100 books like The King, the Mice and the Cheese

A deft, charming re-telling of a Jewish folk tale, and winner of the Ruth Schwartz Award. In this gentle story, young Joseph grows up in a shtetl in a warm and loving home. His grandfather, a tailor, makes him a beautiful blanket at birth. As he grows, the blanket becomes worn, but Grandpa can always rejig the fabric into something new. At last, however, the sad day arrives when nothing is left of the blanket… until Joseph realizes that what’s left is a wonderful story. 

I nominate this book as a storyteller’s delight because of its comforting, cyclical nature, and surprise ending. While Gilman’s glowing pictures augment the story perfectly, with their warm, humorous depiction of family life, the story can easily be memorized, told, and enjoyed when no pictures are available.

As a kids’ storyteller, I’ve often used this book, and it bears telling even without its gently comic pictures. When Farmer Joe complains of his daily toil, his clever wife tricks him into becoming so uncomfortable that, once returned to normal conditions, he will never complain again! The story carries a message about positive attitude, without being didactic. Best of all, kids can chuckle along with Farmer Joe’s wife, understanding her trick while hapless Joe does not. Kids, in my experience, love to be smarter than at least one grownup in a story, and this book delivers that in spades! 

One of the best books about getting a decent night’s sleep, for children and parents alike, is Jill Murphy’s Peace at Last, in her Bear Family series. Poor exhausted Mr. Bear is struggling with a dripping tap, a hooting owl, and a clicking clock as well as an excitable baby and a snoring wife. This is a warm and humorous story with charming pictures.

One of my daughter’s perennial favourites, I read this so often I had it memorized, and found it great to tell even without the hilarious pictures. In this story, Kate is facing her first day of school. So miserable is she at the very idea, she gets out on the wrong side of the bed. So of course, everything goes wrong! Her school is a dungeon, her teacher is a gorilla, and the dinner lady serves spiders, snails, and snakes for lunch. Brave Kate fights back, runs home, and saves her own day when she gets up all over again, on the right side of the bed. This is, underneath, a story about attitude, and reassures kids about the reality of school by comically exaggerating one child’s fears. But it’s also great fun to tell, with silly voices, unexpected developments, and a fine arc of tension till Kate decides to… show more.

Another story from my childhood, this tells the tale of the Bastable children, sweet siblings who are searching for treasure to help the father who recently lost everything. Stories about siblings have always piqued my interest as I myself have 3 siblings :) and stories about siblings who treat each other good are often my absolute favorites!

I’ve always thought there was something magical about midnight, and The Secret Hour proved me right. Monsters, mysterious powers, and a bloody act haunt the small town in this story. The secrets are teased out slowly over the course of the book through the POVs of teenage misfits with unique abilities and backstories. Though, the more I learned about the midnight hour, the more thankful I became that this book is fiction. Hungry things come out to play while the rest of us are asleep…

This book is like stepping into a time machine with your little ones and emerging into a time long ago.

One of the things I love about this story is the timeless quality and rich layers of storytelling. Kids love it because of the characters, magical settings, and adventures, while adults will relate to the universal themes and find something new to relate to with every reading.

In a fast-paced world, sometimes it’s nice to escape into the classics. 

This book made me ask myself how far I would go for someone I loved. Would time, distance, and beliefs change me, too?

I like the classic hardcore science fiction setting of this story mixed with a culture based on a mystical belief—science meets faith. Which would I choose if I were living in that world? Or can I have both? The answer is bittersweet because there is no perfect solution.

Though we will never have inside pets because of allergies, my family thoroughly enjoys this true story centered around a family raising two owls (and a variety of other wild animals). This story showed a supportive family as the parents not only endured a continuous round of new pets (including a meal interrupted by one owl dropping a dead skunk on the table) but also assisted Billy in his early zoo-keeping habits. The hilarious slices of life had us in stitches. I especially love the relationship between the owl—Wol—and Billy’s dog.

This book has been continuously in print since 1945. That date is not a typo! The fact is that this book speaks across genders, races, and generations with the message of belief in oneself—even when everyone else tells you that you’re wrong. Children accustomed to the brightly colored illustrations in contemporary books may take a while to warm up to this gem, but this classic exploration of patience and the power of positive thinking deserves a shout-out. The garden theme works well for spring reading.