Updated on February 5, 2016
12 Books My Preschooler is Loving Right Now
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Do your kids enjoy books? The Heir loves books, and has a steadily growing collection that now overflows from the shelves in his bedroom (in part thanks to one of his grandmas who’s a retired middle school principal). A love of learning and a love of reading is something that was instilled in him from a very young age . I remember reading to him when he was just a few months old, and it’s something that has been a big part of his day since that time. I read to The Heir every single day. It used to happen before his nap time, but since he’s decided he doesn’t need naps anymore (lucky me), it just happens randomly throughout the day. King Dad reads to The Heir every single night before bed. At one point The Heir was asking for upwards of 5 books a night, but from the sounds of things he’s limiting himself to just 3 these days. Although he has a huge number of books that he enjoys, I thought it might be interesting to go over his top 12 books of the moment at age 3.5.
1. The Greedy Python
This one has been a very frequent request lately. It’s beautifully illustrated by Eric Carle, and the story is a fun tale of the perils of being greedy.
2. Green Eggs and Ham
This one really needs no introduction! It’s fun and lighthearted, and has lots of repetition and rhyming. As a side benefit, if your child refuses to even taste a new food item, you can reference this story to see if it convinces them to try something new! Hey, it’s worth a shot!
3. Josephine Wants to Dance
This one is adorable. Josephine is a kangaroo that desperately wants to be a ballet dancer, but her brother tells her kangaroos can’t dance. This is a good one about being who you want to be and doing what you want to do no matter what anyone tells you.
4. The Hairy Toe
This one is best read with great expression. I think The Heir would say that his grandpa reads it best, but he’ll settle for King Dad’s interpretation too. It’s just a fun story about a woman that’s found a hairy toe and the “thing” that toe belongs to comes searching for it. It’s just a wee bit scary.
5. Stinky! Or ‘How the Beautiful Smelly Warthog Found a Friend’
Stinky is a “beautiful smelly baby” warthog who has trouble making friends. He is blamed for all kinds of mishaps when he is invited over to play, until one day he meets a friend who likes him just how he is. It’s a good story about making friends and being who you are.
6. The Very Hungry Bear
If you haven’t picked up any of the bear books by Nick Bland, you really should! They’re all great in their own way. This one is about helping a friend, and may just be a bit of a commentary on climate change (though the kids wouldn’t pick up on that). There’s a nice rhyming pattern to it and the illustrations are wonderful.
7. The Very Brave Bear
Another of Nick Bland’s bear books makes The Heirs top 12 list! This one is a favourite of mine too. Bear and Boris Buffalo are having a battle of bravery that takes them on a fun little adventure. Like the other bear books by this author, it has a great rhyming verse, excellent illustrations, and it’s just so much fun to read aloud. We’ve read this one to The Heir so many times that he can tell the whole story off by heart. It’s adorable.
8. That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown
This book is fantastic. It is all about a little girl’s active imagination that sends her off on incredible adventures with her stuffed bunny rabbit named Stanley. Emily’s bunny catches the attention of Queen Gloriana who enlists all branches of the military in an effort to claim Stanley for herself. The book is great, the illustrations are really well done and suited to the story, and can be read with great flair.
9. The Lamb Who Came for Dinner
This one is about finding friendship in unexpected places. As you might expect, it starts out looking pretty dire for the lamb who knocked on the wolf’s door in the middle of a snow storm. As the story progresses, the wolf just can’t bring himself to eat the lamb, and eventually a friendship is formed. It’s funny and sweet, and just a great story.
The last three books on The Heir’s list are in French!
10. Ce Que Lisent Les Animaux Avant De Dormir
This is a nice little book about what kinds of things different animals read before going to bed. The illustrations alone are fabulous (done by Nicolas Duffaut), and the book is quite witty in its selections of reading material for each animal (like a kangaroo that only reads pocket books…). It’s a fun, quick read and The Heir asks me to read it to him fairly often.
11. L’Ours Qui Aimait Les Arbres
This one is a story about a bear that hugs everything in sight, from bunny rabbits to moose, but most of all he loves to hug trees. The message here is that love is powerful and many conflicts can be resolved with a hug.
12. Les Amis Qui Voguaient À L’Aventure
Another book featuring the bear by Nicholas Oldland, this time the bear and his friends are going on an adventure together. At first, their inability to give way to one another causes all kinds of mishaps on their adventure, but along the way they learn to work together. The story highlights each characters’ strengths and shows how much easier it is to problem solve when everyone works together.
There you have it! Those are the top 12 books that The Heir is most into these days. It’s an ever changing list, so I’ll be sure to post again when he’s found some new favourites.
What are your kids’ favourite books right now?
Fun! We’ll have to check out a few of those. My four year old loves Dr. Suess. I think I have green eggs and ham memorized at this point!
Thanks for this!!
We have read some of your selections and love them. We will have to check out some of the others. Les Amis Qui Voguaient À L’Aventure by Nicholas Oldland sounds like a great one! Since we have four 5 year-old children, learning to work together is huge.
We have The Very Noisy Bear. Eleanor, though much younger than the Heir, loves it – probably because we give all the animals different voices!
I am always looking for new kids books! pinned for later!
Picture books are so fun to read! Love the list. I love finding new authors/illustrators to check out. These look amazing!
Great book ideas! We are going to have to check out The Hairy Toe!
My 3 year old LOVES The Gruffalo and wants it read to him every night!
Oooo these books sound great!!! I wish my preschooler liked dr Suess more! I love the books and Haylie? Ughhhh -_- would rather look at a baby picture cardboard book.
Great list! I saw a few of our past favorites on it! So great the heir loves reading time so much! Will have to get some of these books for my friends kids!
We are loving fairy tale books now like The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. Classics 🙂
Great list! My boys are really into bears for some reason, so I know several of these would be a hit!!
So many on here I need to check out. I started reading “Green Eggs and Ham” when my child was much younger. He wasn’t ready at the time, but we may revisit here soon. Thank you for these fabulous recommendations, can’t wait to get some new reading material for the little.
We have story time every Wednesday and I love that I’m able to find new books to share with our little one.
My 3 yr old loves Llama Llama books and Peanut Butter and Cupcake. Peanut Butter and Cupcake is a delightful book about making friends. He also loves King Jack and the Dragon.
We have a few of these and my youngest littles love them! I am going to check out the ones we don’t have, thanks for this 🙂
I just started reading to my daughter. She is only 2 months but we are big readers.
My son (will be 3 in April) received some Dr. Seuss books for Christmas and LOVES them! His favorites right now are The Cat in the Hat and A Great Day for Up!
My 6 year old loves her Pete the Cat books. 🙂
My 3 year old prefers Little Critter books and Dr. Seuss. 😛
Thanks for this! We have a few of these books n I plan on getting some of them that we don’t have soon.
Awesome suggestions! We are loving Tough Boris right now. I highly recommend it for the illustrations and the good message 🙂
We read to my three year old since she was a few months old so she has a great love for the library and books. She has an ear for humor and love heavily detailed illustrated books, she likes us to tell her what every item on the page is. Skippyjon Jones, Llama llama and Pete the Cat are her favorite series.
My boys are always wanting me to read to them, anything! They like pancakes for breakfast which doesn’t have words, just pictures. They love Richard scarry books, picnic pals. These look like quality, clever books that I would enjoy as well as them!
Thanks for all the book suggestions! I love finding new books for my almost 3 year old! I think she would love both of the Bear books and That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown, I will have to check those out. Right not she is loving the Usborne book Peek Inside the Zoo. She loves animals!
Most of these I have not read to my son, so I will have to go see if I can find them at our library.
My oldest daughter have the number 2 book. She has a small library in her room. We have read so many books at our local library. I’m so happy that my oldest reads to her baby sister.
A wonderful list,my favorite has always been Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss