These are the ones I read a thousand times as a child, and then read to my own children.

Carl Sandburg’s THE WEDDING PROCESSION OF THE RAG DOLL AND THE BROOM HANDLE
Crockett Johnson’s HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON
Ruth Krauss’s THE CARROT SEED
Robert McCloskey’s BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL and MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS
Kay Thompson’s ELOISE
All the fairy books by Andrew Lang
Judi Barrett and Ron Barrett’s CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS
David Small’s IMOGENE’S ANTLERS
Leo Lionni’s SWIMMY
Margaret Wise Brown’s GOODNIGHT MOON
Virginia Lee Burton’sTHE LITTLE HOUSE
Esphyr Slobodkina’s CAPS FOR SALE
Eric Carle’s THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR
Wanda Gag’s MILLIONS OF CATS
Donald Crews’ TRUCK
Raymond Briggs’ THE SNOWMAN
Maurice Sendak’s WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN
Frank Asch’s MOONCAKE
Tomie De Paola’s STREGA NONA
Jan Brett’s THE MITTEN
Nancy White Carlstrom’sJESSE BEAR, WHAT WILL YOU WEAR?
Ezra Jack Keats’sTHE SNOWY DAY by Ezra Jack Keats
Audrey Wood and Don Wood’s KING BIDGOOD’S IN THE BATHTUB
Ann McGovern’s TOO MUCH NOISE
John Burningham’s AVOCADO BABY
Norman Bridwell’s books about CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOGPoetry: Christina Rossetti, Walter de la Mare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ogden Nash.

My favorite book of poems – which I still have today – was a Big Golden Book called THE GOLDEN BOOK OF POETRY

This book was a present for my 5th birthday!