Fuse #8, a blogger at School Library Journal, has been gradually posting the results of a poll that asked people to rank their 100 top children's picture books. Although I've only read a few posts, I've enjoyed them...she's not just ranking the books but talking about them, sharing snippets of emails in which the voters explained their choices, reflecting on the artistry and history of the various books, etc.
I just happened to hop over today and saw that the final post is up with the number one book from the poll results. You can click here to see the fun post on Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, which (not surprisingly perhaps) came out on top.
Also great fun...within the post is a link to a YouTube video of President Obama reading Where the Wild Things Are to a group of kids on the White House lawn. It was clearly not the easiest of tasks: one gets the impression the group of kids was huge, and he's in the unenviable position of trying to make sure everyone can see the pictures and also hear him, but it's still a delight. He's a bit stilted until he gets to the roaring, but then he warms up. My favorite moments are watching his daughters, especially the youngest, enjoying their Dad reading aloud, and Mrs. Obama adding comments and sound effects from her seat behind him. Yes, sound effects. Clearly Sendak's classic has been read at the Obama house long before this public relations event. Any time a family has sound effects down, you know it's a beloved book!
I'm looking forward to seeing a post that provides the entire list of 100 books, which should be coming soon. For now you have to scroll down and pick up links that direct you to other postings that detail the list. If you're curious, here's the top ten in descending order, from #10-#1: Knuffle Bunny, Millions of Cats, Madeline, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Make Way for Ducklings, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Snowy Day, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goodnight Moon, and Where the Wild Things Are.
An interesting list. I'm trying to decide what my top ten would look like, and what difference there might be in my personal list of books that I love and that have influenced me and my family, and my list of books that I think deserve to be in the top ten by virtue of their historic influence and how much they've been loved by so many people. My other thought has to do with editor Ursula Nordstrom, whom I was happy to see was featured prominently in the post in the post on Wild Things, and how far-reaching and long-lasting her influence has been in children's literature.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the top ten, or your own top ten!
4 comments:
Hi--I don't have a top ten right now, but thanks for posting that--it's interesting to read. I do love reading the Pigeon (and other Mo Willems books) to my first graders, and they love them too. . . I frequently think to myself that there are just "too many" good books that I won't get to share with my students.
Hi Edna! I don't have a top ten yet either, but it's fun to think about. Definitely a few of our family's favorites in that group.
We've not read much Mo Willems but he certainly seems popular.
Amen to so many wonderful books. :-) My daughter's on a fairy-tale kick right now and we've been enjoying some beautiful picture book versions. I may post about those soon!
My daughter (now 12) had to pick her fave picture book for a unit in her English class where they were actually writing and illustrating their own picture books to give to a local preschool... She picked "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," so not surprised to see it wind up so high on the list!
...And have you seen the trailer for the movie version of "Where the Wild Things Are"? A book I never would have thought could be turned into a movie, or that I expected would be disastrous.... but it looks truly wonder-ful!
Janet, haven't seen the trailer yet but I know it's out there. In fact, I think the library post I linked to might have a link to it. I'll have to check it out!
*Very Hungry Caterpillar* would make a lot of top ten lists, I think, for many families! My daughter has been Eric Carle nuts for years, and Caterpillar was the go-to book over and over and over for so many of those years. She nitpicks it a bit now (it bugs her that he says cocoon instead of chrysalis) but she still loves it. We wore one copy to shreds and had to replace it when she was about four!
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