Bibliophiles

We take books quite seriously in our little Milner household.
We love them.
Alan and I have always loved to read books together on long drives and quiet evenings at home and North has caught on to this trend in a big way. He LOVES his books and is always asking to be read to. He loves nothing more than curling up on a lap and looking through his favorites.
Because of this, we are ALWAYS on the lookout for great children's books that we will all enjoy reading.
His attention span is of course, that of the average 1 and a half year old (which is to say quite SHORT) and so, finding good books that we will all like can sometimes be tricky.
As it turns out there are lots of pretty dreadful children's books out there in the world.
And many wonderful ones that he's just not ready for yet.
But there are also lots of great ones just right for him now.
You just have to find them.
Or hear about them from a friend.
We've had a pretty great few weeks for finding new (to us) books and rediscovering old favorites and so I thought I would share our favorites to capture how we are spending our time lately and maybe get some suggestions from friends and blog readers on what your favorites are?
This week we were introduced to the books of Kevin Henkes, by my boss who let us read through "Julius, the Baby of the World" and "Chrysanthemum". North was a big fan while we were borrowing these books and so, we will definately be placing an Amazon order soon to get some copies for ourselves. They are full of clever writing, delightful illustrations, and lovable characters.
Other books that top North's current favorites list are:
Where the Wild things Are (STILL--which he calls "max book"),
Creature ABC (a beautiful picture book of animal photographs laid out in alphabet format),

Creature ABC

The Lion and the Mouse (a wonderfully illustrated picture book of the fable--this year's Caldecott Medal winner),

The Lion and the Mouse

and several books that were childhood books of mine that my parents recently passed on--namely:
Over in the Meadow (the song is one that they sing at North's daycare and we sing at bedtime and so finding a copy of the book in our library was a great thrill),
A pop-up tour of Walt Disney World (totally random but he loves pop-up books and it is amazingly well done),
and Volume 1: Poems of Early Childhood from the Childcraft series that we inherited from my grandmother (complete set of the 1949 edition).

Childcraft Vol. 1

Additionally, my parents unearthed a great collection of books with accompanying records that I loved as a kid. We have lots of great titles from Alan's and my childhood like "Star Wars" and "The Black Hole", which have fabulous sound effects within the readings. So far, Alan and I are still more excited about these than North who is still learning what a record player is and is kind of freaked out by the sound effects.
We also recently picked up a copy of "The Little Prince" in its fairly new pop-up format which he is still too young for but which is an absolutely gorgeous book that I can't wait to share with him.
So that's what we are reading lately--how about you? What are your favorite children's books? We are always on the lookout for suggestions and would welcome some in the comments to this post!