(Part 2) Top products from r/childrensbooks

I have a 9-year-old daughter, too. For Roald Dahl, don't miss Danny the Champion of the World, and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (the latter is for older kids, so I'm not sure about the six more, but Henry Sugar is indeed wonderful).

Redwall is a bit on the graphic side. Best skim one first. A substitute for the time being is the Warriors series. My wife and daughter read them independently in unison (my wife reading after her bedtime) and discussed them.

Harry Potter is conspicuously missing from your list. Intentional? I hope you haven't pegged this one as having cruelty as its main theme. It's jam-packed with great themes of friendship, loyalty (within reason), trust, love of parents and family, standing up for what's right, and a whole bunch more. It's one of those book series you want a notebook for, to jot down quotes because there are so many gems.

Dear America is a fictional diary series of girls living in various periods in history.

The Mary Poppins series shouldn't be overlooked. It's quite different from the movie.

I'm putting my money on The Enchanted Forest Chronicles series, first book: Dealing with Dragons. The head-strong princess has no interest in the idiot prince she's supposed to marry, is quite comfortable once she's in the company of a dragon, and no thank you, she has no need for being rescued.

Also, The Mysterious Benedict Society series. It all starts with a newspaper ad seeking "gifted children looking for special opportunities."

The first book that comes to mind is:

"The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon"
Written by Jacqueline Davies, Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Excellent story format autobiography of Audubon with beautiful illustrations. Great introduction to environmentalism as well.

Speaking of Audubon, any of the Audubon Society field guides are great to use with kids, even if they can't read the text. Ditto for the coffee table style books of his watercolors, such as "Audubon's Aviary: The Original Watercolors for The Birds of America" by Roberta Olson and The New York Historical Society. I worked at a summer camp that had a ahem fledgling bird watching program and the kids loved paging through the guides.

I'm a school librarian and all of our National Geographic Kids books, regardless of topic, are constantly checked out and on hold. They have a book about birding that looks pretty good. Birds of North America

For the little guys, I would recommend:

Charlie Harper's Count the Birds

Birds

If all else fails, you can use Angry Birds (in all its many current manifestations including the upcoming movie) as a gateway drug and angle in from there. :)

I buy 'unconventional' books for my baby. If I have to read them 700 times, I'm going to enjoy it too.

My Monster Momma Loves Me So,
I Want My Hat Back, and Moonpowder
are currently his three favorites. They are all really cute and I love the art styles.

We also sing Sylvia Long's version of Hush Little Baby to him for a lullaby (less consumerism, more nature.)

I may be misinterpreting what "low-stimulus" means for Story time, but I think Waiting by Kevin Henkes is a lovely, even-keeled story with moderate pacing and beautiful simple illustrations. Lots of consistency from page to page, but very nice.

Are you looking for picture books, or is she in chapter books yet?

Strawberry Hill is a chapter book about friendship. It's not an exact overlap for your situation, but it does have the main character grappling with who she wants to be friends with, what makes a good friend, etc.

Not sure about number 2, but I'm pretty sure Arrow to the Sun is the first book you're looking for.

For divorce, my favorites for this age group are Two Homes, Always Mom Forever Dad, and Living with Mom and Living with Dad.

For a transgender parent, I second the recommendation of Introducing Teddy. There aren't really any good picture books about transgender parents that I'm aware of, they all focus on trans or gender non-conforming children (or in this case, a teddy bear). Red: A Crayon's Story is also a fantastic metaphor for being transgender, but will definitely go over the 2-year-old's head (and maybe the 5-year-old as well).

Here's a few we've picked up for our daughter (these also count among her favorites):

Brave Irene by William Steig

Imogene's Antlers by David Small

I like me! by Nancy Carlson

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelman

Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola

Good Little Wolf by Nadia Shireen. This is a typical children's book and as I read it I thought i knew where the story would go, and boy was I surprised when I got to the end!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11407965-good-little-wolf

If you like Mo Willems then "That if Not a Good Idea" will also fit the bill.

https://www.amazon.com/That-Not-Good-Idea-Willems/dp/0062203096


Princess Pink and the Land of Fake Believe is a beginning chapter book series that will work. It's part of the Branches Scholastic series; it has lots of pictures and each book is a quick read. It is a series of fractured fairy tales where all the characters aren't what you expect them to be.

http://www.scholastic.ca/branches/princesspink.htm

The Paper bag Princess by Robert Munsch is another one. If you go to his web site you can listen to him read it.

http://robertmunsch.com/book/the-paper-bag-princess

Could it be The Story of May by Mordicai Gerstein? It follows the journey of a young girl named May who interacts her family members who are different months on her way to meet her father December. Excerpts of the illustrations from the book, along with some more details about the story can be found on this blog.

[Amazon link to book] (http://www.amazon.com/Story-May-Mordicai-Gerstein/dp/0064433919/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410840973&sr=1-1&keywords=the+story+of+may)

Goodreads link

Link to another blog w/some pics of pages

They're called flip books. Here are some others...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wallace-Gromit-The-Dog-Diaries-Curse-Wererabbit/dp/0141318880

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coping-Girls-Boys-Peter-Corey/dp/0590550446/

https://www.bookdepository.com/Teachers-Tales-Terror-Traction-City-Chris-Priestley/9780956627698