My boys like to read. A LOT. I will spend several hours a day reading with one or another or both boys and more often than not they take a liking to certain books and will keep bringing the same ones over to read. So I thought I would make a list of our current 10 favourite reads, sometimes they both like the same book and sometimes different ones, but all of these books have been read by both my 1 and 3 year old within the last few weeks. Apologies if these books may look a little used, you can tell they’ve been well loved when they are worn!
Sharing A Shell by Julia Donaldson
We absolutely love Julia Donaldson books, as do most other young children. Clearly the catchy rhyming words are so well written that it captivates both children and adults, as I wouldn’t have read them so often if I didn’t like them!
Sharing a Shell is about a crab, an anemone and a bristle worm, who find themselves sharing a shell together until it becomes too small and then they need to search for another home. We have the glittery version, which is also great for texture, my 1 year old loves to touch it. The illustrations are bright and clear, showing several different types of sea creatures in the water. This is a great read for young kids before a trip to the beach and looking in rock pools for sea creatures!
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury
This book is probably meant for 0-2 year olds, but my 3 year old is happy to read it with us and knows the words by heart, which isn’t too difficult. The wording is pretty simple, two babies on each page from different backgrounds, but they both have ten little fingers and ten little toes. The illustrations are really lovely with very sweet looking babies playing on the pages, showing their fingers and toes.
Postman Bear by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Yes, another Julia Donaldson (there are several on this list, unsurprisingly!). This is my 1 year old’s favourite book at the moment. A short and simple story about a bear posting party invitations to 3 of his friends, they all open their invites and go to his birthday tea. There is a little lift-the-flap on every page, which can be tricky for smaller fingers to open as they are set into the page, but this actually helps them from being ripped off (as other lift the flap books have been!). A sweet story with woodland scenes and lift the flaps. It’s an easy to read book, that even adults won’t mind reading over and over.
The Usborne Big Book of Trains
This isn’t a story book as the rest of the books in this list are, but my 3 year old has loved trains since before he could speak! He has now started reading non-fiction books about trains as well. This particular book describes many famous trains from around the world; steam, diesel and others. There are fold-out pages to show larger pictures of different types. Each train pictured has several paragraphs describing important features of the train. O (and us) now know that the oldest steam train is the Fairy Queen, the Rocky Mountaineer has a domed roof so that passengers can see the scenery and the Maglev uses special magnetic technology so that it hovers above the track. If you have a train mad child from around 2.5 years old onward, this would be an excellent book for them.
Where is Baby’s Belly Button by Karen Katz
This is another book for younger toddlers, but older ones are happy to join in too. On each page is a question e.g. Where are baby’s hands? and then there is a flap to lift up where you can see what you’re looking for. This is great for little ones to understand the under and behind concept and the bright bold pictures are great to look at. A simple book, best for 0-2 years old.
Zog by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Another great book by Julia Donaldson and the usual brilliant pictures by Axel Scheffler. The story is about a young dragon learning to do all the things dragons do, like breathing fire and flying. Each year he meets the same girl who helps him and when he needs to capture a princess she tells him she’s a princess and he can take her. The princess tends to the dragons when they are hurt and in the end decides to be a doctor and not a princess. A great story, fantastic rhyming as usual and captivates both my 1 and 3 year old.
Five Little Ducklings by Marcin Piwowarski and Sally Hopgood
This is a fairly cheap looking book, but my 1 year old loves it. There are 5 little plastic ducks and as each page turns there is one duck less, scared off by frogs or lost in the reeds. On the last page all five ducklings are reunited with their parent. Annoyingly it says that the other ducklings appeared on their mummy’s back, but the picture is of a male Mallard duck, so we just change the story to daddy duck instead! A good book if bought cheaply, but not my favourite for quality.
Noisy Poems by Jill Bennett and Nick Sharrat
This is a collection of poems that I had as a child and my parent’s bought O this copy of the book when I was looking for a specific poem in it (about trains of course!). We’ve had this book since before O was 2 and he loved it. There are poems about food, weather, trains and nonsense to name a few. My favourite is Ning Nang Nong, a nonsense poem about silly noises things make in made up places. This book is a great introduction to poems for children 2 years until Tweens.
Usborne Peep Inside Night Time by Anna Milbourne and Illustrated by Simona Dimitri
This is a new book of ours. The illustrations are gorgeous, I would buy it for those alone! Each page has flaps and holes and tells of different things happening in the night, from bakers baking bread to owls and foxes prowling at night. It’s an excellent book to discuss nocturnal and diurnal animals. The book itself is fairly hard wearing, but the flaps are quite thin card and can be easily ripped.
Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler
The last book in this list is another Julia Donaldson book. Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book is about a little boy called Charlie Cook reading his favourite book, the next page tells the story of his favourite book (a story about a pirate) and the pirate in Charlie’s favourite book finds a book too, and in each of the following pages the character of each book finds another book to read until it comes back to Charlie again. A bit of a complicated storyline to explain, but nevertheless it’s a good read for both my boys. The rhyming is of course brilliant and keeps them entertained throughout.
Do you recognise any of the books in this list or have any others that you would recommend for this age group?
J
Laura says
Great selection…anything my Julia Donaldson is always a hit in our house (especially with me, her books are so fun to read!) We also love Giraffes can’t Dance, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and Hairy McClary from Donaldson’s Dairy x
Jenny Eaves says
That’s why they’re so great isn’t it? If we’re happy reading them then the kids love them too! I love Giraffes Can’t Dance, haven’t had it downstairs for a while, must go find that one! The bear hunt has been well read too, I know it off by heart now. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂 x
The Reading Residence says
Lovely selection, and yes, we have several of them. Postman bear has long been a favourite of my son’s, and we have the other Acorn Wood books, too. He also loves the Pip and Posy and the Bizzy Bear books, and at the moment, he’s loving the Lulu books 🙂 #LetKidsBeKids
Tickle Fingers says
Great list. Don’t know what we would have done in our house without Julia Donaldson! #ToddlerApprovedTuesday. Over from http://www.cookwithtoddlers.com
Jenny Eaves says
Yes, we have the other Acorn books too, all well loved! Haven’t seen the Pip and Posy books or Bizzy bear, will have to check those out! Thanks! 🙂 x
Jenny Eaves says
Love Julia Donaldson book so much, they are so easy to read and I really don’t mind reading them over and over! 🙂 xx
Eimear says
Great selection – Julia Donalsdon is a massive hit with my toddler, such nice clever books! #twinklytuesday
Terrie says
Great list, we love reading here too. My favourite is Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson – but E tends to like the more tactile books. Pinning for next time I’m book shopping!
Jenny Eaves says
We often have that problem, I find a great book I love but they go for something else! Tactile books are great thought too. We have a Room on the Broom with sounds, which is also great! 🙂 x
Let kids be kids says
We love Julia Donaldson books too and that noisy poem looks good. Great that your boys love books.
Thanks for sharing #LetKidsBeKids
Jenny Eaves says
Thanks! 🙂 x
Emma Edwards (Adventures of Adam) says
We love Zog too!
Sarah Doyle - let them be small says
I love Zog – one of my son’s fave books.
x
#triedtested
Lukeosaurus And Me says
Great list, I love how often Julia Donaldson pops up – it’s the same in our house. I really like Where Is Baby’s Belly Button. Luke would love that! Ray xx @ lukeosaurusandme.blogspot.co.uk #toddleapprovedtuesday
Caro | The Twinkles Momma says
What a great list!! And — surprisingly — we haven’t got any of these!!! We do have a version of Postman Bear, called Hide and Seek Pig, which the Twinkles absolutely LOVE! I’m going to buy a couple of these — it’s always nice to get recommendations from other mums! Thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday x
Caro | http://www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk
Sabrina (themummystylist.com) says
Haha my boy only reads 2 of his books over and over – they are non-fiction and they are about vehicles, he won’t go to bed until he’s named all of them! I think he would love that Osborne train book, must try it out. Thank you! #twinklytuesday
Sabrina x
Jenny Eaves says
We bought Hide and Seek Pig the other day, but it’s hidden away for another day atm. Looking forward to reading it with them! Thank you!
Jenny Eaves says
Hee hee! That’s cute! Well he will like the train one then if he’s into no-fiction and trains! 🙂 x
Jenny Eaves says
Yay! It’s a new one to us, but it’s really good! 🙂 x
Jenny Eaves says
It’s a lovely book isn’t it! 🙂 x
Jenny Eaves says
I know, she has written so many books, I hadn’t even realised that we read so many of hers until
I made this list! :)x
Louise says
That’s a lovely selection of books – love Julia Donaldson books, they’re a big hit with my little ones too – my eldest particularly likes ‘One Mole Digging A Hole’. I’d find the picture of a male duck being described as mummy duck a little irritating too and would have to change it! We have a couple of similar books with plastic fish and ladybirds and my little ones love them.
Jenny Eaves says
I need to check out One Mole Digging a Hole, my 3 yo loves moles at the moment! It’s easy to change words when they’re wee and can’t read, becomes so much more difficult when they actually can read the words too and you need to tell them the book is wrong!! 🙂 x
Hannah Mums' Days says
Your boys love a bit of Julia huh?! Same here – I LOVE What the Lady Bird Hear (we even have the audio book which has an amazing song too). I also love the Usbourn Peep Inside books, we’ve a few of them but this night-time one looks really special. Finally I’m now going to have to go grab a copy of that Train Book, Reuben will be all over that!
Thanks so much for linking up to #TheList 🙂 hxxx
Jenny Eaves says
I love What the Ladybird Heard too! Great story! Hope you enjoy getting some new books to read, we love book shopping! 🙂 xx
becky says
Great List Jenny! We love Julia Donaldson here too, and the noisy poem book looks great i think we will add that to our WANTED list!
Thanks for joining in with #ToddlerApprovedTuesday hope to see you next week. Ohh also popping by from #TheList
Jenny Eaves says
Thanks Becky! I loooove that Noisy Poem book, I read it loads when I was a kid and it’s a good intro to poems. 🙂 xx
Leandra says
Great book recommendations! We love books and are always on the lookout for new suggestions.
Thanks so much for linking to #toddlerapprovedtuesday x
Jenny Eaves says
Thanks! Let me know if you try them! 🙂 x