Eat Your Peas by Kes Gray

This is a great book that we have just discovered. It's about a little girl who doesn't like peas. And she won't even eat them when her mother is bribing her with all kinds of treats. The ending is the best.

Too Many Toys by David Shannon

This picture book is another great one by David Shannon (author of the No, David books). I think most parents have felt this way about their homes, and David Shannon captures the responses/whining/negotiating that goes on from kids who don't want to part with even the smallest toy from Wendy's that they've never played with. David Shannon does have the Diaper David board books that are aimed at younger toddlers. This one is probably aimed more at age 4 and up.

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch

This is one of my favorite children's books, and my kids love it also. It's a great twist on a "save the princess" type of story, with Robert Munsch's typical sense of humor. It's fairly short, so toddlers will enjoy it, and it has a princess a prince and a dragon. What's not to love about that?

Pickle-Chiffon Pie by Jolly Roger Bradfield

My daughter found this book on the shelf of our library and casually said, "This looks kind of fun." Little did she know that this was one of my favorite books as a child. I haven't even seen it since my childhood.

Reading it out loud for my kids for the first time since I was a child was an amazing feeling. (In fact, one of my favorite things to do is read a favorite story to someone for their first time and watch their eyes light up with the same love that I have for the book.) I hadn't really remembered what the book was about; mostly just the pie. But as I read it memories came flooding back.

It's a story of a king who wants his daughter to marry. He chooses three favorite knights to go in the forest to bring back "the most wonderful thing". The winner will get to marry the princess.

I think I love everything about this book. I love the illustrations. I love the story. It's probably not a toddler book since there are long paragraphs on some pages, and some of the pages might tempt small ones to finish coloring them. But all of my children stopped what they were doing to listen and look. Enjoy.

Do you have a favorite children book that you haven't seen in a long time?