Update: Top 100 Children’s Books of All Time Collection

Whaaaat?!!! I only added 3 books to my top 100 children’s books of all time collection (top 110 actually since the list has 10 runner-up books) in the last 6 months?!! In my defence, I really should not be buying anymore books for now. Aki is now reading on his own and loves reading books that are familiar. And when he likes a book, he reads it over and over and over and over.  Plus, I am now collecting New York Bestsellers and Caldecott Award winning books.

For my easy reference, these are the 24 books that I still need to hunt for.

 

ABC3D: 89
Blueberries for Sal: Robert McCloskey 27
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!: Mo Willems 18
Fancy Nancy: Jane O’Connor 26
Flotsam: T David Wiesner 28
Gallop!: A Scanimation Picture Book: Rufus Butler Seder 65
Go, Dog, Go!: P.D. Eastman 22
Harold and the Purple Crayon: Crockett Johnson 15
Have You Filled a Bucket Today: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids: 94
Hop on Pop: Dr. Seuss 75
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat: 93
Library Lion 105
Not a Box: Laura Vaccaro Seeger 35
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!: Dr. Seuss 32
Open the Barn Door, Find a Cow: Christopher Santoro 70
Pat the Bunny: Dorothy Kunhardt 9
Peek-A Who?: Nina Laden 12
Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day: Richard Scarry 44
Russell the Sheep 98
Sector 7: David Wiesner 107
The Dot: 83
The Rainbow Goblins 103
Tuesday: David Wiesner 50
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears 99

Update: Top 100 Children’s Book of All-time Collection

Good morning! The neighbor’s rooster chorale has been practicing since 3AM!

Thank you to everyone who appreciated our 2013 family photos by Caslow Photography. I agree that the Booksale set is oh so lovely.

Speaking of Booksale, here is an update on our collection of top 100 children’s books. Except for the ones we got as gifts, we purchased almost all of the books from Booksale.

Please give me a round of applause because we now have 74! We did not go to Booksale last year as often as we used to but we still managed to add 20 books to the collection. Happy me!

ABC3D:  89
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Day: Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz  7      
Amazing Grace:  86
Animalia: Graeme Base   19
Are You My Mother?:  P.D. Eastman       31     
Bark George     100
Blueberries for Sal:  Robert McCloskey  27
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?        14     
Caps for Sale:  48
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom:        24
Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type: Doreen Cronin  40     
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: Judy and Ron Barrett         5      
Corduroy:       29     
Counting Kisses 110    
Curious George:         37     
Dear Zoo;       78
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!: Mo Willems         18
Eleventh Hour: Graeme Base      52
Everyone Poops:  Taro Gomi and Amanda Mayer Stinchecum  21     
Fancy Nancy:  Jane O’Connor     26
Flotsam: T David Wiesner        28
Gallop!: A Scanimation Picture Book: Rufus Butler Seder         65
George and Martha       97     
Go, Dog, Go!: P.D. Eastman      22
Good Night Gorilla      25     
Goodnight Moon  3      
Green Eggs and Ham:  Dr. Seuss  4
Guess How Much I Love You       8      
Harold and the Purple Crayon: Crockett Johnson  15
Have You Filled a Bucket Today: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids:    94

10 Pigs, 7 Wolves and 4 Dragons

I bought this book

after I realized  that we have been reading spin-off books of the Three Little Pigs story yet Aki did not know the original plot. Normally, I like anything oldschool and original but for this case, I must say the spin offs are much more interesting than the story we all know.

The bottom books are part of my top 100 list. The Three Little Pigs is not part but is a Caldecott Awardee. I can’t decide which one I like best. In the  first one, the piggies decided to change the story. Aki likes this book because it involves dragons. The True Story is also interesting because it narrates the story from the point of view of the  big bad wolf who claims that he had colds that fateful day. In the other story, the book ends with the pig and wolves being friends. Here the roles were interchanged. The wolves were the ones afraid of the pig. After several attempts of fortifying their house, they decided to make a house made of fragrant flowers. When  the pig huffed, he smelled the flowers and suddenly had a change of heart. Nice, noh?

Here is Aki’s own version of the story

THREE LITTLE DRAGONS

Books! Books! Books! and Some Book-hunting tips

In just a matter of 6 days, I managed to amass these many books! Please don’t judge me. hahahaha.

How?

Three. Booksale. Trips.  Bow.

Hehehe. I went to BS SM Bicutan on Sunday, Starmall on Wednesday and Makati  Cinema Square on Saturday. Booksale branches are blackholes to my wallet. Good thing I don’t carry much cash most of the time. And thank God, they don’t accept credit cards.

I’ve actually been to Booksale at least 5 times since I took these pictures. If I blog about my newest new books, I will probably need 2 days.

Let’s start with the reading materials that I got for myself.

I am addicted to Cook’s Country and Test Kitchen magazines.  I probably have at least 20 already.
This book on recommended read aloud books could not have arrived in the shelves at a better time. I actually was browsing online minutesbefore that fateful Starmall visit because I want to collect other highly recommended books outside the list that I always refer to.

I love these workbooks from FlashKids. There are a lot of printable worksheets online. However since I don’t have a printer, what will I do with them?  Besides, why settle with black and white worksheets if colorful and engaging sheets are available in Booksale? Aki abhors writing so anything that will make the activity more interesting is very much welcome.

If you guys come across the Maze Workbook, let me know, okay? Aki loves mazes nowadays.

Here is another workbook that I recommend.

These are the latest additions to our Top 100 Children’s Book collection.

For Emily and for All the Little Princesses: The Paper Bag Princess

Since my kid is a boy, I prefer books where the main character is also a boy. Stories about princesses and ballet do not get him excited as dinosaurs and worms do. But since I can’t stop thinking about Emily, I often get so close to bringing home books like  Pinkalicious, Eloise, Madeline and Olivia. There is a  princess book that I could not resist buying though. I try not to buy books that cost more than 100 bucks in Booksale but this anniversary edition of the Paper Bag Princess is extra special. It is nothing like that sugar-sweet damsel-in-distress princess stories that I grew up reading. This book was written by the same author who wrote I Love You Forever.

The story starts with the usual princess opening line. Elizabeth was a beautiful princess…

It gets interesting when a dragon burns her castle and all her pretty princess things and kidnaps Prince Ronald, her fiance.

Fortunately for Ronald, Elizabeth is no pushover princess. Wearing only a paper bag since all her princess clothes were burned, she set out to save her prince. I love how Elizabeth won over the dragon without resorting to violence. She challenges the dragon to burn forests and fly around the world.  The dragon successfully accomplished the Elizabeth’s challenges but got so tired that it fell asleep. Elizabeth rescues Ronald.  It does not end there.

Update: Top 100 Children’s Books of All Time Collection

Remember my old post? Back then, I think we only had less than 20. Now, we have 55!  Happiness! All except for the I Love You Forever book were from Booksale.

I have a print out of this list in my wallet for easy reference.

ABC3D:  89
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Day: Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz  7      
Amazing Grace:  86
Animalia: Graeme Base   19
Are You My Mother?:  P.D. Eastman       31     
Bark George     100
Blueberries for Sal:  Robert McCloskey  27
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?        14     
Caps for Sale:  48
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom:        24
Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type: Doreen Cronin  40     
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: Judy and Ron Barrett         5      
Corduroy:       29     
Counting Kisses 110    
Curious George:         37     
Dear Zoo;       78
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!: Mo Willems         18
Eleventh Hour: Graeme Base      52
Everyone Poops:  Taro Gomi and Amanda Mayer Stinchecum  21     
Fancy Nancy:  Jane O’Connor     26
Flotsam: T David Wiesner        28
Gallop!: A Scanimation Picture Book: Rufus Butler Seder         65
George and Martha       97     
Go, Dog, Go!: P.D. Eastman      22
Good Night Gorilla      25     
Goodnight Moon  3      
Green Eggs and Ham:  Dr. Seuss  4
Guess How Much I Love You       8      
Harold and the Purple Crayon: Crockett Johnson  15
Have You Filled a Bucket Today: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids:    94
Hop on Pop: Dr. Seuss   75
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?:        67
How I Became a Pirate   84     
How the Grinch Stole Christmas  74     
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie: Laura Joffe Numeroff and Felicia Bond     45     
In the Night Kitchen: Maurice Sendak .  53
Jamberry:       76
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat:   93
Jumanji: Chris Van Allsburg h   38
Kitten’s First Full Moon        79
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale:       77
Library Lion    105
Little Pea      104
Llama Llama Red Pajama  80
Love You Forever        10     
Madeline:       62
Make Way for Ducklings: Robert McCloskey        69
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel      47     

Must Avoid Booksale

I must stop going to Booksale. I must stop going to Booksale. I must stop going to Booksale. I must stop going to Booksale. I must. I must. I must!

From the forgotten corner of the house, I unearthed a forgotten treasure box – a box filled with books and magazines that have yet to be read. Waaaaah! Some were even bought as early as October last year.

I have not one, not two but 4 cookbooks. If you have been reading this blog long enough, you will know that I am sucker for family traditions. That is why I was so excited when I found a copy of Slow Food on sale. And for only 20 pesos, who can resist this brand new Everyday Cookbook Almanac with 400+ recipes? I actually regret that I did not buy more. Since it is brand new, it would make a good gift idea for aunts who like to cook and for newlyweds who are eager to put their cooking skills to a test.

What’s New Cupcake is the follow up to the bestseller Hello, Cupcake which I blogged about here.

And because I like vintage cookbooks and anything below 20 pesos, I just had to buy this 70’s book on gelatin-making.

This one is for Aki. I was supposed to give it last Christmas but forgot all about the book. I like the unique setting which is in the caveman era. Aki is into dinosaurs nowadays and has been calling me Mummy Raptor or Mommy Brachiosaur for the past two weeks. This book is a little expensive  (120 bucks) but the lessons on sharing and family are priceless.

Oh look, more books for Aki. We love activity books by DK. This summer book did not disappoint. The other one is a write and wipe book that will keep kid’s busy while in church. Very clever, huh?

Are you a Chicken Soup series fan? I am! I bought this Chicken Soup for the Kid’s soul for Aki. I read this during the commute and ended up in a cryfest! hahaha. The other book, South Beach Heart Health Revolution is for Franco. I just hope he will show some interest in reading it.

But wait there’s more…

Books! Books! Books from Booksale!

What you are looking at is a picture of my 2,500 peso loot from Booksale. Oh yes, we spent that much on books in just two days. In my defense, the total bill got that high because hubby bought a couple of special edition Marvel comics.

I bought several books from the top 100 children’s books list for my bookworm. We gave these books on the night of his birthday.

We are loving The Little Mouse, Chicka Chicka, Ping, Three Little Wolves and Make Way for Ducklings.  The same artist who drew We Are Going on a Bear Hunt and Everyday Babies did the illustrations for Three Little Wolves. Also, the same couple behind The Napping House did the Little Mouse book.

I thought Is Your Mama a Llama is part of the top 100 list. I was wrong.  It is a nice book but I would not buy it if I knew.

Moving on. We also started our Christmas gift shopping. When I saw these hard-to-find books, I just could not leave without them. All of them are also part of the top 100 list. I plan to give out these books to children of my friends.

Christmas story books are now all over Booksale stores. We already have A Night Before Christmas Book but the illustrations in this one was so dreamy. It did not hurt that it was only 35 bucks.

Not Your Usual Potty Training Book: Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi

I have this personal rule when buying second hand books: if the previous owner did not take care of the book, don’t buy!  However, because I have been wanting this book for the longest time, I still bought this copy. Even though the spine looks pre-chewed by the books previous owner, Aki and I, and even Franco, love love love this book!  Unlike our five other books on potty training, this one is really yucky and really visual. 

 Aki tends to be shy about pooping. When he is doing it, he would look quietly sit and freeze in the corner until he is done. I hope this book will teach him that it is perfectly okay and normal to poop.

Top 100 Children’s Books of All Time

I was so excited when I saw the link to the rundown of top 100 children’s books of all time posted over at Ohdeedoh. The excitement however soon fizzled when I learned that we only have 10 out of the top 100 in our family library. Since we have a LOT of books, I was expecting to have at least 25 in the list. I also learned that  many of our favorites are not even on the list. Hmmp! The saddest realization was that I have seen at least 20 books on the list in Booksale but did not bother checking them out.

I have been taming my addiction to Booksale by avoiding my favorite store. But now that I have the list,  I have 90 reasons to hoard more books.  Now it feels like I am on a treasure hunt all the time. My goal now is to buy at least one book from the list every week.

The OC mummy in me alphabetized the list for easier reference. I did not forget to include the ranking to help me decide in case I get torn between two or more books. Aside from keeping the list in my wallet, I turned the OCness a notch higher by trying to familiarize if not memorize each book title  so it would be faster to go thru each rack in BookSale.

Last Friday, with the help of my top 100 list, I was able to buy two new books – Time for Bed and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

In case you want to embark on your own children’s book treasure hunt, I have pasted the alphabetically arranged list after the cut. Here is the link to the original list