All my children are little bookworms and absolutely love their bed time stories. I thought it would be fun to start sharing some of our favourite toddler books from our collection! 

Dear Zoo is an absolute classic. I don’t know many children’s bookshelves that haven’t seen this book at some point. The boys love to get involved and lift the flaps.

Guess How Much I Love You is another classic. I love that this book has been on the go for so long and still captures children’s imaginations, the boys act out the movements when we read this together.    

Splish Splash Splosh book is a great count-down book to read, where you start with ten ducks, and one-by-one they fall in to the tub. Great for number learning.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I particularly love the rhythm of this book. My children enjoy guessing what will appear on the next page.

The Cat in the Hat, well all the Dr. Seus’ books, they’re all a little bit wacky and I think that makes the children smile a lot.  It was our American friends who introduced us to these books initially. 

Old MacDonald’s Farm (Poke-A-Dot!). I would never have thought I would recommend a book like this one, where you poke at these little plastic dots and they make a “pop” sound.  But, this is a fabulous book for teaching correspondence in counting. They can pop each bubble only once, counting as they go, and can see if they miss one. 

Owl Babies. I’ve used this book and refer to it in situations where my children are scared of leaving somewhere or going off on their own (to preschool for instance).  This is also a great book for teaching emotions too.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Introduces the life cycle of the caterpillar to butterfly, and builds up the story of the days of its life as he eats and grows. Again, very memorisable. 

Where the Wild Things Are. Children love to take risks and at some point, most children dream of running away to somewhere, where they’re in charge and make all the rules. This book makes that fantasy come true, and then ends with the child choosing to return home. I remember this story as a child too, which is nostalgic to me.

Winnie-the-Poo series.  These stories are much longer than most other stories you read to toddlers, but they are so sweet and gentle that it works, and it gives your child experience with listening and following a longer story.  I feel the same way about the Beatrix potter series and have kept all the books to read the whole series one day. 

I’ve always loved the magic that books bring, they take you into another world and can change your whole outlook on life!  What are your little one’s favourite books as we are always on the look out for new suggestions?

Much love 

Rebecca