100 Picture Books Everyone Should Read

I read to my kids. I've read to them since they day they entered our home (some from the hospital, some from Haiti, one from DesMoines). We read over 100 last summer. Some of them aren't yet on this list.

There are some series where all the books could be listed, but I don't want to do that. So here's what I came up with. There are actually 110 books on the list. I have probably forgot some, so if  your favorites aren't on the list, please let me know in the comments section.

I only have pictures for a few of them because it takes time to add the pictures.

These are in no particular order.
1. Blueberries for Sal, McCloskey 





2. Make Way for Ducklings, McCloskey

3. The Little Engine that Could, Piper

4. Goodnight Moon, Brown





5. The Runaway Bunny, Brown

6. Paddington Bear, Bond 

7. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Burton

8. Madeline, Bemelman

9. Corduroy, Freeman

10. Millions of Cats, Gag

11. Caps for Sale, Slobodkina






12. Harold and the Purple Crayon, Johnson





13. The Snowy Day, Keats 





14. Green Eggs and Ham, Seuss

15. The Cat in the Hat, Seuss

16. Horton Hears a Who, Seuss

17. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Martin

18. Very Hungry Caterpillar, Carle

19. Ten, Nine, Eight, Bang






20. The Polar Express, Van Allsbury

21. Where Wild Things Are, Sendack

22. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Viorst

23. Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, Archambault

24. Amazing Grace, Hoffman

25. Are You My Mother, Eastman

26. Clifford the Big, Red Dog, Bridwell

27. Don't Forget the Bacon, Hutchins

28. The Doorbell Rang, Hutchins

29. Better Not Get Wet Jesse Bear, Carlstrom

30. One Morning in Maine, McCloskey

31. Just Grandpa and Me (Little Critter), Mayer

32. Saint George and the Dragon, Hodges

33. Berenstain Bear and the New Baby, Berenstain

34. Time of Wonder, McCloskey

35. In the Night Kitchen, Sendak

36 The Berenstain Bears:The Spooky Old Tree, Berenstain

37. Winnie the Pooh: The Blustery Day, Slater









38. Just Like Daddy, Asch

39. Raggedy Ann and Andy's Grow and Learn Library

40. Pretzels by the Dozen, Hunt

41. Three Trees, Hunt

42. I Like Me, Carlstrom

43. The Crippled Lamb, Lucado

44. Abby, Caines

45. Just in Case You Ever Wonder, Lucado

46. Mop Top, Freeman







47. A Country Far Away, Gray

48. Golden Bear, Young

49. Humpy, Grumpy Camel, Tangvald

50. The Best Thing About Christmas, Tangvald

51. Mama Do You Love Me? Joosse

52. The Gingerbread Man, Aylesworth

53. The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Lawrence

54. Jambo Means Hello, Feelings

55. The Boy with a Drum, Wilken

56. Jamaica Tag Along, Havil

57. Will You Be My Pet, Tusan

58. Fiddle I Fee, Sweet

59. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Willems

60. While You Were Sleeping, Butler

61. Pokey Little Puppy, Lowrey








62. I Love You This Much, Hodges













63. The Elf and the Shoemaker, Grimm

64. Where's Spot, Hill








65. Goodnight Gorilla, Rathmann

66. George Washington's Cows, Small

67. Sheep in a Jeep, Shaw

68. Snipp, Snapp and Snurr and the Yellow Sled, Lindmann





69. Flicka, Ricka and Dicka and the Strawberries, Lindman




70. A Chair for My Mother, Williams




71. Click, Clack, Moo, Cows that Type, Cronin

72. Curious George, Rey--I am split on these. Engaging story but to me it teaches that it's okay to disobey as long as good comes out of it

73. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Numeroff

74. Grandfather's Journey, Say

75. Little House picture books, Ingalls Wilder

76. Ira Sleeps Over, Waber

77. Harry the Dirty Dog, Zion

78. On the Night You were Born, Tillman

79. A Child's Garden of Verses, Stevenson

80. Leo the Late Bloomer, Kraus

81. Sail Away, Crews

82. The Monster at the End of the Book, Stone

83. Amelia Bedelia, Parish

84. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Barrett

85. Richard Scarry's Cars and Truck and Things that Go

86. Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy Town

87. A Tree is Nice, Udry

88. The Giving Tree, Silverstein

89. Good Night Baby Bear, Asca

90. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, Waber

91. Trucks, Crews

92. One Fish, Two Fish, Seuss

93. The Story of Ferdinand, Leaf

94. Stone Soup, Brown

95. Miss Nelson is Missing, Marshall

96. An Amish Christmas (and several others), Ammon

97.Olivia, Falconer

98. Frog and Toad are Friends, Lobel

99. The Little House, Burton

100. The Relatives Come, Rylant

101. Drummer Hoff, Emberley

102. Many Moons, Thurber

103. The Biggest Bear, Ward

104. Song and Dance Man, Ackerman

105. White Snow, Bright Snow, Tresselt

106. Hey Al, Yorenks

107. The Big Snow, Hader

108.Finders, Keepers, Lipkind

109. God Gave Us You, Bergen

110. Let Me Hold You Longer, Kingsbury

What have I forgotten? Which of these are your favorites? Please leave me a comment.

The Weekend

A year ago at the ECW conference, we signed up for this year. There was no way to know that Jasmine would be in surgery at the same time!! So she was on her way home with Rick as we were leaving for the conference. I knew she'd be fine with him even though I felt bad about not being there. The conference was only Friday and Saturday or we would have canceled.

We planned to stop and shop on the way and go to the beach. The shopping went okay but it was totally foggy so no beach!! Our first stop was Books a Million. I don't normally shop there but saw some books the kids can work through this summer to keep up on their school work. So I ended up with a pile of books and a membership. I'm not going to show the pile of books because there are birthday presents in the pile. I also bought a Build a Bear for a birthday several weeks down the road that I'm not going to show : ) We don't have a Build a Bear here.

At the hotel. 

We ate at Red Brick Oven. We'd never eaten there before.  Wow looking this is making me hungry! We enjoyed our pizza. I'd like another right now!

Jasmine is feeling much better from her surgery, but she has drainage tubes glued into the back of her head! This is going to be challenging. But at least she's not in nearly as much pain as she was in 2008 but maybe that's because the incision was pulling open that time. We are all glad to be through it! Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes.

Waiting for conference to start. Francesca had a concert at the end. We got out at 10:30 Me trying to cross the street at 10:45 with 2000 other women! Drive through at 10:55 The second day.

Neck Surgery Start to Finish!

September 08 before the surgery. You can't really see the webbing that well. At this point it didn't seem that big of a deal just to pull the skin around and be done with it. If we'd known we may have just waited.

Surgery 2008

Surgery Dec 2010 to put balloons in to expand the skin because it pulled back into the webbing after the 2008 surgery and left a wide scar on the back of her neck.

Skin totally expanded and Jasmine ready to be done with this.

Before surgery 2011

In recovery. She doesn't look too happy. I know she was in a lot of pain after the 2008 surgery when I was with her so I can only imagine she's feeling it now too.

Family portrait and more

Church directory picture. Olan Mills came to the church and shot about 30 photos of our family, boys, girls, individuals, Rick and I etc. They ranged from mediocre to bad. I was really disappointed after all the work we did in picking outfits. But this one picture was pretty good. Not perfect. I wish they'd told me to pull my shirt down so I don't look pregnant and I wish Jasmine wouldn't have been in so much pain with her neck. She's missing her true smile. But everyone is in the picture and the mood was good. That may have been the promise of the chinese buffet afterwards, of course....

The weather was beautiful this weekend so I took the three littles to the park. We stopped for soda on the way. The Mt. Dew diet Voltage is pretty good but it's part of a deal where people vote between sodas and only one stays. So the nasty purple one may get more votes and there will be no more diet voltage.

We stopped at the library on the way home. The little ones don't go very often because it's a ways away. Jessica stops every Wed night on the way to church, but I take Jasmine to church from dance. Be sure to go back a post and see her recital costumes.

Jasmine cooked supper last night and Shy was very interested in that.

He slid back off and didn't get a drummette. Even though we don't give our cats table food I offered him the bone from one after we ate and he didn't want it. Maybe his feelings were hurt!!

There's a lady at the bus stop who has a ten year old with some of the same issues you see adopted children with but he's a birth child. She's a bit different and doesn't seem to have much support other than her boyfriend. She is pregnant with a girl with spina bifida.

They are going to deliver the baby at a hospital three hours away in a week or two. The baby only weighs a pound and a half right now.

Jessica and I decided to do something for her. There were absolutely no preemie clothes at Walmart even though this winter that's about all there were. So the newborn outfit will fit the baby about August!! The little toy is so soft and silky. Maybe I should get me one!

I don't believe this lady attends any church. She doesn't have a car. I'd say she lives in a trashy area but so do we so it's no big deal. Maybe we should get her some doll clothes??

We actually received the twins original birth certificates and adoption decrees from Haiti. The social security office accepted them (which is funny because Rick had the signed letter from the translator but had forgotten the translations and they never noticed) but said they can only process one card at a time!! Maybe the court will be more favorable to us now too????

If you didn't do the favorites post, go back and leave a comment with some of your favorites. Inquiring minds wants to know. Some of us have similar favorites and others are very different.

Maybe it depends on whether you still have kids home or not. I mean, some people don't own a disney or pixar movie. Imagine.

Jasmine has pre op tomorrow and surgery on Thursday if all goes well and I desperately want it to go well. I want this behind us.

So that's our life for now!