Gifts That Are Kid Tested and Parent Approved

Many memories will be shared over a good book, starting with the time-honored tradition of the bed-time story. Who here remembers begging their parents to read just one more book? "I promise I will go right to bed after the next one;" "I'm not tired yet;" "But I really like both of the books. I don't want to choose." Do any of these sound familiar?

Now as adults, we can feel tired, bogged down by a long-day at work, a messy house, bills to pay, etc, so it can be easy to sweep in, pick up the closest book, breeze through it, and cross it off your list as another thing accomplished. You say good night and relax, knowing you are one step closer to going to bed yourself. It makes total sense in today's "on the run" world, but when is a good book not the best ending to any day?

It's been my experience that children's books are the most fun to pick out, because, in their case, you can almost always judge the book by the cover....you can almost always judge the book by the cover The vibrant colors with animated characters draw you in, and you can't help but want to know the story. (Yes, it's okay to say that you like young children's books!) Sometimes narrowing down the shopping cart, or book bag if you will, can be the hardest part, because they all look so good! Thriftbooks has come up with their "Top 25 Young Children's Books", so taking a page out of their book, I thought I would pass on a few that are my absolute favorites. Consider it an early Christmas gift for the "kids" in your life (no age limits here!)

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some life lessons to learn from some of my favorite illustrators and authors.

• Green Eggs and Ham — Dr. Suess
• Goodnight Moon — Wise Margaret Brown
• Little Blue Truck — Alice Schertle and Jill McElmurry
• Waddle!: A Scanimation Picture Book — Rufus Butler Seder
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar — Eric Carle
• The Rainbow Fish — Marcus Pfister
• Madeline — Ludwig Bemelmans
• The Little Engine that Could — Loren Long and Watty Piper
• Corduroy — Don Freeman
• Curious George — H.A. Ray
• Llama Llama Red Pajama — Anna Dewdney
• The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room — Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain

Read more by Melina Lynne