Children's Books in a Montessori Classroom

Maria Montessori took a view of children's literature that was was very different from most others' of her day and ours. She thought that it was best to avoid giving books to young children that had magic or other fantastical elements in the stories. She thought that children below a certain age would be confused about what things in the stories were real or not. She thought is was disrespectful to children to not provide them with an accurate portrayal of the world when they were still building there understanding of how the world worked.
Another useful criteria for selecting children's books comes from the 19th century British educator Charlotte Mason. She advised against books that used baby-talk, or dumbed-down stories, or that insulted the intelligence of the reader in any other ways. She referred to these books as "twaddle."
Please feel free to add books to the lists:

Circle-Time Read Aloud

These are well-written, well-illustrated books that are either realistic fiction, historical fiction, non-fiction or biographies.

Title	Author	Illustrator	Word Count	Topic
Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing	Barrett, Judi	Barrett, Ronald
Will I Have a Friend?	Cohen, Miriam	Hoban, Lillian	484	starting school
The Nutcracker Doll	DePalma, Mary Newell	DePalma, Mary Newell	473	being in a ballet
Ox-Cart Man	Hall, Donald	Cooney, Barbara	654	frontier living
A House is a House for Me	Hoberman, Mary Ann	Fraser, Betty	732	homes
Weeds Find a Way	Jenson-Elliott, Cindy	Fisher, Carolyn		weeds
Just Say Boo!	Hood, Susan	Henry, Jed		Halloween
The Quilt Story	Johnston, Tony	dePaola, Tomie	567	a family heirloom quilt
How Big Were Dinosaurs?	Judge, Lita	Judge, Lita		dinosaurs
The Colors of Us	Katz, Karen	Katz, Karen	423	different skin colors
The Snowy Day	Keats, Ezra Jack	Keats, Ezra Jack	316	playing in the snow
The Philharmonic Gets Dressed	Kuskin, Karla	Simont, Marc		orchestra
Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons	Levine, Sara	Spookytooth, T.S.		vertebrates
Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story	Peters, Lisa Westberg	Stringer, Lauren		evolution
I Love My Hair	Tarpley, Natasha Anastasia	Lewis, E.B.	469
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day	Viorst, Judith	Cruz, Ray	741	a bad day
Susan B. Anthony	Wallner, Alexandra	Wallner, Alexandra	1,610	biography, women's rights
A Chair for My Mother	Williams, Vera B.		1,068
The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps	Winter, Jeanette	Winter, Jeanette		biography, chimpanzees

Chapter Books

These are longer well-written books that are either realistic fiction, historical fiction, non-fiction or biographies. They would need to be read over the course of several days.

Title	Author	Illustrator	Word Count	Topic
Linnea in Monet's Garden	Bjork, Christina	Anderson, Lena	5,871
A Little Princess	Burnett, Frances Hodgson		66,181
Sarah, Plain and Tall	MacLachlan, Patricia		8,377
Little House on the Prairie	Wilder, Laura Ingalls		52,038