With Jeff's fine editorial, and recent great news from the SBG homefront, I was spurred on to finally put the following list into a post.  I found a Word file from a while back where Runner daughter and I had compiled a list of the books we had read together at night over the years, after graduating from toddler fare of Spoon Necklace and the like.  Just thought I'd pass it along to those of you with tykes at home for suggested bedtime reading, with a few comments thrown in as well.  Please (please!) include your book suggestions in the LTEs below as well, and remember: teaching your children to love books is a gift that lasts a lifetime.
(list below the jump)
Note: these are roughly in the order that we read them, so generally the books more appropriate (IMO) for younger children are at the top, and for older children at the bottom.  You'll also notice there are no Laura Ingalls Wilder books here; my motto was, if I'm going to read to my daughter, I'm going to read books that I enjoy, too. One last note: keep that library card handy!
- The Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum
- The Marvelous Land of Oz - L. Frank Baum
- Ozma of Oz - L. Frank Baum
- Tic Toc of Oz - L. Frank Baum
- The Patchwork Girl of Oz - L. Frank Baum
- The Emerald City of Oz - L. Frank Baum
- The Scarecrow of Oz - L. Frank Baum
- Glinda of Oz - L. Frank Baum
- Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz - L. Frank Baum
- Rinkitink in Oz - L. Frank Baum
- The Tin Woodman of Oz - L. Frank Baum
- The Lost Princess of Oz - L. Frank Baum
- The Road to Oz - L. Frank Baum
- The Magic of Oz - L. Frank Baum
Many people don't realize that Baum wrote more than The Wizard of Oz. Â And there's a jarring gender-bender surprise at the end of Ozma of Oz that took us by surprise. Â Oh, and the Tin Woodsman's real name is Nick Chopper. Â I kid not!
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
- Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis
- The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis
- The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis
- The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis
- The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis
Everyone pretty much knows about the Narnia books by now, what with the movie series coming out.  Although Disney has dropped the ball, Twentieth Century Fox will be picking up with Dawn Treader.  The Magician's Nephew is my personal favorite.
- Assignment in Space
I first bought this as a paperback in 5th grade (as Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet), and it's a great action read, although severly dated. Â Lots of fun, and it's now free from the Gutenberg Project. Â With a good screenwriter (and a lot of updating), it would make a fine movie.
- The Runaway Robot - Lester Del Rey
Found the hardcover cheap; it's a silly 50's story, but entertaining for the little ones.
- The Adventures of Captain Underpants, an Epic Novel - Dav Pilkey
- Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets - Dav Pilkey
- Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space - Dav Pilkey
- Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants - Dav Pilkey
Oh my goodness, the fun that kids have with what is essentially their very own underground graphic novels! Â Check Dav's website for more.
- David Starr, Space Ranger - Isaac Asimov
- Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus - Isaac Asimov
- Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury - Isaac Asimov
- Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids - Isaac Asimov
- Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter - Isaac Asimov
- Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn - Isaac Asimov
I read these in upper elementary school, and loved them; mysteries in an Sci Fi setting. Â Isaac Asimov wrote them under the pseudonym Paul French. Â And yes, the Three Laws apply here.
- The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien
These were tough; when the action starts happening, we'd end up reading until I got hoarse. Â We timed these so that we had read them prior to the movie releases.
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling
By the time the final books of the series came out, Runner daughter couldn't wait until nighttime to hear them, so she was reading them on her own. Â As was Mrs. Runner and I. Â And it's nice to know how to pronounce "Hermione" now that the movies have been released.
- Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne
- The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne
- War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
Thought it was time to read a few of the classics. Â The Mysterious Island is entertaining, and has a surprise appearance by one of Verne's best-loved characters.
- Tunnel in the Sky - Robert Heinlein
This is a good representative of Heinlein's SF books for young readers. Â In addition, Space Cadet, Starship Troopers, and others are fun, too, without too much of his political preachiness. Â He wrote a slew of them.
- A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle
- A Wind in the Door - Madeline L'Engle
- A Swiftly Tilting Planet - Madeline L'Engle
More classic reading, although it doesn't take long for these to slip out of memory for me, for some reason.
- Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
- Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card
Very deep and thought provoking material. You've heard a couple of us mention Speaker for the Dead as a compliment to SBG's fine eulogy.  A little bit of redacting might be required based on situations, but I don't remember it being too difficult.
Excellent post, Rhu_Ru. Miss SBG loves books and we intend to read to and with her as she grows up. Thanks for the list.
I can't wait until my boys are old enough to read these books to. Others I intend to read:
Sci/fi fantasy:
The Dragon King Trilogy which includes:
In the Hall of the Dragon King - Stephen Lawhead
The Warlords of Nin - Lawhead
The Sword and the Flame - Lawhead
The Space Trilogy which includes:
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis
Perelandra - C.S. Lewis
That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis
The Song of Albion Trilogy which includes:
The Paradise War - Stephen Lawhead
The Silver Hand - Lawhead
The Endless Knot - Lawhead
The Enormous Egg - Oliver Butterworth
Children's Classics:
Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
Stuart Little - White
The Mouse and the Motorcycle - Beverly Cleary
Henry and Ribsy - Cleary
Socks - Cleary
The Black Stallion - Walter Farley
The Black Stallion Returns - Walter Farley
The Son of the Black Stallion - Farley
Historical books:
Black Beauty - Anna Sewell
April Morning - Howard Fast
Farmers Boy - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Across Five Aprils - Irene Hunt
The two April books are pretty heavy books but are great historical accounts of the Revolutionary War (April Morning) and the Civil War (Across Five Aprils) seen through the eyes of young boys. The Lawhead books I highly recommend. If you enjoy the Narnia books or the Lord of the Rings, you will certainly enjoy them.
We own vintage (but not Vintage) paperback editions of the entire Oz series (from Mrs S's childhood).
L'Engle is teh awesome. Many other excellent mentions offered by Rhu_Ru and socal.
I would add a lot, but the ones that come to mind right now:
the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper (two of which won Newberrys). I've studiously avoided the new film abomination. Less action, more words and poetry than Harry Potter.
Watership Down (Richard Adams).
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series
Anne McCaffery's Dragonriders of Pern books
John Christopher's War of the Worlds series (The Tripods, including The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, and the Pool of Fire)
the other earth-based books in the Ender collection (Ender's Shadow, etc.), which really are Bean's story
Edgar Rice Burrough's Mars series (a bit anachronistic, but still good adolescent fun)
almost anything by Roger Zelazny, but start with his Amber series
Arthur Conan Doyle
Agatha Christie
Minnesota's own Lois McMaster Bujold. Her Miles Vorkosigan books are great fun and very accessible to kids, although the "entry" novels are fairly mature (Shards of Honor and Barrayar). And I really, really, really loved her three Chalion books (The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, and The Hallowed Hunt) although, again, these are for more mature audiences.
Andre Norton
Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld books
to name a few.
Mrs. CH and I are a few years away from thinking about having kids, so I don't have any recent success with reading books and small and medium fry. Thanks to my parents' encouragement, I was a pretty voracious reader when I was young. I don't remember everything I read anymore, but as parenthood creeps closer, I should probably start formulating a list of books I really enjoyed. A few off the top of my head:
Mr. Pudgins [1951]
Sort of an American Mary Poppins, set in the early 1950s. Grandfatherly Mr. Pudgins comes to babysit for three kids, and magical things happen every time. Their mirror-counterparts come to play (and don't want to leave), soda runs out of the water faucets, and miniature train sets run on real coal. Sadly, this book will probably never be republished because Mr. Pudgins is a pipe-smoker (and the magic seems to happen whenever he sits down to smoke), but speaking as a former smoker, this book wasn't responsible for getting me started. So, if you don't mind that small detail, it shouldn't be too hard to find on Amazon or eBay. 31 5-star reviews on Amazon don't lie.
The Wind in the Willows [1908]
It might be sacrilege to say so, but I think this book is actually more enjoyable than Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. At any rate, it's another example of the tradition of very fine British children's classics.
Encyclopedia Brown [1963-pres.]
I seem to remember these getting more formulaic as the series progressed (the Repository says it is up to 25 books now), but through the first 5-10 I remember them being pretty good. To my way of thinking, mysteries are great for kids because they're enjoyable and yet encourage the development of analytical thinking skills.
The Indian in the Cupboard [1980]
The Return of the Indian [1985]
The Secret of the Indian [1989]
As a kid I always wondered what a British author knew about the Iroquois and the Old West, but Lynne Reid Banks certainly knew enough to write some seriously engrossing mild sci-fi. These books do acknowledge the existence of death (and one of the more beloved characters dies), but there's no reason not be be reading these to kids at the before you get to C.S. Lewis or Tolkien, since those books are written at a bit of a higher level. There are two more books which Banks wrote in the '90s, but I can't vouch for those since I was
The Case Of The Missing Message [1959]
The Case Of The Counterfeit Coin [1960]
The Case Of The Stolen Dummy [1961]
The Case Of The Roving Rolls [1961]
The Case Of The Waltzing Mouse [1961]
The Case Of The Painted Dragon [1961]
Brains and Jimmy, the main characters in the Brains Benton Mysteries, are teens, but since these were written in the well-sanitized late Fifties/early Sixties, they can be read to kids at much younger ages. The mysteries are enjoyable, and what kid wouldn't want to run an "international" detective agency out of the upper floor of their parents' carriage house, complete with secret entrance and hand-built, pre-CSI forensics lab? It's a riff on Holmes and Watson, but House has certainly shown that's not always a bad thing. Even though he wears glasses and has Wikipedia for a noodle, Brains isn't just a wimpy, glasses-wearing nerd - he's the best pitcher in the city league. I always pictured him as a young, red-headed Buddy Holly, myself. Great books if you can find them.
Brains Benton! There's a series I haven't thought of in a long time.
There are many more books I read as a kid that could have been mentioned, and you're all hitting a lot of them pretty well. The Riddle Master of Hed series by Patricia K. McKillip, The Once and Future King series by T.H. White (of which Disney made the lame Sword in the Stone animation), and even the 100+ book series of Perry Rhodan that was translated from German.
It's been a long time since I was young, and we don't have kids, but if your kid likes sports, you might try the old "Chip Hilton" series by Clair Bee. I'm sure they'd be dated now, but I think the stories would still work.
I tried reading one of the Encyclopedia Brown books to my kids and it was just too dated. They couldn't solve the mysteries and either could I! There were references to dial telephones, wind up alarm clocks, etc. I was disappointed because I was a big fan at their age.
I enjoy the "Little House" books, and so did C (though we only read the first three. We started the fourth, Silver Lake, and Mary was blind and a baby had died and they were leaving Minnesota. It was so sad and serious, we stopped after chapter 1. ( I think she was barely four at the time, though she's now 5.5). Growing up in New Ulm, C now takes some interest in the historical things around there. "This is from Laura and Mary's time," I'll say.
Wind in the Willows was quite enjoyed by her, although my wife did most of the reading.
Milne's Pooh books were a big hit, and now her brother H is following them too (he's 3).
I like reading old fairy tales and Wanda Gag's "Stories From Grimm" is next on the list, as we just finished "More Stories From Grimm." (Gag translated and illustrated.) Also, there is a very large series of books called the Color Fairy books (don't remember the editor), which is basically collections of fairy tales from all over the world (including Grimm). We've gotten some from the library. I like the short story approach, because I can pick a story based on length, and my wife and I don't have to worry about getting only half of the story as we do when we read chapter books and alternate nights.
We read the first couple "Little House" books, but I found them excruciating. We had to stop.
This is a fun thread. Books that I loved as a kid --
Anything by Roald Dahl, obviously.
Matilda
James and the Giant Peach
The BFG
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
The Witches
The Enormous Crocodile
Danny the Champion of the World
Etc, etc. Can't go wrong there.
The Phillip Pullman trilogy His Dark Materials is also excellent. Falls in the category of books like Ender's Game or the Narnia series -- Kids' books that adults will also enjoy, with stronger thematic content than most "adult" novels. Yes, the movie was terrible.
Titles:
The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass
I read and re-read all the Calvin and Hobbes collections. Calvin's ability to precisely articulate stupid ideas was a great vocabulary builder.
I really liked the early entries in the Redwall series by Brian Jacques -- Redwall, Mossflower, Mattimeo, etc. Lost track of the 547 follow-ups, though.
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander is another good choice.
The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr
Taran Wanderer
The High King
Where the Red Fern Grows is a classic. Babe: The Gallant Pig. The Hank the Cowdog mysteries. The Wayside School books by Louis Sachar. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Two Against the North and Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat. Tom Sawyer. The Bridge to Terabithia. The Giver.
That''s what pops to mind immediately. I think I like kids' books more than I like adult books. (edited to eliminate books already mentioned.)