27 Vintage Picture Books for Baby’s Library

27 Vintage Picture Books
you’ll want for your baby’s library.
These are classics, most versions
chosen for the original illustrations.

 

 

When they ask you what kind of books to bring to your baby shower

(in case they do the “books instead of cards” thing)

you can give them this list.

These books have been around a long time,

some of them as old as I am (and I’m a grandma) and some older!

This is a long list so I won’t comment on all of them,

just the ones that were most memorable to me.

Let me know if you have some that didn’t make it to this list

but should have.

 

 

27 Best Vintage Picture Books

The titles are links to Amazon. If you purchase through these links we make a small commission, which does not affect your cost.
The date in parenthesis is the year the book was first published.

1. Curious George

   by H. A. Rey (1941)
   My husband’s favorite.

2. Flicka, Ricka and Dicka

   by Maj Lindmen (1958)
   These books were in my one room school library. I clearly remember going to the back of the room to the library cupboard and perusing the books. I wonder how many times I took this one to my desk. The illustrations are magnificent.

3. The Seasons in Fern Hollow

   by John Patience (1980)
   This book came out just a few years before our first child was born, but the illustrations look much more vintage. It’s a beautiful book, one my children wanted read every single day for awhile. And now my grandchildren all love it, from age 3 to 10!

4. Madeline

   by Ludwig Bemelmans (1939)

5. Richard Scarry’s Best Little Word Book Ever 

   by Richard Scarry (1963)

   

6. Where The Wild Things Are

   by Maurice Sendak (1963)

7. The Giving Tree

   by Shel Silverstein (1964)

8. Pickle Things

   by Marc Brown (1980)
   We talked about this one before. But since it’s such a classic, and the illustrations are amazing, we have it here again.

9. The Velveteen Rabbit

   by Margery Williams (1922)

10. Winnie the Pooh

    by A. A. Milne (1926)

11. The Little Red Hen

    by Paul Galdone (1918)

12. The Poky Little Puppy

    by Jenette Sebring Lowery (1942)

13. The Little Engine That Could

    by Watty Piper (1930)

14. Scuffy the Tugboat

    by Gertrude Crampton (1946)

    

15. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

    by Virginia Lee Burton (1939)

16. The Tale of Peter Rabbit

    by Beatrix Potter (1902)

17. The Snowy Day

    by Ezra Jack Keats (1962)

18. The Dot

    by Peter Reynolds (2003)

19. The Wind in the Willows

    by Kenneth Graham (1903)

20. Henry Huggins

    by Beverly Cleary (1990)

21. The Secret Garden

    by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)

22. Lassie

    by Eric Knight (1940)

23. The Little Prince

    by Antoine Saint-Exupery (1943)

24. Heidi

    by Johanna Spyri (1881)

25. Frosty the Snowman

    by Dianne Muldrow (1969)

26. A Bear Called Paddington

    by Michael Bond (1958)

27. Classic Nursery Rhymes Everyone needs a book of the old nursery rhymes. Children love having them read aloud, even if they make no sense at all.

 

These are our 27 best choices of vintage picture books.
Which are your favorites, and which would you add?

There are so many more. 27 barely scratches the surface.