My Toddlers Favorite Books

There are times when your children are silent and you wonder what they are up to. Well, today I got a little worried that bug was coloring on the walls again! He always manages to find a marker or pencil, even where there isn't one around. He's an artist, as long as you don't ask him to color on paper!

To my surprise, when I went into Squirrels room to check on them, they were sitting on the bed reading books! Books have always been part of the boys' lives, from day one. Squirrel has always enjoyed books. In fact, when he was 5/6 months old the only thing that would calm him down when he got upset was a book, 8 Silly Monkeys.

I remember my mom came over to watch him one day. I said "if he gets upset, just sit in the rocking chair with that book, he'll calm right down!". She didn't believe me until she had to calm him down, and it really did work.

Bug's love of books started much differently. He wanted nothing to do with books when he was a baby. He has always been a terror with his books. He has ripped so many pages out of books that if I had to pull a piece of hair from my head for every page he ripped, I'd be bald! He also loved to eat them, that right, eat them. For some reason the corners and bindings of books were always in his mouth. He ruined many a book this way.

Somewhere around 18 months that started to change. He is now a huge book lover, he still tends to tear out pages, but at least he is reading when he does, rather than just tearing out a page for fun.

So I thought I would share with you five of his favorite books, I prefer the board books, but two of these are paper back. So far he hasn't destroyed them.

Goodnight Moon By Margaret Wise Brown
It's a classic! He loves pointing out the items I read off. He also loves looking for the mouse. If you didn't know, the mouse is on every colored page! Like most of the books I'll mention, it is also a great one to show them that words on pages have links to items on the page. Show them the word, then have them point to the picture. Great way to start a love of reading at an early age.

Old Hat, New Hat By Stan and Jan Berenstain
This was one of my favorites as a kid. As a matter of fact, the copy we have was mine as a kid! Full of simple words, rhyming and colors this book is fun for toddlers. It is also a great for introducing describing words. He may not understand this aspect now, but when he gets into preschool this will be helpful.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear By Bill Martin Jr.
Again, another classic. Bug didn't get this book until a couple months ago. For Christmas I decided to do something a little more simple "Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read". His something to read was a three pack of books. This one, Polar Bear, Polar Bear and Panda Bear, Panda Bear. He likes them all, but of the three this is his favorite, mine as well. I like that it is animals he can relate to or he sees in many other books. Its also great for learning colors.

Hop On Pop By Dr. Seuss
This was one that I was not familiar with. But I love Dr. Seuss and all the Beginner books. I like the rhyming and the drawings. There are a few pages in here where I get to show emotion, Bug really enjoys that. He gets into it and plays along when he can.

Doggies By Sandra Boynton
Ok, not sure if you are familiar with these ones. But she has a whole line of books. This one is a counting book, from one to ten. Each dog has a different style bark. I actually don't care much for this one. But Bug really likes the dogs and their barks (the part I don't like). He plays along with this one as well. With a few of the dogs I just point to it and he makes that dogs sounds, then I don't have to. His favorite page is the dogs on a moonlight night. My favorite page is the quite dogs!


Instilling a love of reading when your child is young will set a foundation of education that will help your child blossom in all other academic categories. Language, speech, reading, it is all so important. I am glad I have been blessed with the ability to share so many books with my kids. We have somewhere around 500 children's books. But, they do have their favorites that always go back to! We may have a lot of books, but most are not new. We get most of our books at garage sales and thrift stores. I'm always looking for more!

What are your child's favorite books? Do they tend to stick to a few favorites? Do they like something new?