Children’s Books that Provide Rich Story Telling

What is Twaddle?

“Twaddle” is a term used in the Charlotte Mason community to describe “reading-made-easy” books with no substance. Charlotte Mason would identify “twaddle” by any of the following. Books that...

• Talk down to a child, or are written in a way that seems as if the child can’t think deeply enough

• Diluted plot and vocabulary 

• Overly simplified

• Undervalues the intelligence of a child 

• Presented as “reading-made-easy”

• Stale and predictable writing

• Goody-goody story books, or highly spiced tales of adventure of poor quality 

• Weak, light reading 

• Think “junk food like books”
  

Source: simplycharlottemason.com/blog/what-is-twaddle

Relax...A Little Twaddle Here and There Won’t Ruin Your Child

Here’s the deal. Literature is extremely subjective. What one may deem “twaddle,” another may deem a classic. We also don’t want to overly police children’s literature choices lest we put a bad taste for reading in their mouth.

As Emily Cook with Build Your Library said, “When it comes to reading, we want to help our children to grow into confident and discerning readers. To do that, we must allow them some freedom to make their own choices in reading material. Letting them have a free read of their choice once in a while will give them the opportunity to develop their own tastes and the chance to learn the differences between good and poor writing. I promise that with time and your gentle guidance, they will learn to prefer living books to twaddle.”

Lastly, as adults we enjoy mindless reading every now and then. If we are imploring our children to read rich storytelling living books, it’s okay to allow them to decompress with twaddle every now and then. 

What Are Living Books?

“Living Books,” as Charlotte Mason called them, are the exact opposite of twaddle. They are books that challenge, inspire, and grow a child as a person. Qualities of living books include...

• Well written with rich and challenging vocabulary 

• Makes a delightful impact on the mind

• Written by a person whose knowledge and delight in the topic or story is shared with contagious passion

• Books that move us and are hard to forget

• Appeal to young and old alike

• Don’t require pictures to make sense of the text 

• Challenges a child’s ability to think critically, ponder, and suppose

Living Books : 0-6 Years

• “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter

• “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle 

• “Corduroy” by Done Freeman 

• “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown

• “Frog and Toad” by Arnold Lobel

• “Blueberries for Sal” by Robert McCloskey

• “The Little House” by Virginia Lee Burton

• “Make Way for Ducklings” by Robert McCloskey

• “The Story of Ferdinand” by Munro Leaf

• “The Little Island” by Margaret Wise Brown

• “Winnie-the-Pooh” by A.A. Milne

• “The Story About Ping” by Marjorie Flack

• “Caps for Sale” by Esphyr Slobodkina

• “The Little Engine That Could” by Watty Piper

• “Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel” by Virginia Lee Burton

• “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein

• “The Kissing Hand” by Audrey Penn

• “Stellaluna” by Janell Cannon

• Raggedy Ann Stories by Johnny Gruelle

• “Whistle for Willie” by Ezra Jack Keats

Living Books: 6-9 Years

• “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White

• “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame

• “Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis

• “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett

• “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton

• “Heidi” by Johanna Spyri

• “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams

• “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” by Richard Atwater

• “Pippi Longstocking” by Astrid Lindgren

• “Stuart Little” by E. B. White

• “Trumpet of the Swan” by E. B. White

• “All-of-a-Kind Family” by Sydney Taylor

• “Five Little Peppers and How They Grew” by Margaret Sidney

• “Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi

• “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum

• “Along Came a Dog” by Meindert DeJong

• “Black Beauty” by Anna Sewell

Living Books: 9-12 Years

• “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain

• “Anne of Green Gables” by L.M. Montgomery

• “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien

• “The Swiss Family Robinson” by Johann David Wyss

• “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London

• “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe

• “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson

• “The Railway Children” by E. Nesbit

• “The Black Stallion” by Walter Farley

• “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster

• “Indian in the Cupboard” by Lynne Reid Banks

• “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan

• “Bambi: A Life in the Woods” by Felix Salten

• “The Story of the Treasure Seekers” by E. Nesbit

• “My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George

• “Island of the Blue Dolphins” by Scott O’Dell

• “Around the World in 80 Days” by Jules Verne

• “The Home Ranch” by Ralph Moody

Living Books: Yoto

• Any of the Roald Dahl cards 

• The Chronicles of Narnia 

• Zonia's Rainforest

• Imani's Moon

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Stories 

• Any of the Beatrix Potter cards 

• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

• I Talk Like a River

• Ella Enchanted 

• Baseball Saved Us 

• The Gruffalo and Friends 

• Charlotte’s Web 

• Treasure Island 

• The Jungle Book

• The Secret Garden 

• The Railway Children 

• Classic Poems for Children 

• The Wind In The Willows

Living Books: Tonie

• Any of the Roald Dahl Tonies

• Any of the Favorite Tales Tonies

• Any of the Favorite Classics Tonies

• The Lion Inside

• The Little Engine That Could 

• Brown Bear & Friends

• We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar 

• Corduroy

• Winnie The Pooh  

• A Bear Called Paddington 

• Guess How Much I Love You 

• The Peter Rabbit Collection