I've started working on an idea in my blog, that there is a positive canon of children's books.  This parallels the idea that Martin Seligman started, that there is a canon of literature -- somewhat akin to Harold Bloom's Western canon -- that embody and illustrate principles of positive psychology, such as character strengths and virtues, mindfulness, altruism, non-zero social relationships, deep engagement, resilience, optimism, high-quality connections, and so on.

I once thought about contributing to Seligman's positive canon -- helping to get it rolling.  But I'm more excited by the idea of collecting a similar list of children's books.  I've collected children's books every since I started reading, and I have a substantial collection now.  I also reread many of them -- when I need to be reminded to be brave or patient or persistent.  

Here's a link to the start of the thread on the Positive Children's Canon.  I'd love to get your nominations of books that had a big positive impact on you when you were growing up.