Must have books for the little ones (2-5 years)
Our son Kabeer will be 3 years old in two months. He likes his books and wants us to read at least 3 books every night before he goes to sleep. He also pretends to read on his own by flipping pages and reading. He now remembers some of the stories word-by-word sometimes giving an impression as if he can read! We are a bit of Julia Donaldson fans. Here are his favourite 16 which we are sharing with you all as a part of the #kbcKeepCalmAndReadOn Campaign.
From the ‘I Can Read’ series. Great illustrations with small sentences. It is a fun book that tells a kid about friendship and being nice to others. At the end of the book when Danny says goodbye to Dinosaur it does feel like good things come to end.
Another from the ‘I Can Read’ series. Danny and Dinosaur find that a King is visiting the museum. They work hard to learn manners to meet the king. They find out that it is actually a king’s mummy and not a real king. What a disappointment! But they get a reward for their hard work.
Kabeer loves lift-the-flap books series. The illustrations in this book speak to kids. Pig is playing hide and seek with his friends. In search of hen he discovers his friends hiding under a flap. The story is written in a rhyming way which makes it easy for the little one to remember.
An engaging book with illustrations like doodles and beautiful colours. Jack and his friends go on a voyage to the island of Blowyernose to get fruit of flumflum tree for her granny.
We can’t think of an easier way of introducing the solar system to a 2.5 year old than this book. This well illustrated book captures their attention and takes a kid to a journey to the moon, stars, 9 planets and the sun.
This book is about a boy who is searching for a star. This book teaches patience as a kid learns to wait until he catches the star. Very few words and amazing illustrations.
This is the next part of The Gruffalo book. In this book, Gruffalo’s child ventures out to find the scary mouse and gets tricked by the mouse. The illustrations are amazing and the sound of words makes my little one grin every time we read it to him.
This book became Kabeer’s favourite very fast. We were not sure if he would like the long rhymes but to our surprise he did. This book has become a goodnight ritual. This book is about a rabbit who likes to make rhymes about anything and everything. No one likes his rhymes and this makes him sad until he finds a rhyming sheep!
This book seems like it’s inspired by the movie ‘Inception’. There are 10 storybooks inside this one book. The first story takes you inside another one which takes you inside another and another and another. Kabeer anxiously waits for the page to turn and a new story to start. This also has a ghost story!
Another classic where a witch, her cat, a dog and a bird ride on the witch’s broom. All the animals save the witch from a fiery dragon and convert their broom into a fancy one.
In Corona times Kabeer became curious about the virus. Thankfully we had this book with us. This book explains all about germs, bacteria and viruses. It helped Kabeer to understand that germs can make one sick and therefore he must keep clean.
This book is about a little girl playing with her paper dolls that her mother helped her make. The paper dolls go on an imaginary journey escaping a dinosaur, tiger and crocodile. The paper dolls eventually go into the little girl’s memory. She grows up to make similar paper dolls for her own daughter. A beautifully illustrated and rhyming book.
An old lady is unhappy with her small house and asks a wise man for help. On his advise, she brings her chicken, goat, pig and cow inside her house, ending up in chaos. She finally decides to move them out and realises that her house is not so small. Moral of the story is to enjoy what you have.
George, who is the scruffiest giant in town, buys new clothes to become the smartest giant. On his way home, he finds a giraffe, a goat, mouse, fox and dog who are in need. George gives his new clothes to help these animals so they don’t end up feeling cold and sad. The animals he helps thank him with a crown and card. The rhythm and the illustrations make this Kabeer’s favourite.
This is a story about a snail with an itching foot. He tours the world on a whale’s tail. He saves the whale’s life when she is in trouble. This story shows friendship between a small snail and a big whale.
16. The Big Pancake by Emilie Chollat
This book is about a mother making a very big pancake for her seven boys. The pancake decides to run away. Several people and animals chase the pancake to catch it and eat it. But a hungry pig deceives the pancake while helping cross a river and eats it. Everyone else is disappointed. A fun short read.
By: Esha and Namit
[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.]
