The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children: 3rd Edition Revised and Updated

I read this book a few years back, during my babysitting days. It was SO helpful for picking out good books to read to kids, and was really a walk down memory lane. There are so many wonderful books from my own childhood that I didn't remember until I read through this book! I hope I can get my hands on a copy of it soon.

Parents or young readers,do you want a book for a books?Ok,just buy "The new york guide to the best books"

This book is very straight-forward and easy to use, chock full of useful information. The organization is simple, and listings are complete (containing year published and prizes received, as well as author, illustrator and edition info) and informative. Not only do they give information about the content and it's value to a child, but also its source and its context and an opinion about the best edition in which to invest and the availability of different editions (where useful)!Wide margins are included, for note-taking. There are multiple indexes at the end which are invaluable in themselves - about 80 pages worth! The titles are indexed by title, author, illustrator, age-appropriate, and special subject. A bibliography is also included. This resource is a valuable and delightful resource for any family

This is a wonderful tool for parents trying to guide their children's early reading intelligently. The organization of the book and the descriptions of each book are generally helpful, though information about age level and number of pages should have been included. Organizing categories in the main listing are vaguely defined (wordless books, picture books, story books, early reading books, middle reading books and young adult books), making the indexes the better access point. These indexes are sufficient to help you find a relevant book. There is: a title list; an author list; an illustrator list; an age appropriate list (which might have based a better organization for the main listing); a read-aloud list; and a subject list of 53 headings, including Adoption, Adventure, Alphabet, Bedtime, Divorce, Horses and Nature. The author renders a valuable service in examining multiple editions of popular books, for example you might find that one particular treatment of the Mother Goose tales is rather musical and illustrated with pen and ink drawings, while another is more colorfully animated and textually simplified for very young readers.Unless you really know children's literature, a book like this is an invaluable tool. Similar but more directed resources are Great Books for Boys and Great Books for Girls by Kathleen Odean, which is organized into reading levels and then genre, and includes age level but not page count. Jim Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook is a very good, somewhat evangelical, resource organized by genre with age level and page count included in the description.

Parents' Guide to the Best Books for Children appears in its third revised, updated edition to provide the hundreds of new entries, expanded descriptions, and notes on related recommended children's books. Parents will find the organization by reading level lends to quick and easy consultation, while the indexes make it easy to match child to book subject.

This book was exactly what I was looking for to find new books to read aloud to my children. It reminded me of books that I had read as a child, and suggested new ones that we have loved. In addition, I have a lot of new ideas for presents for my neices and nephews.