When my son Ben was born 34 years ago in 1981, Alasdair MacIntyre gave him a classic in moral psychology and political philosophy, *Where the Wild Things Are*. Ben is now a rock n roll magician but he did major in philosophy. http://www.metalsucks.net/2014/10/29/video-premiere-black-map-im-just-driver/

The story “Cookies” from Arnold Lobel’s was featured in an Analysis paper by Smith and Kennett called “Frog and Toad Lose Control” (as the story is about how to deal with akrasia re cookies). But the Frog and Toad books generally are full of philosophically interesting stories (e.g. “Tomorrow,” from Days with Frog and Toad, concerns temporal neutrality, and “The Surprise,” from Frog and Toad All Year, concerns whether happiness is entirely ‘in the head.’ I spend way too much time thinking about Frog and Toad.

Oh and Elfrida Vipont & Raymond Briggs: The Elephant and the Bad Baby!

Another one: Dr Seuss, ‘The Sneetches‘. Money pumps, cyclic preferences, anti-discrimination.

Another Arnold Lobel fan here! Not just Frog and Toad books but also:
– Owl at Home (amusing anthropomorphism extends to other entities like Winter and the Moon, Strange Bumps are in the bed, Owl has difficulty being in two places at the same time)
– Mouse Soup (Two Large Stones experience interesting differences in perspective)
– Grasshopper on the Road (he encounters unusual characters with different values)

Before one of my daughters was old enough to read it on her own, I read her some of the Ever After High series by Shannon Hale and was pleasantly surprised by how amusing the book is and how readily it gave rise to philosophical conversations with my child about determinism, the nature of time, and reality vs. illusion. One character is also able to “hear” the Narrator, which turns out to be an interesting literary device and provokes questions in the listener about how that’s possible and how it should be affecting the story.

The Amelia Bedelia books are full of absolutely horrid puns but also raise some interesting philosophical questions about why things mean what they do and how a “misunderstanding” might reveal some unexpected truth. Perhaps more in the “political philosophy” vein is Click Clack Moo, a tale of negotiation or perhaps extortion. For very young children, The Monster at the End of this Book featuring Grover from Sesame Street is fairly hilarious.

Dr. Seuss: Horton Hatches the Egg (https://www.amazon.com/Horton-Hatches-Egg-Classic-Seuss-ebook/dp/B00ESF28SK) — for the young Kantian (“I meant what I said, and a said what I meant, an elephant’s faithful, 100 percent”).

We’re also great William Steig and Arnold Lobel fans (I find all their books philosophically interesting in some way). ‘Dog Biscuit‘ by Helen Cooper is lots of fun too, with a girl fearing she has turned into a dog after eating a dog biscuit.
A recent discovery of ours at home is the Wonder Ponder series of Visual Philosophy for Children, by Ellen Duthie and Daniela Martagón. ‘Cruelty Bites’, ‘I, Person’, ‘Whatever You Want’ and ‘Pinch Me!’ (http://www.wonderponderonline.com/shop/), are fantastic and fun invitations to explore cruelty, identity, freedom, and reality, imagination and dreaming. Every time you open one of them you spot something new.

The classics, including Winnie-the-Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte’s Web, Search for Delicious. I use these in my Philosophy and Children’s Literature class.