Best children's fiction books according to redditors

Try GUTS, the real experiences of Gary Paulsen that inspired the series.

If I could go back in time as a senior in high school, above all, I would just do more reading, and I would read widely. I did not start on the path to English teaching until I was 26, and although I did great in college and I feel that I am a successful teacher now, my weakness is my reading background. I would suggest using an app like Goodreads so that you can track your progress as you chip away at the literary canon, work by work. The texts that are going to help you the most and serve you for the rest of your career are the ones that most authors allude to, so, I would suggest that at some point you familiarize yourself with these from a literary standpoint:

• The Bible
  
• Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey
  
• Virgil's Aenid
  
• Ovid's Metamorphoses
  
• As many Shakespeare plays as you can read (and I just want to mention that the Cambridge School editions are the best for teaching)
  
  As far as resources that will give you a head start, I suggest:
  
  
• Shmoop (but only after you've exhausted your own abilities with a text)
  
• How to Read Literature Like a Professor
  
• How Literature Works
  
• Any Introductory Textbook to Critical Theory
  
  Considering pedagogy resources, by the time you are in an education program, there will be new research and new buzzwords, so I won't waste my time here, but these are my favorite resources when it comes to inspiring my teaching:
  
  
• Rick Wormeli (Seriously, this guy is amazing)
  
• Teach Like a Pirate
  
• Reading in the Wild
  
  Lastly, if you go into an English education program with a near-perfect understanding of grammar, your life will be so much easier. I suggest these three resources for brushing up:
  
  
• No Red Ink
  
• Teaching Grammar Through Writing
  
• Language Exploration and Awareness
  
  Good luck, and let me know if you have questions! If you do anything on this list, just read!

Yes, this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Tough-Guide-Fantasyland-Essential-Fantasy/dp/0142407224

It's a full dictionary with the common cliche for just about every last word you'll ever use in fantasy fiction. It's HILARIOUS and useful.

Also it's written by the woman who wrote the novel Howl's Moving Castle was based on. So that's cool!

You should probably check out The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones.

And it's not collected as a book, but Limyaael's Rants are an excellent resource and general commentary on the genre. (Better-organized mirror here.)

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland is an encyclopedic tongue-in-cheek look at fantasy tropes.

Always check out your local library for these recommendations first. These are mostly the books I liked enough to buy after reading.

Parenting books that I've liked best:

Adele Faber's "How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk". This book has exercises to try and breaks things down by different ages so you can refer to it whether you're having trouble with toddlers or teenagers. I also have her companion book Siblings Without Rivalry.

Kim John Payne's Simplicity Parenting. This book emphasizes the importance of developing routines, helps emphasize that you DON'T need to get tons of toys or extra activities for your kids, and helps you organize your life even if your life is a little crazified by frequent job traveling or divorced parenting or stuff like that.

I... can't remember my other favorite book. Might've been a book for baby ages.

Now, for read-alouds. There are lots of nursery rhyme books, my personal favorite is Sylvia Long's Mother Goose, but my kids are really fond of Iona Opie and Rosemary Wells' Mother Goose. Either way, I recommend the ones that have only one nursery rhyme per page. The classic collections by Blanche Fisher Wright tend to have six or eight crammed on to each page and their illustrations don't hold my kids' attention as well. With one rhyme per page, as they get older they can remember what each page's rhyme is and can "read" it to themselves.

Alice Shertle's Little Blue Truck book is probably the #1 most favorite board book in the 1-2 year old range. Seriously. If you get only one read-aloud book, this is it. Other than that, hit up the board books at your library. I've found a ton that I like and a bunch that get recommended (like Sandra Boynton's books) that don't personally appeal to me. I love Leslie Patricelli's books, but I bet she drives other parents crazy to read.

Was it Anna Banana: 101 jump rope rhymes? https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Banana-Jump-Rope-Rhymes/dp/0688088090

I'm a huge fan of elfpunk which appears to have ended in the mid nineties but was well represented at my local library. Although Holly Black published a bordertown anthology trying to bring it back relatively recently. https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Bordertown-Holly-Black-ebook/dp/B004EWFV8G/

I love the shadowrun setting because of this, but would prefer to see more things crossed with stuff in the conspiracy/occult genre. Also I know a lot of people really don't like magic in their cyberpunk.

Agreed on Mystery, bio, and mecha. Would at least be interested to see what splatter meets cyber looked like.

http://www.amazon.com/MuggleNet-coms-What-Happen-Harry-Potter/dp/B002ACPMF4

This is a really fun read looking back now!

It reminds me of the map of Fantasyland in Diana Wynne Jones's The Tough Guide to Fantasyland mocking tropes in fantasy fiction. The book is pretty hilarious to anyone who is a fan of the genre. Basically, to make the map, she flipped Europe upsidedown and renamed everything.

I would also ask how you are weighing the risks of being unoriginal vs. the risks of not being historically accurate.

When I read a book, I'd rather see something exciting and new. I'm not terribly concerned if attire isn't period-appropriate, so long as it works for that world.

If you're like me, then I'll point you to The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. It will help you discard your first, second, and third ideas and really push for something readers haven't seen before.

AMcNair beat me to the punch on Goodnight Mood, but no childhood is complete without The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I also highly recommend anything by Richard Scarry.

Also, while they are probably for a slightly older child, I would suggest The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast, a beautifully illustrated fantasy, as well as The Ship's Cat, an amazing swashbuckling romp with absolutely gorgeous artwork. Too bad it want out of print... amazon lists one "new" for $221.58! I wish I'd been, well, less of a kid to my copy.

[Coyote]http://www.amazon.com/Coyote-Allen-Steele/dp/0441011160/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1370978234&sr=8-3&keywords=Coyote by Allen Steele is a great series that pulled me in

And

Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. I know there is a lot of hate for Card, but that isn't a reason not to read any of his books. There are other great authors who hated gays, woman, black people etc. and we don't make a fuss about it.

When I was a kid I LOVED books like this, with tons of details. This is a long shot, but this was my favorite example from then that loosely fits your description: Trouble for Trumpets and an [Amazon link] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Trumpets-Peter-Dallas-Smith/dp/051000122X).

no problem! I read this a long time ago, in 7th grade, actually -- we had to read selections from an anthology called "Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages." No, I'm not exaggerating the title

Could it have been from this Anna Banana: 101 Jump Rope Rhymes

amazon.com/dp/0688088090/


Looks like it might be, the sample page has a rhyme almost identical to yours.

This book was an education like no other...I think my mom hid it from me at one point after she looked through it. Kid gold.

Reacher Is what I am currently yearning for...NOT the movie lol the new Lee Child book.

Thanks for the contest and yay karma!

Edit: I can't read numbers. Reacher is 13.99 So digital Ender it is!

How about Diana Wynne Jones' Tough Guide to Fantasyland? It's a tongue in cheek guide to fantasy tropes.

Have you read this? It's one of my favorites, and it sounds like something you'd be into.

It was the big theory prior to the book's release. There was the whole Mugglenet book and everything—basically spoiled that entire plotline.

It's a collection of essays that talk about stuff related to Ender's Game and its impact. I haven't read it in a while but it's decent.

Here's the link to the Amazon page for it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937856216/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_rtpywbRE4R4B8

Marc Tyler Nobleman - author of "Bill the Boy Wonder"
http://www.amazon.com/Bill-Boy-Wonder-Secret-Co-Creator/dp/1580892892/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

has done an admirable job of highlighting the factual verifiable evidence of what Bill Finger contributed to Batman.

But nowhere does he say that Bob Kane contributed nothing to Batman, that seems an odd claim to make.

For anyone interested, have a listen to "Fatman on Batman #53: Marc Tyler Nobleman"

http://smodcast.com/episodes/marc-tyler-nobleman-the-fickle-finger-of-fledermaus/

In the episode, Marc goes through point by point, the evidence of what Finger contributed to Batman, and what Bob Kane contributed to Batman.

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I'd recommend starting with A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. That was my favourite poetry book when I was young.

https://www.amazon.com/Tough-Guide-Fantasyland-Essential-Fantasy/dp/0142407224 Not a dwarf, but you'd probably really enjoy this. :P

The Long, Blue Blazer by Jeanne Willis.

He did another book about Arthur called Tales of King Arthur: The Sword in the Stone. And also a Lancelot book.

I think it might be hard going from here since I can't find ways to look inside some of these books to know if the illustrations are correct (as you said, full page and in color). Maybe the cover art will jog your memory a little? Here are some more that would fit the time period:

King Arthur by Howard Pyle (has full page in color illustrations)

The Tales of King Arthur by James Riordan

Amazing Adventures of King Arthur by Angela Wilkes (most likely wrong, but I thought the comic style speech bubbles in the illustrations were funny)

Orchard Book of Legends of King Arthur

King Arthur and His Knights in Mythology

Livewire Myths and Legends: King Arthur

Tales of King Arthur and His Knights

King Arthur and Legends of Camelot

King Arthur and his Knights

King Arthur: And the Knights of the Round Table

Was the book a normal paperback with each page in portrait orientation, or was it an oversized book where the pages are much bigger and sometimes in landscape orientation?

Fantasy Encyclopedia?

https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Encyclopedia-Judy-Allen/dp/0753458470

Nicholas Fisk.

Specifically Grinny, Trillions and On the Flip Side. You can probably find them all for about $1 a copy on Abebooks.

I think what was most funny for me about that book was that I loved reading it as a kid. When I got older I read it again for nostalgia's sake and laughed out loud when I realized it was a fantasy satire. So many of the things that happened that I thought were just meant to be weird were actually making fun of fantasy cliches. A lot of the stuff is based on her fantasy "handbook" The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: The Essential Guide to Fantasy Travel, which is pretty funny on its own.

Could it be Guts where Gary Paulson tells of his own adventures in the bush?

I know you said reality fiction, but I want to try The Tough Guide to Fantasyland: The Essential Guide to Fantasy Travel https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142407224/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_omh8wbHMHXSKS just in case