We hope these titles will become favorites on knee-high bookshelves everywhere.'Life on the farm with Granddaddy is full of hard work, but despite all the chores, Granddaddy always makes time for play, especially fishing trips. There are teddy bears wrestling with gender identity, boys who want to be mermaids, little girls who grew into rousing leaders, stories from across the globe there are sneetches, sensitive potatoes, and evil archdukes. They are playful, funny, sweet, and moving. In putting together the list, we looked not for books with a progressive agenda, so much as books that teach kids to question bias and power, to recognize their feelings, and to break down ideas and expectations about how they should act. These books are 'progressive' in that they encourage forward thinking and create space for everyone to feel like they belong. The sweet thing about those early reading years when kids are hungry for new stories is that it's an opening to introduce them to characters who are different from them - to expand their world - as well as characters who are a lot like them - to help them feel seen.Īware of the power books have in shaping our children, we've rounded up 100 of the best progressive children's books. Is there anything better than a) seeing your kid riffle through their little bookshelves, or b) becoming a human armchair for them as they toddle over with a beloved book and plop themselves into your lap expectantly? For parents of teeny bookworms, there can never be enough stories - you quickly burn through the requisite library of picture books that are gifted at birth, along with those impulse-purchased after your tot retrieves them from the lower shelves at your local bookshop and refuses.

These are the ones we are celebrating in This Book Belongs To - the books that send us back to the days of our own footed pajamas, and make us feel only half-exhausted when our tiny overlords ask to read them one more time. Children's books especially do a tricky dance for an audience of squinty-eyed parents and wide-eyed tots: the best ones, like a syringe of infant-suspension Tylenol, have a little something for the parent at the end.

Reading a book 200 times is a surefire way to find out whether you love it or want to throw its rhyming llama couplets into the diaper pail.

Granddaddy's Turn by Michael S. Bandy