I have always liked The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendak, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss and Yertle The Turtle by Dr. Seuss.

Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter were my favorite children's series.

My favorites were written back in th 50's. They didn't age well. Girls were told they could be the secretary in the detective agency, while the boys did the investigating. (Henry Reed Inc.) Stuff like that, made it so I didn't give them to the grandkids.

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins - Dr Seuss

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie - the original is by far the best of these.

Ramona Quimby series - Beverly Cleary

Iggy Peck, Architect (+series) - Andrea Beaty

Beast Feast - Emma Yarlett

Dragons Love Tacos (+ 2) - Adam Rubin

The Princess in Black (+series) - Shannon & Dean Hale

Don't Let a Unicorn Scribble (+series) - Diane Abler

The Camping Trip - Jennifer Maan

Maddie & Mabel (+series) - Kari Allen

I Love You Stinky Face - Lisa McCourt

Authors that were always good: Arnold Lobel, Sandra Boynton, James Stevenson

And don't forget to check https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ , they are affiliated with the Internet Archive and they don't show up in shopping searches.

A Rule Is to Break: A Child’s Guide to Anarchy by John Seven

AI book mix in the making?

It is hard to say favourites without a target age.

It Might be an Apple (Shinsuke Yoshitake)

The Skull (Jon Klassen)

The Way Things Work (David Macaulay)

Animalia (Graeme Base)

Nanette’s Baguette (Mo Willlems)

The princess and the Pony (Kate Beaton)

Frederick (Leo Leoni)

Of all the Dr Seuss read to my kids the one that stands out is hard to find now: "I Had Trouble Getting to Solla Sollew".

Probably rare because the young protagonist who over-judges the severity of his minor problem, gulliblly starts on a quest where he increasingly suffers worse, finally concludes the actual solution is to confront his problems with swift and blinding violence. I read it so many times I can still recall a good portion from memory.

My personal favourite was "Stig of the Dump", which still holds up today, unlike many from my childhood.

My grandchildren (ages 10 - 13) have been recently given and are apparently somewhat attached to

The Mouse and His Child - Russell Hoban

A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel - Ursula K. Le Guin, Fred Fordham

The SAS Survival Handbook - Lofty Wiseman

They more or less all cover the search for being self winding.

Favorites When I Was Younger:

The Monster at the End of this Book

The Little Red Caboose

Favorites to Read to Kids:

The Hiccupotamus

Dear Zoo

The Sneetches

Mercy Watson to the Rescue

Pete the Cat (I Love My White Shoes or His Four Groovy Buttons)

Favorite Authors: Mo Willems, Sandra Boynton

Max and Ruby

https://www.amazon.com/Maxs-Chocolate-Chicken-Max-Ruby/dp/01...

As a kid, loved:

Harry the Dirty Dog series

Amelia Bedelia series

Little Toot

Katy and the Big Snow

Tikki Tikki Tembo

Eloise

Babar series

Others from Weekly Reader - including Gus was a Friendly Ghost, Be Nice to Spiders, The Mystery of the Great Swamp, and Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel

Later

Stuart Little series

Phantom Toll Booth, The Encyclopedia Brown series and the Tom Swift books when I was older.

The Velveteen Rabbit

The Owl and the Pussycat

Goodnight Moon

The Narnia series, the Harry Potter series, Alice in Wonderland, Wind in the Willows,the Sherlock Holmes series (there are great versions of these made slightly easier for children to read), and of course all of Roald Dahl's books.

The Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull is really quite good and fun to read (longer series). Been reading it to 8 / 9yr old boy and we've loved them all.

I’d add Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan in others’ recommendations.

Horrid Henry for sure!

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey.

It was one of the few books I actually remember enjoying as a kid.