Childish Literature is certainly not a book for children, but when I was asked for a list of books I read while I was writing it, the first that came to mind were the ones Jazmina and I read with Silvestre, our son. So I asked him what books he remembered most from that distant period of his life two or three whole years ago; a period that has not ended, of course. Silvestre’s eyes lit up at the question, and choosing these books became a cheerful game we played the whole afternoon.
This list mostly features books we’ve read many times before (I’m sure that at this point we’ve read B.J. Novak’s The Book with No Pictures more than one hundred times). These books are Silvestre’s choices. As for my own opinions? I cherish and love every book on this list because I read them with my son, but also for purely literary reasons.
It is a long list, though it has some surprising omissions. ‘Why didn’t you choose any books by Jon Klassen, or Mo Williems, or Oliver Jeffers?’, I asked him, since I know he loves their works. ‘I don’t know, Dad, we can make another list tomorrow’, he replied.
- The Beach by Sol Undurraga, tr. Kit Maude, (2022)
- Before After by Anne–Margot Ramstein and Matthias Arégui,
- (2014)
- The Book of Pigericks by Arnold Lobel, (1983)
- The Book with No Pictures by B. J. Novak, (2016)
- The Boring Book by Shinsuke Toshitake, (2017)
- La costura by Isol, (2022)
- Don’t Worry, Little Crab by Chris Haughton, (2019)
- El globo by Isol, (2022)
- Good Night, Planet by Liniers, (2017)
- The Game of Shadows by Hervé Tullet, (2007)
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, (1964)
- It Might Be an Apple by Shinsuke Toshitake, (2014)
- It’s Useful to Have a Duck by Isol, (2009)
- La jardinera by Violeta Parra and Paloma Valdivia, (2018)
- ¡Más te vale, mastodonte! by Micaela Chirif & Issa Watanabe,
- (2014)
- Le meilleur livre pour apprendre à dessiner une vache by Hélène
- Rice and Ronan Badel, (2014)
- Nosotros Means Us by Paloma Valdivia, (2021)
- Petra by Marianna Coppo, (2017)
- Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony, (2015)
- Professional Crocodile by Giovanna Zoboli and Marichiara Di
- Giorgio, (2017)
- El profesor Ziper y la fabulosa guitarra eléctrica by Juan Villoro,
- (1993)
- Reflexiones de una ranita by Kazuo Iwamura, (2016)
- Reino animal by Gabriela Mistral, (1928)
- Six-Dinner Sid by Inga Moore, (2004)
- Sleepy Stories by Mario Levrero, (2021)
- Sound: Shhh…Bang…POP…BOOM! by Romana Romanyshyn
- and Andriy Lesiv, (2020)
- The Smelly Book by Babette Cole, (1983)
- Still Stuck by Shinsuke Toshitake, (2015)
- The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit by
- Werner Holzwarth and Wolf Erlbruch, (1989)
- Telling Stories Wrong by Gianni Rodari and Beatrice Alemagna,
- (2022)
- Undercover by Bastien Contraire (2016)
- A Very Late Story by Marianna Coppo (2018)
- Waiting by Kevin Henkes, (2015)
- Where The Monsters Live by Maurice Sendak, (1963)
- Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros by Shel Silverstein, (1983)
- Written and Drawn by Henrietta by Liniers, (2023)
