The Folkstories of Children, by Brian Sutton Smith

I stumbled upon this book at the Union Project cafe, and luckily was allowed to take it home with me. In this book Sutton Smith (a Kiwi, Emily!, so feel free to read these stories in a New Zealand accent) collects the stories that various children tell, from two to ten years of age. He also attempts to analyze them. They are uniformly delightful.

Examples:

"One day there was a monster creeping at the people
and stopped itself
and shoe stepped on it
and the end" - Alice, 2

"Once upon a time a tree lived in the forest. He liked the birds and sparrows and the other trees and the flowers and the nice cool grass below him.

But he'd rather have someone to talk to. He thought about this for a few days and thought he shouldn't be a baby about it, and soon closed his sleepy eyes and soon was fast asleep.

In the morning he said, 'Birdy, birdy, I want to play with you.' 'Oh no, how could a little bird like me play with a big and ugly tree like you.'

'I am not so ugly. I'll say you, you dumbell birdy, I'll say you might as well skate and live by yourself 'cause you're seven weeks old now.

One day a man came with a big saw and sawed the poor lonely tree up for firewood. The end." - Deirdre, 6