William Steig is an amazing author and illustrator

One of the very best books for kids is Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.I was introduced to this book when I picked up my 3 year old daughter from day care. She was hysterically excited and demanded to go to the library and get the book her teacher had read to them that day. Of course she didn't know the title but I figured it out before she reached total meltdown. We got the book and read it over and over, and I have been reading it to children ever since. It wasn't the kind of book I would have chosen for her. Often she brought books to me in a library or bookstore and I said "Too many words. We'll get it when you're older". Steig's books are often "too many words" books--many of them contain a lot of text for a picture book, and there are words sprinkled here and there that will send a parent to the dictionary. Even so, Sylvester and his predicament struck a chord with my 3 year old as well as her classmates. The teacher told me the book was reread several times at school, by popular demand, and the kids even developed and acted out a play based on the story. All Steig's books are amazing; he is one of the very few authors who have won both the Caldecott and Newbery medals. Some of the best are Amos & Boris, Doctor De Soto, and The Amazing Bone .