5 Picture Books I’m Happy to Read Over and Over

When my daughter was really into picture books, she would sometimes ask to have the same one read to her for five or six nights in a row.

As a picture book author, I love the idea that other children might be giving this kind of attention to my books. But as a father, I’m not ashamed to say I occasionally hid books I couldn’t bear to read anymore.

As an author, I owe a lot to those bad books. Because they inspired me to try to do better. But as a father, I much prefer the good books on my daughter’s shelves—the ones I could enjoy reading over and over and over…

For me, reading a picture book is a performance.

Like a song, the text of a picture book needs to have good rhythm and flow. And if it has one or more fun voices I can inhabit, that’s even better. Below are five picture books that were like good friends I was happy to see over and over in my daughter’s chosen stack of nighttime books.

Skippyjon Jones: Cirque de Olé by Judy Schachner

Skippyjon Jones, the Siamese cat who dreams of being a Mexican chihuahua, is one of my all-time favorite picture-book characters. The character is a hoot and Judy Schachner brings him to life with language and rhyme that just rolls off the tongue with a fun Spanish accent. I chose Cirque de Olé, but I could have chosen any Skippyjon Jones book here, because they’re all a blast to read.

I Was So Mad by

Mercer Mayer

I loved Mercer Mayer’s critter books as a kid, and I still love them as a dad. He’s an adorable mess in all of them, but admittedly, some of the books are more fun to read than others. The one I enjoy most is I Was So Mad. The pacing and the set up for that repeated title line is just perfect. I slip into character so easily with this book it almost makes me think I might need to talk with a counselor or something.

Score One for the Sloths by

Helen Lester

First, I have to admit: Sloths are my favorite. So I can’t claim complete objectivity on this one. But with that said, reading in a slow sloth voice is also a lot of fun. When I saw the movie Zootopia—and the scene with the sloth who works at the DMV—I realized I wasn’t taking my performance of this book far enough. After that my daughter would beg me to speed up after the first couple pages. It was fun for me…

The Napping House by

Audrey Wood

What makes this one fun to read isn’t the character voices, it’s the repetition. If you’ve read this book before, you know what I’m talking about. It may or may not be your thing, but I dig how the sleeping characters stack up in the reading (and in the bed). The granny on the bed, the kid on the granny, the dog on the kid, the cat on the dog and so on, until the bed collapses. Oops, spoiler alert. Fortunately, it’s fun even when you know what’s going to happen.

The Great Kapok Tree by

Lynne Cherry

This book pushes me to the edge of my ability to read in recognizably different voices. And it’s got a cool environmental message. A guy is about to cut down an enormous Kapok tree in the rainforest, but lays down for a nap first. One by one, the different creatures of the forest whisper in his ear all the reasons he should leave the tree alone. I’m just going to say it, I do a pretty cool jaguar voice. Oh, and there’s a sloth, too!

OK, that’s my short list of five. Obviously there are are a ton of other fun-to-read picture books out there. What are your favorites? Please add them to the comments below so others can check them out.