I tossed out a question on X: Can you recommend any children’s books about the Permanent Things? Books about the seasons in their turn, the work of careful hands, the memory of family traditions, the bonds of community, the recognition of limits, and the quiet beauty of things rightly scaled? Nearly three hundred people answered. Until I became a father I had given little thought to such books. My shelves are heavy with another sort. To each who took the time to reply, thank you.
Most Recommended (10+ mentions)
Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (12 mentions)
Highly Recommended (4-9 mentions)
Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem (7 mentions)
Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall / Barbara Cooney (6 mentions)
Redwall Series by Brian Jacques (4 mentions)
Frequently Mentioned (3 mentions)
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Little Britches Series by Ralph Moody
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Multiple Mentions (2 mentions)
A Confederate Trilogy for Young Readers by Mary L. Williamson
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Andrew Lang's Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter
Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
Findus and Petson by Sven Nordqvist
Frog and Toad Series by Arnold Lobel
G.A. Henty by G.A. Henty
Hank the Cowdog by John R. Erickson
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Meet Robert E. Lee by George W.S. Trow
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
My Side of the Mountain Trilogy by Jean Craighead George
Our Little Adventures by Tabitha Page
Rascal by Sterling North
Swallows & Amazons by Arthur Ransome
Tasha Tudor by Tasha Tudor
The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden
The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
The Story of Ping by Marjorie Flack
The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice & Martin Provensen
Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson
Single Mentions (Alphabetical)
100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende & Harry Devlin
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
A Farm Through Time by Angela Wilkes
A Is for Appalachia by Linda Hager Pack
A Year in a Castle by Rachel Coombs
A.A. Milne Books by A.A. Milne
All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
Babar Series by Jean de Brunhoff
Bedford Forrest: Boy on Horseback by Aileen W. Parks
Berenstain Bears by Stan & Jan Berenstain
Billy and Blaze Series by C.W. Anderson
Brer Rabbit in the Briar Patch by Joel Chandler Harris
Carry on, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
Collodi's Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Crinkleroot's Guide to Walking in Wild Places by Jim Arnosky
David Wiesner Books by David Wiesner
Diary of an Early American Boy by Eric Sloane
Dulaire's Book of Greek Myths by Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
Edward Eager by Edward Eager
Family Sabbatical by Carol Ryrie Brink
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin
First Peas to the Table: How Thomas Jefferson Inspired a School Garden by Susan Grigsby
Flicka, Ricka, Dicka Go to Market by Maj Lindman
Foxfire Series by Eliot Wigginton
Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter
Gail Gibbons by Gail Gibbons
Giants in the Earth by O.E. Rolvaag
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall
How Does My Garden Grow by Gerda Muller
I Am a Bunny by Richard Scarry
Island Boy by Barbara Cooney
It's Corn Picking Time by Jill Esbaum
Jan Brett books by Jan Brett
Jane Austen books by Jane Austen
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Little Blue Truck's Beep-Along Book by Alice Schertle
Long Road In a Short Day by Gary D. Schmidt
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Louis L'Amour by Louis L'Amour
Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson
Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney
Meet Andrew Jackson by Ormonde de Kay Jr.
Meet Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter
Mike Mulligan & His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Old Swedish Fairy Tales by Anna Wahlenberg
One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
Our Animal Friends by Alice & Martin Provensen
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Pelle's New Suit by Elsa Beskow
Peter Spier books by Peter Spier
Pig-tail Days in Old Seattle by Sophie Frye Bass
Pilgrim Cat by Carol Peacock
Poems to Read to the Very Young by Josette Frank
Ralph Moody Books by Ralph Moody
Redwall Cookbook by Brian Jacques
Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran
Rush Revere series by Rush Limbaugh
Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges
Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
Snipp, Snapp, Snurr, and the Buttered Bread by Maj Lindman
Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson
The Adventures of Telemachus by François de Salignac de La Mothe Fénelon
The American Boy's Handy Book by Daniel Carter Beard
The American Girl's Handy Book by Lina Beard
The Bear on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh
The Big Snow by Berta & Elmer Hader
The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
The Borrowers Series by Mary Norton
The Canada Geese Quilt by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
The Children's Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski
The Curious Christmas Trail by Haley Stewart
The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan
The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig
The Field and Forest Handy Book by Daniel Carter Beard
The Fourteen Bears by Evelyn Scott
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
The Good Master by Kate Seredy
The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr
The Heavenly Tenants by William Maxwell
The Hundred-Year Barn by Patricia MacLachlan
The Lassie Stories by Dorothea Snow
The Life of General Robert E. Lee by Mary L. Williamson
The Lion's Paw by Robb White
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Milkman's Boy by Donald Hall
The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills
The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry
The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt
The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever by H. Joseph Hopkins
The Very Last First Time by Jan Andrews
The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston
Through the Mickle Woods by Valiska Gregory
Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
Too Much Noise by Ann McGovern
Tractor by Sally Sutton
Tractor: The Definitive Visual History by Various
Treasury for Children by James Herriot
Tuttle Twins series by Connor Boyack
Up in the Garden, Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner
Watership Down by Richard Adams
What Happens in the Autumn by Sara Venino
When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
White Fang by Jack London
Whitefoot: A Story from the Center of the World by Wendell Berry
Wilder Goode Series by S.J. Dahlstrom
Odds and Ends
Ambleside Online Free Homeschool Curriculum
Cats and Sixty Foot Whales: Reflections on Children's Books
John Senior's 1000 Good Books List
Logos Elementary Literature List
Russell Kirk's List: Humane Literature for Young Readers
Sonlight Homeschool Curriculum
I was also told a good place to find children’s book recommendations is the Caldecott and Newbery Award lists. The ALA gives these prizes each year for outstanding art (Caldecott) and literature (Newbery). The ‘40s and ‘50s Caldecott winners in particular are worth a look.
Great list! Thank you. Some other suggestions:
- Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White Horse, The Runaways, and Smoky House. They check all of the following from your list: "the work of careful hands, the memory of family traditions, the bonds of community, the recognition of limits, and the quiet beauty of things rightly scaled." My kids (boys and girls) adore her books. Her adult novels are also very focused on, as you put it, "things rightly scaled," especially The Scent of Water.
- The Griffin and the Minor Canon by Frank Stockton, though it's more of a moral fantasy about pouring oneself into a small community to keep it going (and set it to rights) than celebrating one that's well-functioning. Out of print but available through Gutenberg.
- Beskow's Children of the Forest. You've got another of her books on the list.