From: mimi@apollo.hp.com (Mimi Wellington)
Subject: Gifts - 4yo and up (was Re: Christmas Gift Suggestions For All Age's)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 13:03:00 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

tbachman@hamline.edu. (Toni Bachmann 6412947) writes:
> Hello:
> 
> I think it would be interesting to find out what ideas people have for
> all age groups of kids for Christmas gifts.  Perhaps the subject line
> could be:
> 
> Gifts - Boy 9 years
> Gifts - Girl 6 years
> 
> I think a lot of people would appreciate ideas - especially as the holiday
> moves closer and closer - I know I would, I have three highly destructive
> boys who I would like ideas for?  Any ideas????
> 
> Toni

Nice idea, Toni!  Here's my contribution.

I'm giving back to the net what the net gave me awhile ago.  It's the
list of long books you all recommended to me for my four-year-old daughter.
(Note:  some of these books are more appropriate for older kids.  Use
your good judgement.)

Books make marvelous Christmas presents.  My fondest Christmas memory is
of the the year that Santa brought me _Doctor Dolittle in the Moon_.  My
father read Dr. Dolittle books to me, and I was thrilled that Santa 
actually knew enough about me to give me just the right book for my 
father to read to me.

So give your child a book.  You'll be saying "Here's a wonderful time
I want you to have...and that I want to share with you."

                                                --Mimi Wellington

P.S.  We've tried quite a few of the books on this list already.  By far
      the greatest success was _Little House in the Big Woods_.

> Many thanks to everyone who sent me recommendations for
> long books for four-year-olds!  I dropped a bundle at the
> bookstore and bought several of the books you recommended.
> We'll see what works!  (Right now we're reading 
> _Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle_, which is a big hit.)
> 
> Many people requested that I post the recommendations I
> got.  Here's a summary.  If you're interested in reading
> all the mail I got, let me know and I'll email it to you.
> 
> I've arranged the recommendation list alphabetically by
> author, and I've included the number of recommendations
> each book got.  That's not to make it a popularity contest 
> or anything...I just thought it was interesting that so 
> many people found the same books to be tried-and-true 
> successes.
> 
> I've also added my own recommendations--the books that've
> already been successes for us.  I hope this list is useful to
> some of you!                                             
> 
>                                         Happy reading!
>                                         Mimi Wellington  
> 
> P.S.  A very special thanks goes out to Betsy Perry, who
> helped me identify authors for almost all of the books.
> Betsy did this while at home suffering from strep throat--
> now *that's* dedication!
> 
> Book                            Author          No. of Recs.
> ============================================================ 
> Ananse the Spider               Peggy Appiah            1
> Mr. Popper's Penguins           R.&F. Atwater           2
> The Devil's Storybook           Natalie Babbitt         1
> Peter Pan                       J.M. Barrie             1
> Animalia                        Grahame Base            1
> The Eleventh Hour               Grahame Base            2
> Oz books                        F.L. Baum               3
> A Bear Called Paddington        Michael Bond            3
> Paddington Storybook            Michael Bond            1 
> Old Mother West Wind books      T.W. Burgess            1
> Snow White                      N.E. Burkert (illus.)   1
> The Secret Garden               F.H. Burnett            1
> The Happy Orpheline             Natalie S. Carlson      1
> Alice in Wonderland             Lewis Carroll           3
> Through the Looking Glass       Lewis Carroll           2
> Ramona series (Ramona the Pest) Beverly Cleary          2
> Henry Huggins series            Beverly Cleary          1
> Fantastic Mr. Fox               Roald Dahl              1 
> Charlie and the Chocolate Fac.  Roald Dahl              4
> James and the Giant Peach       Roald Dahl              1
> Skippack School                 Marguerite D'Angeli     1
> Yonnie Wondernose               Marguerite D'Angeli     1
> Tunnel Through Time             Lester del Rey          1
> The Little Prince               Antoine de St Exupery   2
> Hardy Boys series               Franklin W. Dixon       1
> Half Magic et al                Edward Eager            1 
> Black Stallion                  Walter Farley           1
> Chitty Chitty Bang Bang         Ian Fleming             1
> My Side of the Mountain         Jean C. George          1
> The Princess Bride              William Goldman         1
> The Wind in the Willows         Kenneth Grahame         3 
> My Father's Dragon books        R.S. Gannett            1
> Uncle Remus stories             Joel Chandler Harris    1
> B is for Betsy series           Carolyn Haywood         4
> The Weaving of the Dream        Marilee Heyer           1
> Bobbsey Twins                   Laura L. Hope           1
> Moomin series                   Tove Jansson            1
> The Phantom Tollbooth           Norton Juster           1
> Nancy Drew series               Carolyn Keene           1
> Babe, the Gallant Pig           Dick King-Smith         1
> Just So Stories                 Rudyard Kipling         3
> The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Selma Lagerhof         1 
> Prairie School                  Lois Lenski             1
> Strawberry Girl                 Lois Lenski             1
> Narnia books                    C.S. Lewis              2
> Pippi Longstocking series       Astrid Lindgren         2
> Betsy & Tacy books              M.H. Lovelace           2
> Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle              Betty MacDonald         4
> The Light Princess              George MacDonald        1 
> Beauty (retelling of Beauty &   Robin McKinley          1
>    the Beast)
> Pooh Books                      A.A. Milne              1
> Anne of Green Gables series     L.M. Montgomery         1 
> The Borrowers                   Mary Norton             1 
> Swallows & Amazons (older)      Arthur Ransome          1
> The Talking Eggs (short)        R.D. San Souci          1
> anything                        Shel Silverstein        1 
> some things                     Louis Slobodkin         1
> Call it Courage (older)         Armstrong Sperry        1
> A Child's Garden of Verses      R.L. Stevenson          1
> The Shoes Series (Ballet Shoes) Noel Streatfield        1
> The 13 Clocks                   James Thurber           1
> Many Moons                      James Thurber           1
> The Hobbit                      J.R.R. Tolkien          2
> The Lord of the Rings           J.R.R. Tolkien          2
> Mary Poppins                    P.L. Travers            3
> Tom Sawyer                      Mark Twain              1
> Boxcar Children series          Gertrude Warner         1
> Charlotte's Web                 E.B. White              7
> Stuart Little                   E.B. White              4
> The Trumpet of the Swan         E.B. White              2
> Little House series             L.I. Wilder             9
> The Velveteen Rabbit            Margery Williams        1
> Dragons books (Dealing w/       Patricia Wrede          1
>    Dragons) 
> Honey Bunch and Norman          (no author given)       1
> Ladder to the Sky               (no author given)       1
> Pappa Dolphin's Table           (no author given)       1
> Soonie and the Dragon           (no author given)       1
> Stories for 4yo's               (no author given        1
>    (in Chinaberry catalog)
> Tal and his Marvelous           (no author given)       1
>    Adventures with Noom-Zor-Noom              
> general fairy tales                                     2
> Chinaberry catalog (source)                             1
> For Reading Out Loud (source)   (no author given)       1