ninety-Two Books within the Book
- Miss Nelson Is Missing (series) by Harry Allard
- The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen
- Ivy & Bean (series) by Annie Barrows
- Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
- Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall
- The Pain and the Great One; Fudge series by Judy Blume
- Birthday Monsters! by Sandra Boynton
- But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton
- The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
- The Children’s Encyclopedia of Trucks by Sean Callery
- Biscuit series by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
- Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy
- Alfie Runs Away by Ken Cadow
- Beezus and Ramona (series) by Beverly Cleary
- Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole
- Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Freight Train by Donald Crews
- Matilda by Roald Dahl
- Llama Llama (series) by Anna Dewdney
- Chirri & Chirra by Kaya Doi
- The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois
- The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
- Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair by Lee Fox
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
- Green Tractor by Kersten Hamilton
- Bread and Jam for Frances / Frances series by Russell Hoban
- Angelina Ballerina by Katharine Holabird
- Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff
- Sammy the Seal by Syd Hoff
- “Summer is Over” by E.E. Cummings
- Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
- The Rabbi’s Girls by Johanna Hurwitz
- Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
- Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats
- I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
- The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin
- A Wrinkle in Time; The Moon by Night by Madeleine L’Engle
- My Happy Life by Rose Lagercrantz
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
- George and Martha by James Marshall
- Black and White by David Macaulay
- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
- Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
- Elephant & Piggie series by Mo Willems
- The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
- Five Minutes’ Peace by Jill Murphy
- The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien
- Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor
- Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne
- Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
- Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
- Cinderella; Sleeping Beauty by Perrault / Grimm
- The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli
- Baby’s First Words by Roger Priddy
- Curious George by H.A. Rey
- Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker
- Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
- The Time Tunnel by Galila Ron-Feder-Amit
- Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
- A Tale of Five Balloons by Miriam Roth
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Before You Were Born by Howard Schwartz
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
- The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
- Gregory, the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
- Wild About Books by Judy Sierra
- Yellow Car by Peter Sis
- Brave Irene by William Steig
- Doctor De Soto by William Steig
- Pearl and the Amazing Bone by William Steig
- Pete’s a Pizza by William Steig
- Spinky Sulks by William Steig
- Yellow & Pink by William Steig
- The Library by Sarah Stewart
- All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
- The Blueberry Pie Elf by Jane Thayer
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- The Queen Who Couldn’t Bake Gingerbread by Dorothy van Woerkom
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
- Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
- Cherries and Cherry Pits by Vera B. Williams
- Morris Goes to School by Bernard Wiseman
- A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert
- Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
- The Passover Parrot by Evelyn Zusman
🙌🏻 My oldest daughter reading, The Donut Chef by Bob Staake, to her two younger brothers!
🎁 Turning the Book List into Holiday Gifts
Once I had the whole 92-book list organized, I realized: This is perfect for holiday gifting. We haven’t refreshed our children’s library in quite some time, and this felt like a beautiful way to invest in their shelves. So, here’s what I did:
- removed the books we already own
- alphabetized everything by author
- put it into a shared Apple Note
- sent the list to family who request gift ideas
- asked everyone to strike through any book they purchase to avoid duplicates
Honestly? I’m so excited about this. Books are the best gifts for kids — they build imagination, vocabulary, connection, everything. Happy Thanksgiving, see you next week.