Recommend Your Toddler’s Favorite Book Please!
March 30th, 2010 by ariana
Jasper is a bit of a book connoisseur, which is to say that at any given time he will only consent to me reading about half of his book collection. The other half he pushes away and says no to. I know toddlers love repetition, but mommy needs a little variety so I’m in the market for a few great new bedtime books! There’s only so many times I can read “Quiet Loud” or “Mr. Brown Can Moo” before I lose my mind.
I plan on ordering Corduroy (even though it chokes me up!) because Jasper is so in love with bears, but other than that I need some suggestions, what are your toddler’s favorite books right now?
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Sorry I’m so late on this; I’ve been enjoying my spring break vacation with Finn and haven’t been on the computer much! Great post, though…. I’m looking forward to checking out some of the suggestions!
I wanted to add a few: any books featuring illustrator Allison Jay are beautiful! Finn is so into them right now, particularly LISTEN, LISTEN, PICTURE THIS, and her ABC book. He loves to point out and talk about all of the details, and I think it’s really helped skyrocket his vocabulary. I LOVE reading these books with him; we always notice some detail we didn’t see before.
My two year old loves all of the Boynton books (Moo Baa La-La-La is a favorite) and REALLY loves “Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You?”
Some other faves right now:
Ten Apples Up on Top
http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Apples-Top-Beginner-Books/dp/0394800192/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270231029&sr=8-1
Hug
http://www.amazon.com/Hug-Jez-Alborough/dp/0763645109/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270231053&sr=1-1
Silly Sally
http://www.amazon.com/Silly-Sally-Lap-Sized-Board-Book/dp/0152059024/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270231082&sr=1-1
Mouse Paint (I love Mouse Paint!)
http://www.amazon.com/Mouse-Paint-Ellen-Stoll-Walsh/dp/0152001182/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270231150&sr=1-1
And ANY of the McDuff Stories. Sometimes some of the wording in the McDuff stories is awkward and redundant:
“…McDuff stopped eating. ‘McDuff has stopped eating!’exclaimed Lucy.”
and the stories themselves are always the same (McDuff gets in trouble, crisis averted, everyone eats an insane amount of food – described in ridiculous detail – to celebrate)
but the illustrations are gorgeous, so I don’t really mind. The stories are set in the late 20s/early 30s and illustrations of the Art Deco interiors and period clothes and shoes are truly fabulous!
http://www.amazon.com/McDuff-Moves-design-Rosemary-Wells/dp/0786856777/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270231318&sr=1-1
We love the Karma Wilson books, Bear Snores On and all the others in the Bear series….enjoy!
OK, so you HAVE to check these out–they were DD’s AND my favorites. The first two have repetetiveness that ISN’T boring for mommies–LOL! The second might be a little older, but it’s WONDERFUL and will get you over the $25 free shipping at Amazon! ;-)
One of Each
Muncha, Muncha, Muncha
The Best Pet of All
My son (right around Jasper’s age) is loving:
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?
Tugga Tugga Tugboat
Tip Tip Dig Dig
Toot Toot Beep Beep
Off the top of my head, few of James’ current favorites are…
**Your Kind of Mommy by Marjorie Blain Parker
**If You Give a Moose a Muffin (over-and-over-and-over…)
At bedtime:
**Goodnight Moon (perennial favorite)
Time For Bed by Mem Fox
The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton
Lullaby Moon by Rosie Reeve
But he’s really such a book lover… there are SO many he loves that I’m sure I’m not thinking of right now. ** These are the ones he will specifically ask for.
I’m taking notes on all the book recommendations, too! Our Lil H is 20 months old and her current favs are:
“Horray for Fish” by Lucy Cousins
“Adventures of Wonderbaby: From A to Z” by Oliver Chin
“I’m Just a Crab” by Charles Reasoner
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Arthur series (the monkey not the ardvark (ie. Arthur and his Honey Bear etc.)
Frances series (a little hedgehog…ie. Frances and the Tea Set etc.)
There is also a 1,2,3, version of the Amelia Bedelia series…not sure if it is toddler appropriate
Don’t you just wish you could get inside their minds? Why they suddenly go off books for no apparent reason….I’d love to know what they’re thinking!
Some bear books that he might like:
Just Teddy
Prince Bear and Pauper Bear
(http://www.mustardseedbook.com/thebooks.html)
And others that we’ve enjoyed reading:
Just Like Me (http://www.amazon.com/Just-Like-Me-Adam-Relf/dp/1402752458/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270027152&sr=1-9)
Illustrated Fairy Tales (http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Fairy-Tales-Stories/dp/079451717X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270027368&sr=1-1)
And a bunch that I’ve listed at: http://makingmum.blogspot.com/search/label/Books%20for%20the%20brain
Even as an adult I love all the books by Mercer Meyer & I second the suggestion for “Dinosaur Roar” & the David Shannon books {“A Duck on a Bike” or “David Goes to School”}. And the classic “Where the Wild Things Are.” My son loves hearing all of these stories. An easy one for them to learn to read/memorize is “A Box Can Be Many Things.” I’m not sure of the author off the top of my head though. Happy reading :)
Oh… my 16 month old LOVES books. He will just sit there and “read” on his own. He likes the books that have photos of fruit, farm animals… etc.
Some of his favorite stories are:
1.The Big Red Barn (he loves farm animals… especially anything with sheep since he can say “baa”) *Probably his top favorite right now.
2. Dimity Duck
3. BIG, Little
4. Raindrop, Plop
5. I Love You Through and Through
6. Goodnight Moon
7. Who is coming to Our House (Technically a Christmas story… has lots of animals)
8. The Belly Button Book
9. Corduroy’s Day (A Counting Book)
10. Little Gorilla
11. Over in the Meadow
My daughter loves Can You Cuddle Like a Koala by John Butler. It’s short, so I usually have to read it twice.
My daughter is 19 months old and LOVES books. I’m also a teacher so the combination has resulted in a lot of books. Some of our favorites are:
1. Llama Llama Red Pajama (There are also other Llama, Llama books)
2. Over in the Meadow (good for before bed)
3. Panda Whispers (also another great bedtime book)
I could go on forever but these are our top three. Hope you find some new books to read!
Our 18-month-old hardly allows us to read her stories – she just wants to keep turning the pages. However, we really like “Not a Stick,” “Little Pea” and “Little Owl.”
JB, might be worth a try! Plus, he can always grow into them :)
Would he sit through Virgina Burton’s books about Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel? Or The Little House? Because they both have great pictures of all sorts of “things that go”–a favorite, with toddlers, usually, plus they are beautifully written classics.
jbhat
Some favorites:
-Pat the Bunny
-Very Hungry Caterpillar
-Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
-Teddy Bear Picnic (which is also a song)
-Going on a Bear Hunt
-Chicken Soup With Rice
-Go Dog Go
Oh – and he loves the books by Charles Fudge (great pictures..). I like “I Know a Rhino” but his favorite is “This is the Way”: http://www.amazon.com/This-Way-Charles-Fuge/dp/1402760191/ref=cm_lmf_tit_21_rsrsrs1
My toddler LOVES:
Barnyard Dance (Boynton)
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb (Perkins)
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo (Lewis)
Big Red Barn (M. Brown) — current FAVORITE
Dear Zoo (Campbell)
Dinosaur Roar (Stickland)
And pretty much all Elmo books (I’m not such a big fan of those – but he loves them) – the favorite of that bunch is Elmo’s Big Lift and Look Book
I love reading everyone’s responses..!
My boys loved “No, David” and other David books (by David Shannon)…he is naughty and hilarious!
I forgot, the new fav is “The Monster at the End of This Book” which I love reading to him adding lots of drama and suspense:)
My 20 mth old Phoenix loves….
1.I love you through and through
2.Once upon a Potty
@Ali, Jasper LOVES chicka Chicka boom boom too – which is so weird because its about letters, but he loves the “oh NO!” part before they fall out of the tree :)
Sandra Boynton for sure…
I am a book junkie and just love getting new books for my toddler. Here is a list of our FAVORITES–I mean, the ones that we go to over and over and over. (Can you have 13 favorites??) I may just have to do a blog post on our updated favorite books.
1. Charlie Parker Played Be Bop
2. Llama Llama Red Pajama
3. Knuffle Bunny (MY favorite)
4. To Market, To Market
5. Hello Baby! (Mem Fox)
6. Richard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever!
7. Freight Train and The Very Hungry Caterpillar (still)
8. Quiet LOUD
9. I met a moose in Maine one day
10. Creature ABC
11. Dr Seuss’s ABC
12. Naughty Little Monkeys
13. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
I could go on and on…
Lola loves Good Morning Good Night by by Teresa Imperato, Melanie Mitchell. I think she likes it so much because she gets to tuck in the little girl at the end and it is a touch and feel book. She also likes the giving tree but she gets concerned because it chokes me up.
My 21 month old loves:
How do Dinasours say goodnight.
The Going to Bed Book (Boynton)
I love you through and through (it taught him his body parts)
Goodnight Gorilla
Mama Mama/Papa Papa (a book where animals care for their babies)
And he likes to look at an ABC book I made him using shutterfly. It doesn’t rhyme but there are pictures of him and his favorite things on every single page so it is hard to beat.
My daughter loves this book. We bought it at B&N for $2 in the bargain book section. It has flaps that open on many of the pages, but she really loves the rainbow pages that serve as the cover and closing pages for the books.
http://www.amazon.com/Little-White-Fish-Counts-11/dp/B00236HWK0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269968933&sr=8-1
How long should they be? Do you prefer board books?
I personally love the “that’s not my” series from Usborne touchy feely books. Not necessarily nighttime, but they are awesome: http://tinyurl.com/ykhsf9d
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle: http://tinyurl.com/ycgehrg
She also loves Counting Kisses by Karen Katz: http://tinyurl.com/y9pkmag
We also have several Little Critter stories that we alternate, by Mercer Mayer: http://tinyurl.com/yext23m
I haven’t read her this one yet, but I want to add it to the list because I think it looks cool. :) Grumpy Bird: http://tinyurl.com/yam2m86
These are our top three (I have a 19 mo old):
1. I love you through and through
2. Love is a Handful of Honey
3. A Night Night Prayer
Great rhythm and good vocabulary level for kids this age. I even love them!
Have you tried any of the Maisy the Mouse books by Lucy Cousins? They’re very focused on what toddlers are doing which is fun. My son actually takes them to bed every night. The videos are cute too.
forgot a few:
The Bellybutton Book and the other farm one by Sandra Boyton were huge hits for a while!
Tails
http://www.amazon.com/Tails-Matthew-Van-Fleet/dp/0152167730
That’s Not My Plane (there’s a whole series of these books)
http://www.amazon.com/Thats-Not-Plane-Touchy-Feely-Books/dp/0794524117
Goodnight Gorilla
Brown Bear,Brown Bear
Goodnight Moon
The books that we read EVERY SINGLE NIGHT are:
“Moo Baa Lalala” by Sandra Boyton
“The Going to Bed Book” by Sandra Boyton
“Brown Bear Brown Bear”
“Good-Night Moon”
Liv is just about 18 months.
Sara, he has bth of those! He likes the foot book and is so so on Moo Baa Lala which I like because it’s so short :)
“Moo Baa Lalala” by Sandra Boyton and
“The Foot Book” by Dr. Seuss are the boy’s current favs.
Great suggestions guys, keep ’em coming!
I should say he does have brown bear, but it’s one of those the he’s lately decided he doesn’t like anymore – DESPITE there being a bear on the cover ;)
Six months ago, they were loving this:
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo
http://www.amazon.com/Chugga-Chugga-Choo-Choo-Kevin-Lewis/dp/0786807601
These are huge, but they really love them:
Sesame Street Look and Find
http://www.amazon.com/First-Look-Find-Sesame-Street/dp/141271706X
Goodnight Gorilla was a HUGE hit for a long time:
http://www.amazon.com/Good-Night-Gorilla-Peggy-Rathmann/dp/0399230033
and Brown Bear, Brown Bear (pp posted)
To my delight, they’re getting into the “How do Dinosaurs…” series that I *love*:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dus-stripbooks-tree&field-keywords=how+do+dinosaurs&x=0&y=0
http://www.amazon.com/dp/039923392X/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=2942978221&ref=pd_sl_54xjijay2c_e
“you are my i love you”… and the christmas version – “you are my miracle”
liam wants the christmas one every night… (weird!)
i only cried the first 10 times or so!! it gets easier!
Ben loves books. He really loves all the Brown Bear, Brown Bear series. He loves anything that is a song- Miss Mary Mack, Skip to my Lou, Lady w/ the Alligator Purse. He also likes the Sandra Boyton books. Those are my fav I think. Good luck! I can’t wait to hear what others say as well!
Every night we have to read “God Bless Me”
Son also loves all the SPOT books
my son LOVES the book “Tails” – along with others by the same author- “Alphabet” and “Dog”… but Tails is by far the favorite!
My daughter loves Corduroy!!! It’s a classic. Her current fave is Tumble Bumble.