Further to Mincy’s article, like to share with all a website with a very good list of books for children from ages 0 to 12 years old.  As stated by http://www.kidsreads.com which you can find the whole list of titles, a children’s classic book is defined as follows:

Actual web address for the reading list goto  http://www.kidsreads.com/lists/reading-lists.asp

"What makes a book a children’s classic? The qualities that make a book memorable — unforgettable characters, top-notch writing, outstanding art work or just plain silliness–often deteremine whether it will stand the test of time and reach classic status. Celestial numbers — strong and lasting commercial stales –also drive an ordinary title towards being a classic. And a book’s staying power—its abilitu to reamin popular with young readers and children’s book professionals generation after generation—is another clear indication that a book is destined for classical endowment.  These titles are just a fraction of the literally hundreds of books that could qualify as classics.  We hope you’ll join us in celebrating their merit."

They have book lists according to age group so hope this helps! 80% of the board books on their list for baby/toddler are my toddler’s favorite books! But some of the titles are really hard to find even in our local library. I wanted my child to have our own set of classic books so we can read all over again and again. Hence, i search websites like  http://www.betterworldbooks.com (and do a part for literacy for the world’s poor), http://www.opentrolley.com; http://www.acmamall.com . If all fails, Amazonis the best!

There are tons of books out there so how to choose which books is suitable? Well, we know our own kids the best! Why make a child read a book when we parents finds it boring to read in the first place? And nothing is too silly to do when reading to your child! Do actions, sing, read in different pitches and voices, ask silly questions and then talk or show them specific words or things that attracts them in the book the day after! For example, We started reading ‘I can share’ book by Karen Katzrecently. Now each time my child is playing with a toy or book, we try to talk to her about sharing like ‘ Mummy or Jie Jie will be so happy if you can share this toy/book with us/her/me"

I do plan the book reading list base on my child’s development and current interests. For example, we are reading many potty, diapers are not forever, separation anxiety and sharing books now (she started playgroup recently). This compliments what we want to build or teach her now.  My child loves lift-the-flap books so I try to search for these editions of titles too.

Fonts, we realized, are also important because kids may pick up any words when we point while reading. That’s the reason why we stop reading Sandra Boynton’s books because the words are all in capital letters although we can do interesting actions with our child.

So which book top my list? "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown. Highly recommended book of all time for starters, it is still considered my best investment!

Perhaps we can start a books sharing or trading post for members to pick up and drop off or sell or trade old or unwanted books.

Here’s to literacy for all children! Happy reading everyone!