Our Favorite Children’s Books for Babies & Toddlers

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A few years ago I helped plan a baby shower for my cousin. We asked guests to bring a copy of their favorite childhood book in lieu of a card. Not only did we start a great collection of reading material for her son, but we got to see what everyone’s favorite book was as a kid. I think I gifted her “Everybody Poops”. Not my favorite childhood book, but one that I feel makes sense to have in your collection.

They say that reading to your child every day, even as a newborn, does wonders for their vocabulary and teaches them other important skills. It’s one of the reasons that you get a free book when you visit the doctor for well visits. In my experience, I firmly believe that reading has played a significant role in our daughter’s development and vocabulary. I can’t tell you how many times she references something in a book and says, ” … ‘member my book, mama?” It’s amazing to see how much they learn and comprehend just by reading for 10-15 minute each night.

When it was my turn for a baby shower, I really appreciated the book collection. It was fun to see the messages that our friends and family wrote on the inside covers and share them with our daughter. We received some really wonderful books that we’ve read a gazillion times and recite randomly quite frequently.

While we do own a lot of books, we also have a standing mama/daughter date to visit the library every other week to get new books, return our old books to share with other kids, and say hello to the fish. It warms my heart to hear her ask to go to the library and to see how excited she is to read her new stories at bedtime.

Here are a few of our favorites for each age.

Newborn to 6 Months

6-12 Months

12-24 Months

2 Years+

Another thing that’s fun to do is to search Amazon for books with your child’s name. We have a few books with our daughter’s name and that’s super fun to read with her.

When we travel, we like to prep our daughter by reading books about the destination we’re going to. For example, when we went to Hawaii, we picked up the Goodnight Hawaii book and a few others about island life and Ohana. During our trip, she’d point out things she remembered from reading, like palm trees, roosters, and coconuts. And after we return home, she’d point things out and say, “Remember this on our trip?” We also try to pick up a book while we are there to remember our trip by. In Chicago, we picked up Larry Gets Lost in Chicago.

I know a lot of people love the Baby Lit series. We have a couple of them but I realized that they aren’t really stories, which makes it difficult for me to read. I also don’t love books without words.

I also wanted to mention where we purchase books locally because we do and we like to support small businesses in town.

What books do/did your kids love?

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