I love buying books because, like plants, they don’t “count” as spending money—they are simply life’s necessities. This is especially true of children’s books. Every child needs unfailing friends, positive values for living a good life, and some small bulwark against the ever-increasing barrage of technology. In my years of buying books for the grandchildren, I’ve found some new favorites to add to the classic choices. I like humor, and clever nonsense, and talking animals, but to me the best children’s books have as their heroes “real” people who discover again the timeless truth that happiness lies in unselfish love and generosity to others. The following books meet these criteria and one more: their words and pictures are so compelling that I always read on to the end, even when my audience has fallen asleep or wriggled off my lap.

Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

This is a book for the Christmas season and beyond. Wealthy Mr. Willowby purchases a Christmas tree that is too tall, even for his enormous room. He asks his butler, Baxter, to chop off the top, “though it seemed quite a waste.” Baxter puts the tree top on a silver tray and presents it to Miss Adelaide, Mr. Willowby’s upstairs maid. She, finding it too big for her modest house, snips off the top and sets it outside, where it is found by Timm, the gardener. The Timms do not need it all, and so the tree recycles on to Barnaby Bear, Frisky Fox and Benjamin Rabbit. Finally, the tiny tip goes to Mistletoe mouse who thinks it is “grand to have a tree exactly like Mr. Willowby.” Whimsical illustrations complement the text.

Brave Irene by William Steig

Plucky young Irene ventures out in a howling snowstorm to deliver a handmade ball gown to a duchess. Irene’s mother has made the pretty dress, but is too sick to deliver it. Unable to bear her mother’s distress and the thought of a disappointed duchess, Irene packs the gown into a large flat box and sets forth into the night. She tucks her face against the wind and refuses to turn back even when the “ill-tempered wind ripped the box open [and] the ball gown flounced out and went waltzing through the powdered air.” Irene forges on with determination and ingenuity. Steig’s poetic text is accompanied by simple, appealing illustrations. It’s hard not to love Irene, seeing her face squinting into the wind and snow, full of bravery and unselfishness.

The Quiltmaker’s Journey and The Quiltmaker’s Gift by Jeff Brumbeau, pictures by Gail de Marcken

The illustrations in these books are amazing! Each page is a rich visual experience, a “mini-quilt” in itself. The text panel is surrounded by pictures, each rich in color, detail, and texture. The images are so vivid that you feel you can reach out and touch the fabric, the cobweb, the bear’s fur, the icy waves. And on every page is a beautiful quilt square, each a different pattern. The Quiltmaker’s Journey features a young girl who grows up wealthy and pampered in an isolated town. For her, every meal is a feast, “with delectables piled high on a table so long that waiters need bicycles to get from one end to the other.” And yet her heart feels empty. Defying the elders of the town, she escapes and learns a terrible truth about what lies beyond her own sheltered life. She returns to share the truth she has discovered. When the elders refuse to listen to her, she makes a grave decision. She will leave the town, even though, as they say, “If you go, know this: You shall lose all that you own and never be allowed to return.” In the wide world, she journeys to discover what she can do to help people in need. The message of the text is given new life by its brave, compassionate heroine. In The Quiltmaker’s Gift, a greedy king loves nothing better than to receive presents. His castle teems with “things that shimmered and glittered and glowed.” But he is not happy. One day he hears of an old quiltmaker who lives in the mountains and gives her quilts only to the poor. The king is obsessed with getting a quilt, believing it may be the one thing that will make him happy. In the end, he learns that true happiness lies not in getting, but in giving something away.

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, illustrated by Mary Azarian

This book is based on the life of a real person, Wilson Bentley, born in Vermont in 1865. Throughout the story are sidebars of factual information that complement the narrative. As a boy, Wilson is acutely aware of the wonders of nature and particularly fascinated by snow. He wants to find a way to save snowflakes so others can see the “great beauty in a tiny crystal.” He tries drawing them, but they melt under his microscope before he can capture the image. As a teenager, Wilson’s parents spend their savings to buy a camera for him. Over the years he conducts scientific experiments and perseveres to find a way to photograph snowflakes. A collection of snow photos is his “gift to the world.” The text is illustrated by woodcuts, beautiful in their clarity and simplicity. And of course, snowflakes fall on almost every page.

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Anything by Barbara Cooney is wonderful, both in story and pictures. In this book, young Alice tells her artist grandfather that she wants to visit faraway places and when she grows old, to live beside the sea, as he does. He tells her there is one other thing: she must do something to make the world more beautiful. When she grows up, Miss Rumphius does indeed travel the world, and comes home to settle down in a small house by the sea. Remembering her grandfather’s words, she finds a way to fulfill his wish for her. As an old woman Miss Rumphius passes the legacy to her young niece: “You must do something to make the world more beautiful.”

At this holiday season, I’ll persist in buying books for my older grandchildren, too, despite the fact that not a single book appears on any of their “lists.” I’m just way too suspicious of anything called “a hot chocolate MP3.”