Favorite Children's Picture Books

I did some Christmas shopping today and spent too much time looking through picture books and thinking about my childhood favorites.

Everyone remembers Goodnight Moon, but here are some I'm not sure everyone knows.

Little Rabbit's Loose Tooth written by Lucy Bate, illustrated by Diane De Groat. What I loved the most were Little Rabbit's plans about what to do with her tooth instead of giving it to the tooth fairy.

Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Helen Berger. Beautiful, beautiful illustrations.

Little Daylight written by George MacDonald, illustrated by Erick Ingraham. One of George MacDonald's loveliest fairytales, and Ingraham's illustrations made me want to be an artist as a kid.

Whose Mouse are You? by Robert Kraus. Silly even for a children's book, but I adored it. Hurrah for mice who don't accept defeat.

Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months by Maurice Sendak. Sendak is not an unknown in children's literature by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't hear a lot of talk about this book. I learned all my months through their relationship to chicken soup with rice. Chicken soup with noodles, to this day, seems like a bit of a disappointment.

There are many others, but I'm having a little trouble remembering the titles of, or finding, the picture books that are a little more obscure.