Do you push your favorite books on your kids?

from MOMformation, Posted by Betsy Shaw


It’s a miracle.

After a long, painful period in which Isla, age 4, rejected any stories about boys or about animals, which essentially left us in princess hell, she’s starting to come around.

And I have seized this opportunity to shove all my favorite childhood books down her throat whether she likes them or not.

So far so good: I just finished reading Curious George Goes to the Hospital, twice. I was so pleased when she asked to hear it again. A cheeky monkey is refreshing after having been on a A Book of Princesses marathon for four months running.

But the real reason I’m so pleased is based on pure nostalgia. Curious George books were my favorite books when I was a kid. Something about the adorable round-headed, naughty, cuteness of that little monkey, and the way he managed to get away with the craziest things and have everyone forgive him in the end, still speaks to me.

And now, Hallelujah, Curious George, rather than Snow White, is speaking to my four-year-old daughter, too.

So what’s next on the list of old favorites?
Little Runner of the Long House, by Betty White
One Morning in Maine, by Robert McCloskey
Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne
Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey
House on 88th street (Lyle, Lyle Crocodile), by Bernard Waber
And a few I didn’t read as a child, but just love:
Roxaboxen, by Barbara Cooney
Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney
Burt Dow Deep Water Man, by Robert McCloskey
All the Alfie books, by Shirley Hughes
Other favorites I’ve already read to Esther, starting the minute she seemed remotely ready for chapter books:
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis
Stuart Little, by E.B. White
Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden
The Trumpeter Swan, by E.B. White

What were your favorite books as a kid? Do you, or do you plan to, read them to your kids or do you not have a nostalgic agenda like I do? nd…. most of these books I have been reading to Esther I read myself when I was a bit older. Am I cheating her by reading them to her and not letting her discover them for herself?