Reddit reviews Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Link for those who don't "get" it.

You should get this book, sounds like your daughter will love it. It lets the kids say no in a fun way.

Yay! Congratulations. I love children's books unabashedly. I'll limit myself to the 0-5ish age range, as you have some time for the rest.

First books:

• Goodnight Moon is pretty much recognized as one of the greatest children's books of all times.
  
• Black on White is great for very early infants. Did you know babies are color blind? They'll stare at this for a while, but outgrow its simplicity fairly quickly.
  
  Next, for narrative and fun!
  
  
• All of Sandra Boynton's books are great, but I'm partial to But Not the Hippopotamus
  
• Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs is so much fun.
  
• Don't let the pigeon drive the bus is great for when he learns to say "NO!" Actually, just check out Mo Willems at the library.
  
• I want my hat back is super enjoyable.
  
  Going into the children's section at the bookstore/library can be intimidating-- Dora and Elmo and Barney assault you at every turn, but there are some real gems in there. Look at Caldecott winners for glorious artwork and storytelling.
  
  Finally, try reading a book out loud to yourself. If it's taking forever or if you're getting bored, it's probably not worth trying to read it to a kid. I once got a three-year-old Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which is very text heavy. Poor choice.

1. The Monster at the End of this Book is fun if the parents know how to read stories aloud. Emphasis, emotion, different voices, etc. It features Grover from the Sesame Street, but is great even if they don't watch Sesame Street. Grover spends the whole book trying to stop you, the reader, from reaching the monster at the end of the book.
   
   
2. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is similar. The bus driver has to leave for a minute and asks for you to be sure the pigeon doesn't drive the bus. The pigeon then pleads with you on every page, giving reasons why he should drive the bus. The story works when you encourage the child to yell, "NO!" at the pigeon.
   
   
3. Too Many Frogs I enjoyed doing voices for, and knocking each time Froggie comes into Rabbit's house uninvited to have Rabbit read to him. You only need to do a crackly frog and exasperated rabbit voice.
   
   
4. The Book With No Pictures is great when the kid is a little older. The book trailer says it all.
   

Great stuff, and some excellent nostalgic recs in this thread. If you're interested in filling up the shelf with some more contemporary (but excellent) picture books, I recommend...

Yoko by Rosemary Wells

No David! by David Shannon

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes

Bark, George by Jules Feiffer

The Whole Pigeon Series by Mo Willems (board book sets are readily available if I'm not mistaken)

Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (I like her book Little Pea as well)


And two of my own nostalgia picks that I haven't seen mentioned but that really stuck with me through the years:

Drummer Hoff by Barbara and Ed Emberley

Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Pigeon-Drive-Bus/dp/078681988X

It was pretty good. I went to the Sketchfest recording last year, with Alex Borstein, Brad Bird, and Dan Savage, and I have to say, because all of them were better in front of a camera (so to speak), it was definitely not as funny this year, but overall the experience was great. They have a routine, I guess.

Ophira comes out, and does maybe 10-20 minutes of stand-up (both times mostly jokes about San Francisco). Jonathan comes out and plays a song (last year First of May (Fucking Outside), this year it was IKEA). Then Art comes out. Then they give the usual audience warnings (don't shout answers, clap when the Make Noise signs flash), and then they record some sample applause (they asked for "medium and then Holy Shit applause," to put in as a transition between segments, then the actual recording began.)

The normal guests were good, everything went normally there, not much you'd miss on the edited version.

The first VIP was Steve Sansweet, a former Lucasfilm employee who's the founder and owner of a collection of Star Wars memorabilia with, he claims, over 350,000 items (www.RanchoObiWan.org). He was moderately entertaining in an old-guy way, and he brought a rare Jar-Jar Binks lollipop which you eat by opening Jar-Jar’s mouth and sucking on the tongue… And he tried it (Both Ophira and Jonathan refused)

The next guy was probably the funniest. That was Phil Johnston, a screenwriter who wrote Cedar Rapids, Wreck-it-Ralph, and Zootopia (Disney’s new movie). He told stories about having to get his cat gender-reassignment surgery to save it from a medical condition, and how in 7th grade he would buy porn magazines from high schoolers and then resell them. (I’m guessing they’ll release his uncensored interview).

Then the third VIP was Mo Willems (he’s been on the show before; he wrote the Pigeon books. He played a game with Phil (and they re-recorded Ophira announcing the actual score as 8/10 to a modified 7/8), then they did the Ask Me One More, and the show ended.

TL;DR - It was really fun, and I’ll definitely go next year, or if they come back again before then.

I am already looking on Amazon :)

Some ideas for OP:

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Pigeon-Drive-Bus/dp/078681988X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419580113&sr=1-4&keywords=pigeon

Plus - the boardgame that about the pigeon driving the bus. So cute, and great for social skills.

For your 7 year old: http://www.amazon.com/Book-No-Pictures-B-J-Novak/dp/0803741715/ref=lp_10238950011_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419580437&sr=1-1

It is meant to read out loud - hilarious!!

These are awesome: http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-Gel-Pen-48-Piece-Value/dp/B000S161FO/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1419580561&sr=1-1&keywords=gel+pens

And should go with this for the 7 year old:

http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Doodle-Book-Pictures-Complete/dp/0762435062/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1419580657&sr=8-14&keywords=doodle

And if you have some tolerance for crafting :) this: http://www.amazon.com/Klutz-Spiral-Draw/dp/B00BEKOAYW/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1419580776&sr=8-9&keywords=spiral+art

Does your little one need jammies? http://www.amazon.com/Leveret-Stars-Piece-Pajama-Cotton/dp/B00P1NL1JU/ref=sr_1_9?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1419580939&sr=1-9&keywords=pajamas

What about a backpack? This might work for the 7 year old: http://www.amazon.com/Everest-Backpack-Front-Pockets-Orange/dp/B00DQMWN6S/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1419580816&sr=8-5&keywords=kid+backpack

:)

Speaking of a bus, there's a children's book called Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus that my therapist and I reference regarding my dissociated young parts (pigeons) dictating my life (driving the bus).

Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

I devoured the Magic Treehouse series when I was younger. I thought it was so great that they went to all these cool places (and they were very easy to read chapter books, so I flew through them!) :)

Edit: I ran a Reading Buddies program at the local library and a couple of our younger readers really liked them because the writing style is simple, but interesting. There are new words, but nothing terribly difficult and since the main characters are the same throughout, it's easy to follow :)


In terms of other books, I thought all of these were great:

1. Dr Seuss
   
2. Shel Silverstein
   
3. Alexander
   
4. Amelia Bedelia
   
5. Frog and Toad
   
6. Henry and Mudge
   
7. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
   
   Those were all pretty popular with my kids (and with me)! :)

It's not a chapter book, but if you've never read it to her she might like Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. It's not a very long story if she lets the Pigeon drive the bus, though.

My daughter was(is) a big fan of Little Blue Truck.

We also like Goodnight Gorilla and Peek a Who

For ones that can grow with her, I'd recommend:
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
Press Here
How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight

Honestly, anything by Mo Willems or Jane Yolen is going to be good! I have some books on my daughter's gift list too.

For more suggestions, a friend of mine is a librarian and has a TON of books pinned on Pinterest. Here's just one of her boards.

For us? My daughter can always use more books. We have a ton, but she loves them. I think I'm most interested in The Day the Crayons Quit for her right now. It looks really good and funny and we like to read a little above her level to her anyway (she's almost 4 so at the bottom of this one.)

Green eggs and ham.