Waldorf Seasonal Book List

[WindyCityMom]

Let's compile a book list!  If you have any books you know of or would like to add to the list, please leave a comment and I'll update it!  I think it would be nice to have another resource to go to... I always have such trouble picking books, and would love to expand our bookshelf, which is desperately lacking! 

Spring:

The Story of the Root Children - Sybille Von Olfers

The Princess and the Forest - Sybille Von Olfers

Goran's Great Escape - Astrid Lindgren

The Butterfly Children - Sibille von Olfers

The Flower's Festival - Elsa Beskow

Summer:

The Sun Egg - Elsa Beskow

Blueberries for Sal - R. McCloskey

Pelle's New Suit - Elsa Beskow

The Story of the Wind Children - Sibille von Olfers

Autumn:

Christopher's Harvest Time

Winter:

Grandmother Winter - Phyllis Root

Mama is it summer yet - Nikki McClure (winter and spring)

The Mitten - Alvin Tressault and Yaroslava 

The Tomten - Astrid Lindgren

The Tomten and the fox- Astrid Lindgren

The Story of the Snow Children - Sybille Von Olfers

Winter - Gerda Mueller

Little Fairy's Christmas - Daniela Drescher

Owl Moon - Jane Yolen

Birthdays:

On The Day You Were Born

On The Night You Were Born

Birthday by Norah Romer

Aunt Brown's Birthday

General Fairy Tales:

Please note, the seasons above refer to those in the Northern Hemisphere.

Edited by WindyCityMom - 1/4/12 at 11:12pm

[cyclamen]

some winter books we are loving this years:

Grandmother Winter - by phyllis root

Mama is it summer yet - Nikki McClure (winter and spring)

The Mitten - Alvin tressault and yaroslava version is my favorite

The Tomten, and The Tomten and the fox-  both by astrid lindgren

summer:

Blueberries for Sal by R. McCloskey

nak

[sukilove]

We have a basket of winter books set aside. Must they be Waldorf? There are some wonderful books like A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. I can list more of them when I get home- for now off the top of my head:

Snow Children by Sibylle Von Olfers
Little Fairy's Christmas by Daniela Drescher
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

[sandy'smama]

Spring:

Goran's Great Escape - Astrid Lindgren

The Butterfly Children - Sibille von Olfers

Summer:

Pelle's New Suit - Elsa Beskow

The Story of the Wind Children - Sibille von Olfers

Winter:

The Tomten - Astrid Lindgren

The Tomten and the Fox - A. Lindgren

Other favourites:

Any "Findus and Petson" books by Sven Nordqvist - kids find them hilarious and the illustrations are brilliant!

Any "Mog" books by Judith Kerr - just lovely books

[Gunter]

What a great idea.  We like so many that were already mentioned.
 

Spring:

Where Do They Go When It Rains by Gerda Muller

Summer:

The Flower's Festival by Elsa Beskow

Peter in Blueberry Land

Autumn:

Christopher's Harvest Time

Winter:

The Tomten, The Tomten and the Fox

Peter and Lotta's Christmas

The Wild Christmas Reindeer

The Mitten

This is the Stable

Ollie's Ski Trip

The Story of the Snow Children

Birthdays:

On The Day You Were Born

On The Night You Were Born

Birthday by Norah Romer

We're getting "Aunt Brown's Birthday" this year.

General Fairy Tales:

We use an old copy of the Kindy Oak Meadow Fairy Tales that I found in the library in Bali. 

Favorite Tales from Hans Christian Andersen & "Stories from Andersen"

They are not exactly fairy tales but we deeply appreciate "Healing Stories for Challenging Behavior".

We like the Gerda Muller board books for each season a lot!  As homeschoolers, we use the Spindrift books for each season plus "A Child's Seasonal Treasury", "All Year Round".  We read "Children of the Forest", "Around the Year", "Mother Earth and Her Children" year round. 

[Melaniee]

Great idea! I'm always lost when I go to the library to try to find something reasonably Waldorf-friendly so it's good to see if there are some I may find there, too.  Also, if you have an age in mind you've read the book to, would you mind adding it?

We have recently 'discovered' Reg Down's Tiptoes Lightly books and my kindergartener ADORES them. They are "chapter" books so she feels more grown up (she has an older sibling) but they are very short chapters, 2-3 pages usually and many their own story.  I definitely would say these are fantastic Kindergarten/First Grade type books.

Autumn/Winter

~Festival of Stones (I believe it says Autumn/Winter tales but we're only into the Autumn ones...started late. It would have been perfect as it has gone through Michaelmas and Martinmas so far) - Reg Down

~The Cricket and the Shepherd Boy (Christmas) - Reg Down

~Story of the Snow Children -

~The Lost Lagoon (this felt like a late winter/early spring one to me, I'm not sure what the intent was) - Reg Down

Other ones we've enjoyed that I'm not sure which season

~Blueberries for Sal (It involved Blueberry picking and canning, so is that late summer/Fall?) It is a longer picture book with lovely simple classic pictures.

~One Morning in Maine (we meet Sal as an older sister who is losing her first tooth) Kindergarten/First Grade. Longer than Blueberries for Sale and Any Season, for us, but it involves Clam Digging so is that seasonal to you East-Coasters?

~In the Land of Fairies or In the Land of Elves by Daniela Drescher, I think are nice for Autumn, but it really goes through all of the seasons.

~Wind in the Willows - I think this is more First Grade, but we've started it in Kindergarten and my Dd (second child) loves it, too. The chapters are much longer than the Tiptoes Books, though.

I will have to come back with more...

[LCBMAX]

THANK YOU!!!! subbing and checking on the library right now!

[JudiAU]

I can only think of Winter books right now:

Winter: The Mitten By Jan Brett ; Owl Moon (wonderous); Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S Buck (really Christmas but lovely none the less); Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett; The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston (again really Christmas but lovely story with mother and daughter working together to get a Christmas tree for their church and mother hand making her a doll and dress); Winter by Gerda Muller

[WindyCityMom]

How awesome!  I will update the original first post of this thread either tonight or tomorrow! I have a sick kiddo- not fun!

[cyanviolet]

Besides a lot of those already mentioned... I noticed some people use the same books as we do for different seasons which is interesting. My little guy is 2.5 years old and these are what we are enjoying right now. The rainy books get left out for winter time too, since we have much more rain then snow.

Winter: Over and Under the Snow (Kate Messner)

            Flower Fairies of the Winter (C M Barker)

            Snow (Uri Shulevitz)

            Christmas in the Big Woods

            Sugar Snow

            A Farmer Boy Birthday

            Brambly Hedge Winter Story (my little guy is bored by this one, but I like it)

Autumn: Rain (Peter Spier)

             The Rain Train (Elena de Roo)

             Brambly Hedge Autumn Story (the only BH he likes...he's fascinated with the concept of getting lost)

              The Oxcart Man (Donald Hall)

              Flower Fairies of the Autumn

              Too Many Pumpkins (Linda White)

              Wild Child (Lynn Plourde) This one is one everyone loves 

              Every Autumn Comes the Bear (Jim Arnosky)

              Winter Days in the Big Woods

              The Deer in the Woods

              The Apple Cake (N V Hitchtum)

Can't remember any of the spring and summer books... it was too long ago!

[honeybunmom]

Originally Posted by sukilove 

We have a basket of winter books set aside. Must they be Waldorf? There are some wonderful books like A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. I can list more of them when I get home- for now off the top of my head:
Snow Children by Sibylle Von Olfers
Little Fairy's Christmas by Daniela Drescher
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

As a mother of black and brown (African American and Puerto Rican) kids in Waldorf nursery (and the big girl goes to Waldorf 1st grade in the fall), I say a hearty, No!  Or my kids would  never see someone who looked like them if the book list were limited to classic Waldorf authors.  I'll check our books when I get home tonight.  We're loving The Bear Snores On, The Bear Stays Up for Christmas and the The Bear Feels Scared (to help my little scaredy cat kiddos - although this one should probably really go for the fall since the bear is up and not hibernating!)

And I echo A Snowy Day.  Love that one, too!

[JudiAU]

Also, Ollie's Ski Trip and various troll stories by Jan Brett. "Dark Emperor" poems is great as well.

[cyanviolet]

So, off the topic a little, but as a mixed race family, we really love a lot of the books we get from Barefoot Books. 

[JudiAU]

Originally Posted by cyanviolet 

So, off the topic a little, but as a mixed race family, we really love a lot of the books we get from Barefoot Books. 

Can you provide some specific suggestions? We aren't but I am always on the lookout for more quality books with non-white characters.  Our local bookstore stocks some of their books.

[cyanviolet]

Originally Posted by JudiAU 

Can you provide some specific suggestions? We aren't but I am always on the lookout for more quality books with non-white characters.  Our local bookstore stocks some of their books.

These aren't all Barefoot Books, but here you go... we tend to be heavy on the S or SE Asian since that's our family and friends, so I would love it if other people chimed in with their favorites.

Our friends just gave us "Elephant Dance" and "Lin-Yi's Lantern" for holiday presents and we are enjoying those a lot. I personally love the artwork in the Elephant Dance book the best, and loved listening to our friends from Bombay read it to our son and their children. 

We have "The Runaway Rice Cake" which was a hit, and "The Dragon Prince" which was not. I think it was a little too much for a 2 year old. Hoping he'll enjoy it later.

"My Friends" is really nice too, but may be too simple for older children? I love the very Japanese art.

I'll look through my bookshelf and see what else we have but that's what I can think of right now. We have the Gerda Muller versions that have lots of kids of different races, which I appreciate. I'm guessing the originals did not.

[Gunter]

Our family lives in Southeast Asia sometimes so we stock up on books while we are there!  We have some bilingual books that are written in both Indonesian and English.  In America, here are a few that I have found:

We like all of Ezra Jack Keat's books so far.  Peter's New Chair is one we are reading often right now b/c it's about becoming a big sibling.

On Mother's Lap - we have a newborn coming soon so are reading this one a lot right now.  It was in our LLL library.

Sasha Visits Bali is one we read often.  Other books are Sasha visits Honk Kong, Singapore, etc...

Desmond Tutu's Storybook Bible has beautiful images in it.

Black Like Kyra, White Like Me  this book may be good for older kids facing racism.  it has a theme and images that are harsh for a younger child, honestly for anyone to face.  but I could see it being helpful in dealing with the issue as it arises in a child's life.  It may not fit with Waldrof, though; I don't know.

I wonder if anyone has read "Whoever You Are" by Mem Fox?  We like her other books a lot. 

[JudiAU]

Two more for Autumn that we just got and are instand classics:

Leaf Man and Apple Cake