50 Favorite Picture Books for Kids

I have been thinking about picture book a lot lately.  With my youngest being 8 I know our time with these books is waning.  Still I cling to and love children's picture books.  Every year we buy each child a special picture book for their birthday and for Christmas.  We write a short inscription about them and the book inside.  It is getting harder to find good picture books that represent them as we already own so many of the good books here in the house.  At 11 we switch to buying good quality leather covered books to start their own special book collection to take with them when they move.  But back to picture books.

Sirah just had a birthday and I spent awhile looking through the kids books for her.  I decided on My Name is Not Isabella by Jennifer Fosberry.  This is a sweet book that encourages kids to dream big dreams. In the book the girl pretends to be various famous women in history. It fit Sirah's personality this year and was an encouraging and sweet book.

Still as I was in the bookstore I was struck by how few new good children's books there are. I keep coming back to our old standards even as I read many new books. There are plenty of good pictures but the stories and meanings just do not seem as rich as children's books of past. So I started thinking I would keep a list here of some of my favorite children's books. Feel free to add your own in the comments. I am not ranking the books on this list if they made the list they are good in my mind and well loved in our house.

Miss Rumphius
Roxaboxen
The Empty Pot
Weslandia
The Story of Ferdinand
Little Bear
Frog and Toad
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Salamander Room
Birthday for Frances

Stone Soup
Make way for Ducklings
Blueberry Shoe
Sailor Moo
The Boy Who Changed the World
Courage
I'd be your Hero
I'd be your Princess
A Coat for Anna
Seven Silly Eaters

Musical Beds
I Love you the Purplest
Owl Moon
The Bee Tree
The Giving Tree
Quick as a Cricket
The Quiet Place
The Paper Bag Princess
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The Story about Ping

The Kissing Hand
A Pocket full of Kisses
Butterfly House
If You Give a Moose a Muffin
Bedtime for Frances
The Wretched Stone
Love You Forever
Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good, Very Bad Day
I'm Gonna Like Me
Someday

The Mitten
Abuela
A Chair for my Mother
Guess How Much I Love You
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear
Thanks to You: Wisdom from Mother and Child
Pickles to Pittsburgh
Madeline
All of Beatrix Potter