Books for Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers

Recommended for Three – Four Year Olds [Why?]

Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth

When Sophie Gets Angry…. by Molly Bang

The Little Red Hen by Byron Barton

1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle

Whose Hat? by Margaret Miller

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Seuss

Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big, Hungry Bear by Don Wood

A Million Chameleons by Jim Young

Recommended for Four – Five Year Olds [Why?]

Muncha Muncha Muncha by Candace Fleming

Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming

Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino

Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman

Horace and Morris but Mostly Delores by James Howe

John Henry by Julius Lester

Max Found Two Sticks by Brian Pinkney

Time Flies by Eric Rohmann

Kevin and His Dad by Irene Smalls

Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

Choosing Books for Children: A Commonsense Guide by Betsy Hearne

The New York Times’ Parents Guide to the Best Books for Children by Edith Ross Lipman

Great Books for Boys: More than 600 Books for Boys 2-14 by Kathleen Odean

Great Books for Girls: More than 600 Books to Inspire Today’s Girls and Tomorrow’s Women by Kathleen Odean

Great Books for African American Children by Pamela Toussaint

Choosing Books for Babies

• Babies respond not so much to words as to rhythms, so rhyming books or those with a strong sense of rhythm are ideal.
• Choose books with illustrations that are brightly colored on a plain background. Babies respond especially to illustrations of familiar items such as faces, toys, foods and pets.
• Cloth and board books are good choices, because they hold up to teeth and drool!

Tips for Reading to Babies

• Read with expression! Varying your tone, volume and speed will help keep baby focused.
• Repeat, repeat, repeat! Babies enjoy hearing things more than once.
• Keep reading activities short and fun! If baby begins chewing on page three, don't get frustrated - keep up the conversation and turn the page when you can.
• If baby becomes unhappy, fussy or whiny, move on to another activity. Ten minutes of reading happily is better than 20 minutes of reading unhappily! 
• Point to familiar objects and identify them, using baby's name when appropriate.

 Tips for Reading to One and Two Year Olds

• Invite your child to choose the books you read.
• Talk about the book before and after you read it.
• Ask your child to participate in the reading – "Can you clap hands like that baby?", "What does the cow say?"
• One and two-year-olds never tire of their favorites – so repeat, repeat, repeat! You’ll soon have some memorized, so you can recite them in line at the grocery store or during bath time. And they’ll join in!
• Now is a good time to start teaching fingerplays – songs or rhymes with accompanying hand gestures, like “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Pat-a-Cake.”

• Continue selecting books that relate to your child's every day experience and those with repeated refrains
• Begin using regular [non-board] books with more complicated illustrations
• Look for concept books - books that focus on particular concepts like colors, counting, shapes, the alphabet, etc.
• Continue to do fingerplays with your child and encourage your child to do them on his/her own - it's a great way to pass the time in line at the grocery store!

Tips for Reading to Two and Three Year Olds

• Invite your child to select the books you read
• Ask questions during the course of the book about what is happening and what they think might happen next. For example, "What is that dog doing?" After asking the question, wait a moment for your child to answer, then if necessary answer for them, "That dog is chasing that cat."
• When you finish a book, ask your child questions about it. For example, "When the dog saw the cat, what did he do?" 
• Build your child's memory skills by repeating lines from favorite books or rhymes and leave a word out, letting the child fill it in. For example, "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you_____?"  or "Jack and Jill went up the ______."

• Silly stories, wordplays and guessing games entertain preschoolers, who are now more verbal and eager to participate actively in storytime.
• Choose books with more detailed stories, including books on subjects of particular interest to your child [trains, dogs, baby sisters, etc.].
• Now is a great time to begin including beginning information [nonfiction] books on topics that interest your child.
• Books with predictable plots are often enjoyed, as preschoolers enjoy being "right"!
• Concept books and old favorites should still be enjoyed.

Tips for Reading to Three and Four Year Olds

• Discuss the illustrations as you read through the book and help the child look for clues to what will happen next in the story.
• Invite more discussion through questions on what's going on in the story.
• Discuss the real and pretend elements of the story.
• Encourage your child to find particular letters in the words of the book.
• Allow your child to "read" an old favorite or a new book by looking at the pictures and making up a story based on them.
• Continue wordplays like leaving out certain words in a familiar rhyme or adding verses to songs like, "The Wheels on the Bus" and "If You're Happy and You Know It."

• Begin choosing books with longer and more complicated stories.
• Silly stories like tall tales and Dr. Seuss nonsense are a big hit.
• Continue including "how" and "why" information books in your reading.
• Get them their own library card and give them the responsibility to select their own library books!

Tips for Reading to Four and Five Year Olds

• Keep reading to your child even after they're reading independently - hearing stories introduces them to more vocabulary words which will help with their own reading.
• Encourage your child to read to you.
• Inspire your child's own creativity and increasing verbal skills by encouraging them to make up their own stories, writing them down and reading them back to them!