Hellobee

In my last book post, I shared some of my favorite board books. Today, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite books for the toddler set!

As I mentioned last time, I have a lot of favorite books, so it’s definitely hard to pare down the list to just a few. But, here’s a mix of tried and true (aka, Lil’ CB LOVES them!) favorites:

1. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a classic that is well loved for its fun, rhythmic language and the playful way it personifies the letters of the alphabet. And I love, love, LOVE the fact that it starts with lowercase letters (Sidenote: IMHO, I think lowercase letters should be taught before or at the same time as uppercase letters. And names should be taught to be written and read with an uppercase letter for the first letter and lowercase letters for the rest. I’ve found that it is much is easier to teach a child to write his name with upper and lowercase letters when he has no idea how to write his name than it is to unteach a child who writes his name in all capitals.) Lil’ CB loves this book and loves when all the letters fall down — something he was witnessing and doing with his blocks all the time. He learned many of his letters from reading this book and loves to sing the ABC song with the colorful alphabet on the end pages.

2. Cat the Cat — Who is That? It’s no secret that Mo Willems is my favorite author. If you don’t know his books, run to your local library and check them ALL out. I promise you will be laughing hysterically, right along with your LO! Anyway, Cat the Cat is his series for toddlers and young preschoolers and it’s age-appropriate and fun with a simple story line and eye-catching characters. I think our favorite one is What’s Your Sound, Hound the Hound?, but really all of the books in the series are fun and teach simple, sweet lessons to toddlers.

3. Bee-Bim-Bop! As a Korean-American, I can distinctly remember that it wasn’t until fourth grade when I read a book featuring an Asian girl as the protagonist. I was happily shocked to find out that people like me could be in books! Because of that experience, I think it’s really important to read books that feature characters of all different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. When this picture book came out, I was delighted to find out that it featured a Korean family and was directed toward toddlers and young preschoolers! The book features playful, rhyming words and has many moments that young children will be able to relate to — going to the market with Mama, trying to “help” cook and making a bit of a mess, etc. There’s also a recipe for bee-bim-bop (a Korean mixed rice dish) included in the back!

4. Whoever You Are — A Mem Fox favorite. This one isn’t so much fun as it is beautiful. The illustrations aren’t your typical young child illustrations…some might even argue that they’re a little creepy. But, the language and the message in the book are so beautiful and so important for children to hear from a very young age. In fact, I heard Mem read this story and talk about it at the National Book Festival, and she shared how she read it everyday to her preemie grandson when he was in the NICU. (So sweet!) The book talks about how we are all the same inside, regardless of how we look or speak or where we live. Lil’ CB really loves reading this book and it’s helped us start conversations about race and culture.

5. White Rabbit’s Color Book –Toddlers are ready for simple concept books (numbers, letters, colors, etc) and this concept book is a great one for teaching your toddler the different colors. White Rabbit finds buckets of paint in red, yellow, and blue and inadvertently ends up mixing the paint and making different colors. A fun way to introduce not only the names of the colors, but also primary colors vs. secondary colors.

6. Two Little Monkeys — This is Lil’ CB’s current favorite book. He loves the story and loves to act it out with us and loves to have his stuffed animals act it out. The language is simple but fun and really, really lends itself to being read aloud with lots of expression and voice! And gosh darn it, those monkeys are SO cute!

7. Tip, Tip, Dig Dig — Lil’ CB is very much into all things construction related. This book has gorgeous cut paper illustrations and the story is easy to follow. There is some repetitive language that is easy for toddlers to catch on to and the subject is of high interest, especially to toddler boys! (Confession: this is one of the few construction themed books I can stand to read to Lil’ CB. Bob the Builder makes me want to cry of boredom.)

8. Pete the Cat — When Lil’ CB came home at 15 months old, this book quickly became his favorite. We watched the live telling video multiple times a day and read the book at least twice everyday, too! Of course, reading the book meant singing the “I love my white shoes!” part, but it was adorable to see and hear Lil’ CB try to sing it, too. The added bonus is that it teaches a few colors in the very silly story!

9. Mr Gumpy’s Outing — This is such a fun book that begs to be read again and again. I love the descriptive words and I haven’t met a child who doesn’t crack up at all the naughtiness the kids and animals cause. There are lots of familiar farm animals for toddlers to point out and some repetitive language as well.

10. Wild Animal Baby Magazine — I feel strongly about introducing children to a wide variety of genres and literary formats even from a very young age. “Wild Animal Baby” magazine is published by the National Wildlife Federation and it features gorgeous photos, facts about animals, and age-appropriate activities for toddlers. The magazines are thin but have sturdy pages so they can be kept and added to your child’s library!

11. All the Things I Love About You — Okay, so I have a special place in my heart for this book because it’s about a mother and son, and I feel like the characters kind of look like me and Lil’ CB! Heehee…but regardless of what you look like and whether your LO is a DS or a DD, you will be able to relate to this book. And your LO will, too! The illustrations are adorable and hilarious — Lil’ CB thinks the illustration when the boy is stinky is hysterical. I do, too.

12. No No Yes Yes is one of many board books by Leslie Patricelli. We usually equate board books with infants or young toddlers, but these books are all so funny that Lil’ CB still loves reading them, even at almost 3. The subjects of her books are easy to understand and presented in a silly and humorous way. The language is also very simple, so the books lend themselves to being “read” almost independently by toddlers. And the baby that stars in Patricelli’s books is really cute!

13. Kitten’s First Full Moon is a Caldecott Medal winner, meaning it was awarded for its beautiful pictures. And beautiful they are! All of the pictures are in black and white, which makes the pictures easy to focus on and the story is just as sweet as can be. Plus, if your LO is always trying to find the moon, like mine is, they’ll be able to make a great text-to-self connection.

14. Llama Llama Red Pajama‘s praises have been sung here at Hellobee before and it is certainly worth talking about again! I love the gorgeous oil painting illustrations and all of the themes of the Llama Llama books are ones that toddlers can relate to. Our current favorite is Llama Llama Mad at Mama, mostly because we both think it’s hilarious when Llama Llama throws his tantrum, but it’s also given us a great way to talk about appropriate behavior when we are running errands together.

15. Amy and Ivan is a lift-the-flap book, and while toddlers still love lift-the-flaps, this one is more age-appropriate in content for toddlers. The illustrations are colorful and whimsical. It also teaches colors and numbers and features a sweet surprise birthday party at the end. And who doesn’t love birthday parties?!

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Toddlers are learning so much about the world around them, and are rapidly increasing their skills and vocabulary and attention spans… choose books that cater to that and have lots of fun as you interact with them as you read!

What are some of your favorite books for toddlers?