books for children

 If you are looking for children's books for presents during the year, I will share some of my favorites and you may see some you like.

my little dollhouse bookcase! LOL

This is a short, bright, cute little book! Lots of colorful pictures

This is one of my most favorite books to read to Fairy Granddaughter around Christmas:

The pictures of the big city, and of the beautiful birds are really nice!

Ice, snow, COLD, pretty bright Christmas lights........

This is one of Fairy Granddaughter's favorites and she always picks this one from the "Ma-Maw's Library" for me to read to her

This book has really pretty pictures of animals and angels:

This is a fun book about Christmas festivities here in Charleston! I gave  this one to Fairy Granddaughter this week! I think she will like it.

It is full of bright scenes of places we go, streets we walk, and things we see here in our city.

THIS PICTURE is for YOU, Jenny! LOL

I highly recommend books by Cynthia Rylant, I just love them! Fun stories and beautifully illustrated!

What a sweet kitchen!---sunny yellow walls, a BIG WINDOW open with fresh air coming in, big heavy iron skillets on the wall over a big old stove, windowboxes full of bright flowers, an old painted wood table, busy little girls, and a sweet kitty wandering about.

I also loved reading this book to Fairy Granddaughter, and she loves it and always asks for it again. It's a fun Charleston story and has great pictures. I sit and read her books on the steps of the city house where Nipper actually  lived with his owner, and we also drove her out to see the old Drayton plantation where Nipper spent holidays out in the country by the river.

(below)This is another book set in Charleston, a story about a horse. Sweet little book full of pretty pictures!

amazon

My all time favorite children's books are:

the Betsy/Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace

the books (published in the 1940s) are set in the quaint small town of Deep Valley, Minnesota around 1897, when young girl Betsy is about five years old. The charming books are full of Betsy's adventures growing up as they follow her all the way through elementary school with her best friend Tacy and their new friend Tib..... and even high school, where she meets her beau, Joe.

The books I enjoyed so much in childhood looked like this:

wikipedia

I looked forward SO MUCH to school "library" day, when we could return our Betsy book and check out a new one, and we also traded back and forth. On hot summer days, I rode my bike to the bookmobile and checked out stacks of Betsy books, as there was no limit and I could take as many as I wanted! Good thing my bicycle had a big basket on it! Great summer reading.

I carried these little battered hardback books EVERYWHERE with me---in cars and on buses, on long trips, up trees and in porch swings, stuffed into bookbags and pocketbooks. I read them all....and then re-read them time and time again, as did my friends. We just loved them.

 I guess alot of other girls did as well---there is even a "Betsy Tacy Society" that is alive and active still today! Betsy's childhood home, as well as Tacy's are still standing in Mankato, Minnesota (along with a sweet little gift shop!) and  you could tour them until recently.

wikipedia

wikipedia

wikipedia

You can still buy the books, but the new "modern" covers look like this:

amazon

After all those childhood hours spent with Betsy, I of course introduced Betsy to our daughter and she adored the books too while growing up.

It's about to be a third generation tradition as there is me, our daughter, and I am getting ready to introduce our Fairy Granddaughter to her first Betsy books! 

Funny how books that old could still be so loved by new generations of young girls today. (Miss Lovelace passed away in 1980)The books are timeless and take you back to a more carefree and innocent time in our history.

click here to learn more:

Betsy Tacy Society

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