A Young Reader’s Christmas List
I’m not planning to give my daughter anything for Christmas because she wants it; I’m going to get her a few things (aka books) because I want to read them with her. This Christmas should be the easiest, I hope, for me as a parent since my daughter is almost one and a one year-old is ridiculously easy to please when it comes to toys. They haven’t quite been corrupted by advertising to want a certain brand of anything, and the simplest things are delightful, like new textures. Giving her a magazine or newspaper to play with is fascinating to her, so junk mail now has a purpose besides just filling up the recycling bin. The past few weeks, my daughter’s favorite game has been practicing turning pages, and if there are additional ways to interact with the book, like touching different fabrics or shaking “mummy’s button box” like in Pat the Bunny, she’s even more thrilled.
The following books have been vetted by my daughter as delightful from a baby’s perspective and by me for educational content. I don’t know whose standards, mine or hers, were more critical, but I recommend the following items if you’re looking for books for readers roughly 2 years old and younger.
Pat the Bunny: First Books for Baby (Pat the Bunny)
This is a classic for a reason! The pages are very good for my daughter to practice turning, and she loves interacting with the book — playing peek-a-boo with Paul and shaking mummy’s button box.
by American Museum of National History
The book presents an animal that starts with each letter, like “Q” for “quetzal” and gives a little piece of information. “The male quetzal has a long tail of feathers. The female does not.” I appreciate that the animals aren’t always the ones that you might be most likely to think of as starting with that particular letter (ex. “butterfly” or “okapi”). Beautiful and great for little ones to hold on their own; it is a larger book that some but not heavy and has pages that seem easy to turn than some, maybe because the pages are more glossy than others and don’t stick together.
by Albert Bitterman
I really loved this book. It takes something that kids might know from their own lives, a fortune, and shows what happens with a little girl who has one every day of the week. The things that happen to the main character seem to be connected to the fortunes she finds in her cookies, so her simple adventures are easy to relate to but just outside of what has probably happened to the reader, even the adult reader.
by Rachel Isadora
This book beautifully captured the everyday things that might capture a child’s attention, such as the family dog staying close when the baby eats his breakfast. Our dogs quickly figured out that baby eating means that there’s a good chance of food dropping. The peekaboo concept made the book playful and easy to use to engage my daughter, playing peekaboo with her while reading and continuing to refer to it later.
by Fiona Watt
The images and concepts were great, but one of the things I actually really liked was that the concepts were not stereotypical of gender roles. There was a female pirate, and it wasn’t all men with scruffy beards. Plus, is it ever too early to encourage fantasy and creativity?
Itsy Bitsy Spider by Kate Toms
This book uses the traditional nursery rhyme but takes it further, showing how the spider thinks through the problem and figures out a solution. Endearing and beautifully written and illustrated!
Touch, Look, and Learn! Counting by Emily Bolam
The left page had the number, and the right page had that many animals. Ex. “4” and then four fish. The numerals and the animals were raised, with a texture relating to the animal, like being scaled for the fish. The colors and textures were very appealing to my daughter.
Such an adorable plot! I love how Little Pookie wakes up his parents before it’s even light outside because he’s so excited that it’s his birthday. Can’t get mad at the cuteness, at least in a book. Maybe a bit ticked if it happens to you in real life though…
The illustrations were gorgeous, and the story, based on the nursery rhyme “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe,” made for a good way to practice counting. There were multiple things to count on each page, which I appreciated.
Animal Babies in Towns and Cities
The book presents animals as adults and babies that my daughter might actually see. It used the correct terms for the babies (ex. “kit” for a baby fox) and seemed like a solid way to introduce her to animals and get interested in science.
by Sandra Boynton
I have a fondness for using dinosaurs with kids, so maybe that’s part of why I like this book. The book uses sweet humor to introduce easy concepts.
by Olivier Dunrea
I love Olivier Dunrea’s books. The characters have sweet personalities and do things that kids do, like having a toy as a best friend. Gideon is a gosling whose best friend is his toy octopus. The illustrations are simple but give me plenty to discuss with my daughter. Very enjoyable!
Baby Einstein 12 Board Book Block Set
The books in this set have been some of the best books for my daughter to practice manipulating and learning to turn pages. The books are small, a great size for a one year-old to hold on her own, so even if you don’t read the books with the child, they are great for learning how to use fingers and hands. The books explore a range of concepts that are nice to discuss with the child, too.
by Alice Schertle
The overall rhythm and rhyme made this very enjoyable to read, and the message of kindness was one I want to encourage. I want to look for the other books in this series after reading this one. This was a great book for me to read to my daughter especially at first when I wasn’t used to reading aloud. Having a variety of characters helped me practice using different voices and making different animal sounds.
by Matthew Van Fleet
I love reading the easy rhymes and looking at the adorable depictions of various animals. My daughter is also at the point now that she loves interacting with books, so the textures and tabs to pull are of great interest to her.
by David McPhail
The sentences are simple, amusing, and endearing. The illustrations of Bella’s face remind me of antique illustrations, which throws me off a bit but in a good way. The relationship between Bella and Bunny is heartwarming and a joy to read over and over with my daughter. I highly recommend this book!
by David McPhail
Similar in plot to Bella Loves Bunny, this book follows the adventures in one day of Peter and his toy penguin. This one may be better as a Christmas gift since it takes place on a snowy day, but both books are lovely.
