When I was three years old, I started reading a Little Golden Book called “The Pokey Little Puppy.”  While I have no memory of this, my mother recalls the book (and the particulars of how fluently I was able to read it back to her) as one of the touchstones of my childhood. I would read it to anyone who listened—friends, family members, people on trains and buses—and I would read every single word. She tells me how she now shops every bookstore for a copy for my son Willard, in the hopes that he will learn to read the same way I did.

I have a sincere belief that reading to a child at an early age, even starting before that child is born (yes, reading aloud at a pregnant woman’s stomach) can help with their mental development. Just ask my wife, Claire. I was parked outside her uterus, book in hand, day in and day out, during her pregnancy.

Research backs me up. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, reading aloud to children from birth helps their overall development. And the National Children’s Reading Foundation recommends reading to your child at least 20 minutes a day to build family bonds, language skills, and a solid reading foundation that will make school (and life) easier later.

If you’ve exhausted your board book supply (those small, square-shaped books with the thick pages), try taking some inspiration from this list of childhood favorites, for the very youngest reader to the older, somewhat more sophisticated tykes. If you ever have any concern about what your child is reading, read it yourself first.

For the youngest reader
Another of the gold standards for children’s reading material arguably has to be “Goodnight Moon,” by Margaret Wise Brown, published in 1947. I never enjoyed this book as a child, which is where the “arguably” comes in. “Great,” I thought, “Let’s say ‘goodnight’ to some more stuff. And then the book is done?” It does, however, leave an impression on Willard.

For the visual thinker
One of my favorite books to read to Willard is “The Wreck of The Zephyr,” a lesser-known title by Chris Van Allsburg. The narrator is a man with a curious limp, telling of flying sailboats and a magical town where all the boats take to the air. Van Allsburg, as he has done with all his titles (including “Jumanji,” “The Polar Express” and “The Garden of Abdul Gasazi”), illustrates the book with brilliantly colored and structured pictures of boats flying through the night sky, rivers and oceans that seem to ripple on the page, and breezy coastlines where you can easily imagine the sound of accompanying seagulls. I don’t want to give away the rest of the book, but as a child I would borrow the title from the library and stare at those pictures for days on end.

For the budding environmentalist
Something I plan on reading to Willard soon is the ecological disaster tale “The Lorax” by Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to anyone who has ever heard of a library as Dr. Seuss. The Lorax made me sad, even as a child, with the somewhat negative tone throughout the book as a warning to not mess with the Earth. So, why not follow it up with another Seuss title, “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?” Take THAT, depressing-save-the-trees-story! Almost anything by Dr. Seuss is fantastic, as they are not only beautifully illustrated stories, but lyric pieces that bounce around the page like a well-written song.

For the young philosopher
Within the fantasy worlds and gigantic traveling food items of Roald Dahl’s “James And The Giant Peach” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” lies a very cynical look at some adults as bitter, angry people. Those who prevail in his works are those grown-ups and children who look for a simple happiness, a golden ticket to something better than being told what not to do or how not to act. This isn’t to say that Dahl promoted bad behavior in children; badly behaved kids meet their fates as fairly and squarely as adults. As a life lesson, it’s something I plan on teaching Willard when he is old enough to understand, whether I read Dahl to him or not.

For the mature fantasy fan
J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is one of the best-written stories in the history of stories—so good that it became one of the books I read to Claire’s stomach. But it brings up thoughts on age-appropriateness: how early should you read a story involving a murderous thieving monster like Gollum? And when do you transition your child to the thoroughness of  “The Lord of The Rings” series and the nearly Biblical “The Silmarillion”? It depends on the maturity of the child. When I was seven, I read “The Hobbit.” When I tried to read “Lord of the Rings” at the same age, I realized I was in over my head. Modern readers have the advantage of the Peter Jackson film series to fall back on. (Nerd alert: Make sure you explain to your child that they will need to read the books at SOME point to get the full grasp of Tolkien’s world.)

Reading a book is one of the best ways a father can bond with his child. When children are too young to understand, they will still be comforted by the sound of a father’s voice. I could read a Family Dollar sales flyer to my son and he would be as calm as a creek in the winter.

Instead, I’d rather read him a really great story, because maybe—and I can’t prove it—he DOES understand.