Categorizing books by gender is really tricky business. I mean, who’s to say that girls won’t like books about trains or that boys only like books about diggers? We all know this is not the case.
My boys tend to like books about animals and sea creatures, but they’re happy to read anything (including the more ‘girlie’ books). This being said, I’ve just scanned the books on their bookshelf and many of their favourites feature a boy as the central character. Here is a list of our favourite ‘boy’ books:
1.)Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty
2.)Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
3.)When You Were Small by Sara O’leary
4.)The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
5.)Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson
6.)The Runaway Dinner by Allan Ahlberg
7.)The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
8.)Alfie and the Big Boys by Shirley Hughes
9.)Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile by Bernard Waber
10.)Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
11.)Who’s Driving? by Leo Timmers
12.)How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers
13.)And the Train Goes… by William Bee
14.)Go, Dog. Go! by P. D. Eastman
15.)Harry by the Sea by Gene Zion
16.)The Happy Lion by Louise Fatio
17.)Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
18.)Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
19.)Who’s Hiding? by Satoru Onishi
20.)A Walk in New York by Salvatore Rubbino
Do you have favourite ‘boy’ books? Please share!!!
-Courtney
Comments (21)
lovely list thanks for that
I will ask my boys when they get home from school
We discovered a new “boy” book not so long ago and it has become a firm favourite – Captain Flynn and the Pirate Dinosaurs (what could be better than a combination of pirates and dinosaurs?).
I have to confess that, despite being only boys apart from me, Angelina Ballerina and the Royal Wedding is also in our bookcase and does get read (we didn’t manage to find any books which were more boyish about weddings and since my son was a page boy for his aunt last weekend a book to prepare him was handy!).
Claire,
I’ve just bought ‘Captain Flynn and the Pirate Dinosaurs’ thanks to your suggestion! Like you said, what better combination than pirates and dinosaurs?!
xx
Thank you for the list! Not being a native English speaker, sometimes it is difficult to find children’s books in English.
In return, I have some more books that are originally in Japanese. My boy likes Wake up Hippo! by Eriko Kishida, Elephant’s Walk by Hirotaka Nakano, and The Blue Seed by Rieko Nakagawa.
It is wonderful that I used to love these books when I was little- now even my husband can read them for our son in English! 🙂
I am loving this boy week theme, should be a month though!
My boys favs…
How to be a knight
see inside castles
stories of knights
king Arther
the barefoot book of knights
(can you see the theme here?)
barefoot book of pirates
Danny champion of the world
and the new fav book on the block is Goal by Mina Javaherbin
We love “Big Dog… Little Dog”
love this list! so many of our absolute favorites for boys…that girls love too! we just put up our summer reading story with iggy peck on there and a bunch of others that boys love: mo willems’ new one, big nate and the amazing new lion & the mouse!
http://www.tadashop.com/picks/4c20968169d8ac0614000014/
This is extremely useful.
Thanks so much.
My little guy loves Gruffalo and The tiger who came to tea and The very hungry caterpillar.
Hi Candy,
My boys also love all three of your suggestions! Such good ones.
xx C
Thanks for the great list! Great Timing! I was just starting to look for new books for my son.
My son loves my old Nontan-books by Sachiko Kiyono, unfortunately they have not been released in english or german. Zosan no sampo by Hirotaka Nakano is a great idea, I almost forgot about that one.
Here’s a couple other good boy books (at least according to my boys):
King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub
Mr Putter & Tabby series
If I built a car
(Not really a story) Where’s Waldo
A Hole is to Dig (for the slightly younger crowd)
Blueberries for Sal
Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant
Who Made this Cake (slightly younger crowd)
Construction (Explore Your World)
I love this “boy” series! My boys enjoy the Richard Scarry books, especially What Do People Do All Day and Cars, Trucks and Things That Go. Thanks for the great book list!
My 13 month old likes right now the following:
mog the forgetful cat
from head to toe (eric carle)
the very hungry caterpillar
green eggs and ham
corduroy (the bear)
2 great mini pop-up books by kimika warabe (insects and vehicles) — so great for throwing into a bag.
The Gorilla Did It was always a fave in our house growing up (3 brothers….)
Christine — I forgot about that book! We also loved that growing up (I also have 3 brothers)!!!
Thanks for reminding me!
xoC
Nice selection. I try to answer to you with my list on my blog. We are a children bookshop in Rome (Italy) and we love Oliver Jeffers too.
ciao
I bought Iggy Peck after your previous review and love it, although my boy (1,5 when I bought it and now 2,5) is still pretty scared of the ugly teacher and refuses to read it…Right now, he is very into Richard Scarry and K. Iwamura. classics! Thank you for your post, it alsways nice to pick ideas from you fellow mamas…
We love Oliver Jeffers and most especially Lost and Found. Maybe the best boys’ book ever and certainly the best boy-meets-penguin story ever told.
Thanks so much for the mention … great site!
I love kid books! Several of these are favs of my little boy. He especially loves The Story of Ferdinand. Go, Dog Go was a fav when he was smaller. We just recently purchased Alexander and the no good….day and he loves that too. Right now he is in love with Polka Bats and Octopus Slacks, The Three Robbers and The Two Cars.
Best,
Tina
Wanted to let you know, I included this list in a post yesterday. http://lettersoupblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/book-lists-boys-and-chapters.html
Thanks!
Also, I love your site redesign!
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