We are back with our next post in the #kbcAuthoRity series, where authors share some must must reads for children. Meet Garima Kushwaha, who has shared her favourite reading list with reviews for every baby & toddler in the age group of 0-3 years!
Garima Kushwaha is a Senior scientist at a Cancer diagnostic company in San Francisco, CA and has a PhD in Bioinformatics. She is also a children’s book enthusiast and has published a children’s book titled ‘She Can You Can’ to inspire kids with stories of 26 inspirational Indian women. (You can read the reviews of this book by our #kbcMembers here and here!)
Garima has previously written for platforms like Youth Ki Awaaz and Womens Web on issues centered on women empowerment.
More from her!
Here are our favorite 10 books For Aminaal loving toddlers… because Ihaan (my son) loves animals and calls them AMINAAL! 🙂 🙂 🙂
1. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
By Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle (Illustrator)
Age range: 0-3 years
Brown Bear is one book I found most relevant for even a newborn. I started reading it to my son since he was 3 months old. He loves the book. The big and bold animal sketches, rhyming sentences and different colors for each animal makes it such a great book for infants. My son started identifying different animals and colors thanks to this book. Now, we play a game to flip pages and find a particular animal and color and then spot eyes, legs, and tail.
2. I Love You, Stinky Face
by Lisa Mccour (Author), Cyd Moore (Illustrator)
Age Range: 2 and up
A boy in this book is asking his mother if she would still love him if he were a stinky skunk, swamp monster, or a man-eating dinosaur. Of course, the mother reassures that she would love her child no matter what. What a wonderfully fun way to convey to a child what unconditional love a mother has for her children.
Silly questions, creative answers and rhyming words are bound to keep your toddler engaged.
This is one of my favorite stories to read at bed/nap time and give cuddles and kisses with each answer saying, ‘I love you my little monster!’. Also, there are numerous animals within the artwork of the book for babies to point at and identify.
3. Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You!
By Dr Seuss
Age range: 0-3 years
Moo Mooooo
Dibble dibble dop
Klop Klop
Buzz Buzzzzzzzzzz
Whisper whisper….
Really fun Dr. Seuss read aloud board book for young toddlers who haven’t yet started making animal sounds. I started reading it when my son was 6 months and he would carefully listen to me, look at me to understand how I make those sounds and eventually started imitating me in trying to make the same sounds.
4. Giraffes Can’t Dance
by Giles Andreae, Guy Parker-Rees (Illustrator)
Age range: 1 year and up
Excellent book to teach kids that we all are unique in ourselves. Teach them that all of us have strengths, and it is just a matter of identifying them.
The story shows how the giraffe overcomes his own doubts and all the discouraging comments about his bad dance steps and eventually dances – a very beautiful and unique dance that everyone is mesmerized with!
It is a beautifully illustrated book filled with various animals that young kids love to see and spot. My 18 months old boy now makes sounds like uh-ooooh seeing Giraffe fall down in the beginning, ummmm… with a sad face seeing the sad Giraffe and stands up to dance seeing the giraffe dance eventually. It is definitely one of my favorites on the shelf.
5. Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!
Age Range: Baby – 3 years
ABC by Dr Seuss is a really fun read aloud book. It contains several short poems for each letter and teaches ABC to kids while singing in a question answer format. Th rhyming nature of the book makes it really engaging both to read and listen. I started reading and singing this book to my son since he was 3 months and we loved our reading time. Looking forward to singing together with him when I will be singing the question part and he will sing the answer!
6. Little Blue Truck
by Alice Schertle (Author), Jill McElmurry (Illustrator)
Age Range: Baby – 3 years
A fantastic colorful read aloud book! Little blue truck is filled with farm animals, trucks and a wonderful story teaching about kindness, friendship, and helping others. To parents, it gives the opportunity to mimic animal sounds of frogs, goats, sheep and ducks.
Most importantly, it teaches how each individual in society plays a role to bring a change. In this book, animals of all shape and sizes had to combine their strength to move a giant yellow truck.
My 18 months old jumps into my lap every time he stumbles upon this book, so I can sing it to him, and he can point at various animals. This is the #1 in our list of favorite books, at present. Must have for kids below age 80!
7. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
by Eric Carle
Age range: 0-4 years
One book to teach counting, colors, fruits, seven days in a week. Not just that, but healthy vs. unhealthy food, lifecycle of a butterfly and most importantly, self-care. This all-time classic book is must have for all toddlers. Another fun thing for babies is to put their fingers in the hole(s) on each page where the caterpillar ate all the food. My son is already matching real fruits with the ones the caterpillar ate in the book.
8. Let’s Go for a Drive!
by Mo Willems
Age Range: 3 – 5 years
This is our (the parents’) most favorite book to read aloud to our son. The storytelling is spectacular with its style of varying volume in tone and enthusiasm, making us love this book. And the babies like it for the same reason. Mo Willems’s books don’t necessarily have bright colors or spectacular illustrations, but the excitement in the narrative, the cute elephant and piggy characters, and the chorus voice in the song make you fall in love with the book. You will want to enact the elephant and piggy in real life just like it is done in the book.
Most important thing in Mo’s books is the hidden surprise that gets revealed in the end that just pulls the rug below your feet and gives a happy ending. This particular book teaches the importance of planning and having a friend by your side!
Elephant and Piggie is an award winning series by Mo Willems perfect for toddlers and pre-schoolers. The friendship themes are very helpful for small kids to understand the dynamics of being different, yet being able to be friends!
9. Corduroy
by Don Freeman
Age Range: 1 – 3 years
Corduroy is a bear in a toy store. He wears a green dungaree with a missing button because of which he is not picked by any customer. To fix this, he goes on an adventure to find his missing button. At the end, a girl comes and picks up Corduroy regardless of his missing button. She takes him along with her to her home and tells him that she loves him just the way he is.
Corduroy is another must-have book that warms the reader’s heart with love and friendship. The story shows the love of pure friendship and what home means in its true sense. This book is a children’s classic and has beautiful illustrations. My son enjoys the pictures of all the toys in the toy store, the bear climbing up the escalator and beds in the furniture department, etc. We also spend time trying to find Corduroy’s button everywhere in the house!
10. Llama Llama Red Pajama
by Anna Dewdney
Great book for kids who have separation anxiety during bedtime. This book is all about beautifully put llama (kid’s) drama before going to bed and the Mama llama reassuring that she’ll be always there for the baby. She explains that there is no need to get anxious if mommy isn’t around, sometimes they are just busy.
“Baby llama don’t cause such a tizzy, sometimes Mama llama’s busy!”
It is a very nice book to sing and look at the beautiful illustrations of baby llama going to bed by himself in his own room.
Wow! Thank you so much Garima! We are stunned by your photographs and the way you engage your little toddler while reading books!! A very creative way to make a toddler a book lover forever!
[Note from Team Kids Book Café: For your convenience, affiliate links (MARKED IN PINK) to some of the books have been added to enable you to buy the books from AMAZON, should you wish to! A very small amount of money comes to kidsbookcafe.com when you purchase a book via the amazon affiliate link provided (at no extra cost to you!). Do let us know if you need information about other children’s books by writing to asha@kidsbookcafe.com.]
