Selecting Books for Toddlers: 18 Months to 4 Years (page 2)

Books for Toddlers

Thinking and information books as well as short stories are good for this age group. Picture books, with one thing on a page (such as a picture of shoes or a key ring) are good. Children can recognize these pictures, name them, and begin to learn about words. Counting, alphabet, and touch-and-see books also are favorites. Toddlers also enjoy books about true things told in story form, or pretend stories like those about talking animals. Mother Goose and Richard Scarry books are favorites now.

How You Can Help

Choose books that are short enough to be read in one sitting, and have happy endings. Since toddlers are unable to understand other people's point of view, you may want to substitute their names for the names of the main characters in the stories or poems. This will make them feel important and good about themselves. Another way to make them feel special is to hold them close during story time.

Toddlerhood is a time for exploring. You can help them do this by choosing books about the experiences that children (or even animals) have in the real world. Toddlers want independence, although, at this stage, they are not always able to handle much freedom. The stories you choose about exploring should be ones that will help them adjust to new and sometimes frightening experiences in their world. Two- and 3-year-olds are talkative and have good imaginations. They will have many things to tell you while you are reading stories together! You can help by being a good listener.

Ask for these and other books at your local library:

• All Fall Down by Helen Oxenbury
• Animals Should Definitely Not Wear
• Clothing by Judi Barrett
• Baby Duck in the Rain by Amy Hest
• Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming
• The Best Mouse Cookie by Laura Numeroff
• Big Tab Board Books: My Big Alphabet Book a DK Publishing Book
• Bingo by Rosemary Wells
• Blueberries for Sale by Robert McCloskey
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
• Calling All Toddlers by Francesca Simon
• Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse
• Come Along, Daisy! by Jane Simmons
• Count With Maisy by Lucy Cousins
• Cows in the Kitchen by June Crebbin
• Daddy Makes the Best Spaghetti by Anna Grossnickle Hines
• Daisy's Day Out by Jane Simmons
• Dinosaur's Binkit by Sandra Boynton
• Donde Se Esconde Maisy? by Lucy Cousins
• Freight Train by Donald Crews
• Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London
• Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed E. Emberley
• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
• Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
• Have You Seen My Duckling? by Nancy Tafuri
• How Are You Peeling? by Saxton Freymann
• I'm as Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood
• Jamberry by Bruce Degen
• Kipper's Book of Colors by Mick Inkpen
• Lunch by Denise Fleming
• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
• Max's Bath by Rosemary Wells
• Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You: Can You? by Dr. Seuss
• Mrs. Wishy-Washy by Joy Cowley
• One Red Sun: A Counting Book by Ezra Jack Keats
• Piggies by Don Wood and Audrey Wood
• Rabbits & Raindrops by Jim Arnosky
• Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy E. Shaw
• Skip to My Lou by Nadine Bernard Westcott
• Snoozers: 7 Short Short Bedtime Stories for Lively Little Kids by Sandra Boynton
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• Spring is Here by Taro Gomi
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• When Sophie Gets Angry-Really Really
• Angry... by Molly Garrett Bang
• Where's Spot? by Eric Hill

Adapted with permission from the National Network for Child Care. From "Good times with stories and poems," by Patricia A. Johnson, Ed. D. Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University Cooperative Extension