Get it together Mr Frimble

May 7, 2017 5:30 PM

Need a new compendium of stories for bedtime book for toddler. At his request, we currently read - repeatedly, endlessly, and at this point, somewhat joylessly - Richard Scarry's "Best Storybook Ever." Please help us find a suitable replacement.

Cons of this storybook: Feels very outdated, also I know this is blasphemy here but kid's dad and I generally find Richard Scarry and the Scarry-esque listing of all the things EXTREMELY TEDIOUS. WE HATES IT.

Pros of this storybook: Nearly 300 pages of varied-length vignettes so we can pick and choose depending on how much time we have - a page of nursery rhymes here, a longer story there. Charming illustrations. A few of the stories have some great absurdist touches like Schtoompah the eccentric tuba-stuffing bear that are fun and memorable.

We have lots of books and are at the library all the time so having enough variety of stories is not the challenge. Kid wants One Giant Book To Rule Them All. Can you suggest a similarly big book with lots of fun, bright, sometimes goofy sometimes thoughtful material to choose from, suitable for 3-5 years old, that is NOT SCARRY PLEASE. Thank you

posted by sestaaak to Media & Arts (21 answers total)

I mean, would I be horribly antiquated if I suggested Grimm's Fairy Tales?

On nights when you really have no time, you could try audio books. I used to LOVE listening to those as a kid, after lights out. I vividly remember Gulliver's Travels, Alladin, Jack and the Beanstalk...
posted by nirblegee at 6:05 PM on May 7, 2017

Best answer: I'm going to just laugh bitterly and say be glad you still have some pleasure to find in the book. I can narrate entire sections of Pippi Longstocking and the Disney novelization of Tangled by heart, and there are board books I know entirely because my kids fixated on them for weeks or months.

My only escape is to make up stories which they prefer, but this is a more labor intensive activity when you're very tired than reading a book, and also means they don't practice literacy, although they can practice other story telling and narrative elements.

Welcome to your next five years of literary prison.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:35 PM on May 7, 2017 [7 favorites]

Hah, I love this question - my sister and I were totally fixated on Richard Scarry's Busytown when we were young - my mom ended up hiding the book and telling us it was lost. She did read us Grimm's Fairy Tales - but she must have skipped over the violent and anti-Semetic bits. Oddly, we both really loved an illustrated book of Bible stories for children. I don't think we realized they were meant to be anything more than bedtime stories, though, because we both grew up to be atheists.
posted by noodel at 6:50 PM on May 7, 2017

Best answer: Margaret Wise Brown's Wonderful Storybook really is wonderful. It's not as thick as the Richard Scarry book (and it's no less outdated) but it's weirder and better written. It's a collection of stories and poems that are perfect for 3-5 year olds. My favorite is the one about the girl who gets a steam shovel for Christmas and accidentally runs over a lot of people and animals with it, squashing them "flat as shadows." (There is a happy ending.) It's out of print, but readily available used.
posted by Redstart at 6:55 PM on May 7, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I have very happy memories of reading the Provensons's A Year at Maple Hill Farm and ESPECIALLY Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm. Good old Sam the goat.
Other episodic books that were favored include Rosemary Wells, Emily's First 100 Days of School, Regis Faller, Polo or Barbara Mclintock's Adele and Simon (The latter two much shorter, but with similar ultra detailed illustrations.)
If you just want books that are like encyclopedias but more beautifully illustrated I recommend Under Water Under Earth and other blends of natural and cultural history.
posted by everything's coming up milhouse at 6:55 PM on May 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: DK's Visual Encyclopedias scratch much the same itch as Best Storybook Ever for my kids. They're non-fiction, but pick a topic of interest -- space, geography, Star Wars, animals, science -- and you can dip in and out of the encyclopedia here and there. Amazon search for "DK visual encyclopedia"
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:59 PM on May 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, if he likes the excruciatingly detailed pictures with tons to see, he may also like David Macauley. The New Way Things Work and Underground are our particular favorites. Stephen Biesty's cross-sections are similar, especially Incredible Cross Sections, Incredible Explosions, Cross-Sections Man-O-War, Cross-Sections Castle, etc.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:05 PM on May 7, 2017

George and Martha have great re-readability. The stories are all the same length. The illustrations are not stuffed full of detail like Scarry, but they do reward close attention.
posted by expialidocious at 7:42 PM on May 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

We had a large book of poetry for children that my (now adult) kids loved—a lot of variety in terms of subjects, moods, and lengths.
posted by she's not there at 8:05 PM on May 7, 2017

Toad and Frog are Friends. That series is so calm, calming, and sweet.
posted by Oyéah at 8:12 PM on May 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury includes some favorites of all different lengths and styles.
posted by coevals at 8:14 PM on May 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

ima say "a giant variety pack" of little golden books. my three loved exploring them and finding the characters and themes that grabbed them. fwiw.
posted by j_curiouser at 9:43 PM on May 7, 2017

Best answer: My fave as a kid The Silly Book
posted by boilermonster at 11:45 PM on May 7, 2017

Best answer: No child should be without Shel Siverstein's Where The Sidewalk Ends. Short ones, long ones, all very fun to read. I still remember some of the illustrations.
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 11:46 PM on May 7, 2017 [1 favorite]

Possibly a book of the Hairy Maclary stories, or a set of a lot of the individual stories, which vary in length and feature many lovable cat and dog characters which are funny and a LOT of fun to read out loud. Perhaps something like this. I have so many happy memories of reading these to all of my kids! Both the stories and the pictures are wonderful.
posted by glitter at 12:29 AM on May 8, 2017

I loved this book of Greek Myths as a child and recalled it well enough as an adult that it helped me understand the Iliad and the Odyssey when I read them in college.
posted by Waiting for Pierce Inverarity at 3:58 AM on May 8, 2017

I have found so many of these types of books in used bookstores. They're kind of like a Norton's Anthology of Literature for kid's stories and poetry.
posted by dawkins_7 at 8:23 AM on May 8, 2017

Best answer: Frog and Toad is great a rare book that I like as much as the kids. Not one big book but there are multiple smaller ones.

We got a lot out of the Maisy series:

Maisy's Amazing Big Book of Learning

I loved David Macauly ( and met him several times) but he can be too dry for kids.
posted by sol at 9:28 AM on May 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

We had a giant Curious George compendium that got a lot of use; though it gets pretty tedious too.
posted by Mid at 10:52 AM on May 8, 2017

Best answer: I've loved reading to my kids Oliver Jeffers' Once Upon an Alphabet: Short Stories for All the Letters.
posted by umbú at 11:23 AM on May 8, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks all. Lots of big books ordered. Maybe I can add The Belt and Road Initiative to our bookshelf too.
posted by sestaaak at 8:39 AM on May 9, 2017