Geeky Reading for the Pre-School Set

Nerd World blogger and unofficial GeekDad Lev Grossman recently posted about British children’s author and "one-woman fiction machine" Enid Blyton. Specifically, Lev mentions her work The Magic Faraway Tree as being the perfect fantasy lit primer for his four-year-old daughter. For those of you who, like me, are unfamiliar with the piece, Lev sums it up thusly:

Jo, Fanny, Bessie and their cousin Dick (who’s visiting) live near an Enchanted Forest, wherein grows the Magic Faraway Tree. Various magical creatures live in the tree, including a fairy named Silky and a guy named Moonface — he has a big round face — and a dude named the Saucepan Man, who has kettles and saucepans hanging all over him.

But the main event is that at the top of the Magic Faraway there’s a ladder, and every day or so a new magical land rotates into place at the top of the ladder, so every time you go up there it’s different. The Land of Topsy-Turvy, the Land of Spells, the Land of Dreams … Moonface seems to have some kind of schedule, so he tends to know what’s going to be there.

As I too have a four-year-old with which to spend ample reading time, my curiosity is now officially piqued regarding Blyton, but it occurs to me that the GeekDad readers might also have some similar book recommendations. Are there any other fantasy, sci-fi or otherwise nerd-tastic selections that are geared more toward shared reading with younger geeklings? What books did you use to introduce your pre-schoolers to fantastic lands and magical worlds?

Via Nerd World