suggestions of books, comic/explorations for 3+ year olds...

[Cynic]

My kid's slowly starting to read now and and I"ve always read about 4-8 books a day to her. I've been lucky over the last two year of her life to do so as I've been either just getting out of college and going into a career or over the last year I've had difficulties of other sorts that you've heard of in the past.

But recently I've been exposing her to longer and longer books rather than just see spot run and shiite like that. and she explodes in fun.

She wants more. I"m thinking of what I can get in variety. I've gotten her different sorts of cultural stories that she has read from different cultures and folktales and fairytales and she enjoys that stuff. And my parents have exposed her to the Ramayana and some of the HIndu stuff.

I don't have the money but once I have the money, I want to pick up the complete volume of "Bone" by Jeff Smith to read to her as it seems like something she would read. Along these lines, is there something that you can recommend? She still is along the stage that loses interest if there isn't a picture on the page along with the text though.

[Username17]

Hard to go wrong with Maurice Sendak. Where the Wild Things Are; In The Night Kitchen; Outside, Over There. Dr. Seuss is another winner.

-Username17

[Josh_Kablack]

Spiegelman's I am a Dog (yes he also did Maus, but this one is totally, awesomely kid-appropriate)

Shel Silverstein Where the Sidewalk Ends and other books are fun.

And while it's probably aimed more at kids a bit older than 3, you want to find any of the Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge stuff (it's what Jeff Smith - among many others - cribbed from) you can lay your hands on.

[Lago PARANOIA]

What are you talking about, Josh? Maus is totally appropriate for 3-year olds. Because everyone knows that comic books and anthropomorphic animals are only good for little kids, as people older than that who enjoy it are nerdy manchild homos.

[Prak]

apparently DC's kid-targetted Supergirl comic is pretty good, and surprisningly appropriate for little girls, given past portrayals of super girl...

lets see if I can find the thread talking about it...

here it is:
http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=31858

and apparently it's called: "SUPERGIRL COSMIC ADVENTURES IN THE 8TH GRADE"

[Maj]

Serendipity Press published a whole collection of stories by author Stephen Cosgrove including The Wheedle on the Needle, Leo the Lop, Serendipity. We liked Aesop's Fables, Russian fairy tales (my mom collects Russian art, so these stories were particular favorites), and books like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (and its twin If You Give a Moose a Muffin). And don't forget the Golden Books' prolific titles.

My mom believes that when you're raising a child, if you surround your child with those things that are important to you, then your child will grow up with the subconscious belief that those things are important. So my siblings and I were quite fond of various levels of reference materials even before we could understand it because my mother invested in quite a few different kinds of books and placed them within easy access of us (including a full set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica). We enjoyed looking at maps and place books (like the Eyewitness series books) - they weren't books that we'd sit down and read, but we liked to check out the pictures and ask questions about them. I don't recall the series' name, but there was a series of encyclopedia-like books aimed at answering the questions of intrepid explorers (like why the sky is blue and why it gets dark). It's pretty simple, extensive, and designed for little audiences.

For some reason, I became particularly attached to a book on gemstones in a Time-Life series. I carried it around with me until I was old enough to read it, and I read it so often that I destroyed it. I learned a lot about crystal structure (especially after I took chemistry in high school and actually understood what the book was talking about), and about gemstones. I did something similar with an art book on treasures from King Tut's tomb. Maybe it's no coincidence that I majored in Middle Eastern studies and I design jewelry as a hobby. My sister (who is leaving in a week for Italy to get her master's in art crime) enjoyed looking at famous paintings in a series on the master painters.

The cool thing about kids is that they can be interested in the strangest, most unexpected things. The difficult thing about kids is that because they're interested in the most unexpected things, you never know what they're actually going to like.

[Murtak]

If the english translations are any good, the entire original Asterix series (first three here). Anything written by both Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo is excellent. Anything by only Uderzo is crap.

It's a little hard to describe, but the entire series is great fun, never inappropriate for children and littered with puns, the odd historical fact and bits of latin. The first issue is of noticeably worse technical quality, but all later issues are drawn much better. I still read my collection (started at age 4ish I believe) regularly.

If you just want a single issue to have a look at the series I recommend Asterix the Gladiator, Asterix and the Normans or Asterix the Legionary

Edit: These are comics though, not books, even if they have a lot of text.

[Cynic]

Lots of Asterix

Ahh my childhood along with phantom, tintin, Mandrake the Magician and other comics that might or might not be recognized like Doga the Superhero (yes, if you are thinking that he was bitten by a radioactive Dog, you are correct.)

[angelfromanotherpin]

Don't forget the other Goscinny books, like Oumpah-pah and Iznogoud.

[Koumei]

Where the Wild Things Are

LISTEN TO THIS MAN

I was a fan of Graeme Base, too (Animalia is his most noteworthy).

I bought Baby's First Mythos for my youngest sister when she was... 4? 5? Mum wasn't impressed.