Kids' authors: Tove Jansson rules

The other week, Fiona was complaining about Dr. Seuss -- not that Seuss-ish books aren't dandies, but she's tired of them. Plus the neutered nudity, and the inexplicable feet, the limited real vocabulary and the vast fake vocabulary, and so on. "More better words!" was roughly the war cry that led her to Bill Peet and William Steig.

I suggested at the time that she pick up Lynley Dodd, but I have a better idea yet, the best of all possible ideas: Tove Jansson, whose stories about Moomin sustained me for years when I was a lad but whose online presence is shockingly faint.

Any more high-end suggestions out there?

Comments

fiona-h said…
Thank you - I will look for both of those authors!

And if you want to go the other extreme, I can also recommend some wonderful children's books with no words at all: Zoom, Re-Zoom, and The Other Side, by Istvan Banyai. Amazing.
my oldest daughter found my book "how to tell he's not the one in ten days" and thoroughly enjoyed it...

need I tell you it's illustrated?

it was a gift!!
a gift!!!

ohmygod
richard said…
Fiona -- I've seen those, and they are amazing. With G's language delays, we've been working hard toward reading, but they're seriously cool books.

Zoot -- a gift, as in "she's gifted at being able to benefit from it at such a young age"?

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