As a child and teen, I loved to read. Going to the library was one of my most favorite hobbies (serious nerd alert…it was walking distance from our house!) Maybe it was the only child in me—craving fun, imagination and adventure with every turn of the page. I would often read for hours on end and stay up late or wake up early just to finish those last chapters. If you grew up at the same time as me, you probably read Sweet Valley High, Babysitter’s Club, Lurlene McDaniel books, R.L. Stein’s “Fear Street” series and many, many others (not to mention books assigned at school!) I would also often go to the library and read books on whichever topic I happened to be “into” at the time. One time, I checked out like 15 books about dollhouses, the history of dollhouses, how to make dollhouse furniture, etc. I still don’t know how I carried them all home.
I do a lot of reading nowadays— tons of news articles (online and off), medical studies (for work), other work-related reading and of course, blogs, for fun. I don’t read actual books for pleasure anymore. It’s a shame because it was one of my favorite activities, but I always find other things I would rather be doing…or that need to get done (like seven loads of laundry and vacuuming endless grains of quinoa off of my hardwoods when Harper decides she’s “all done”). I did start to read one book recently, recommended by my nutritionist, but I’ll save that for another post.
When I was pregnant, I remember building Harper’s library with old classics and new books and I couldn’t wait to read to her. Though I still don’t make the time for myself to read, I’ve enjoyed bonding through reading with Harper. I’m the type of reader who gets pretty “into it” with silly voices for different characters or parts of a book and as much enthusiasm as I can muster after working all day or before my morning coffee on the weekend.
Harper wasn’t interested much in being read to (and wouldn’t sit still) when she was younger. I seriously thought I was doing it wrong or something. I even remember asking on a message board at what age other mom’s babies started to be interested in books. There, I realized that it was totally normal for my 4 month old not to care about or pay attention to books, but rather, enjoy chewing them. The more you know…
But at about 9 months or so, she started to pay attention to books and enjoyed them. By 10 months she downright loved them.
Now, she’s obsessed with being read to. We spend a lot of time reading books, pointing things out in them, seeing if she can identify certain animals or items on pages. It’s a fun way for us to spend time together and she loves it so much that she brings us book after book—and now, we can even ask her to bring us a certain book in a pile and 95% of the time she brings the right one.
Reading is even part of our morning routine—after Kevin finishes breakfast with Harper while I finish getting ready, she sits in his lap and they read together until I come downstairs. It’s often a favorite moment of mine to see her sweet face look up at me as she hears me come down the stairs while they read.
We read a lot of the same books over and over and have too many to count—but I’m sharing some of Harper’s favorites below!
What are your toddler’s favorite books?!
Kennedy loves many of those! How in the world do you get through "I Love You Forever" without bawling your eyes out?! Haha. We read "It's Time to Sleep, My Love" almost every night!
We have almost all of those but Julia's 4 months & still in the "let me chew the book" phase. But I still try 🙂 I really like Pout Pout Fish series (https://amzn.to/1oVtWeo). I think it's cute.
Wow. She must be really advanced to sit through Cat in the hat. It's very long and normally a one year olds attention span wouldn't allow them to sit through a book like that! My LO loves to read but will only sit through quick boards books with lift up flaps and pop ups:)
I don't think she's advanced at all—she wouldn't sit through it at the beginning. Slowly she started to sit in my lap for more and more of the book—sometimes she will make it almost to the end, but you're right, it's long. I try to keep it "fun" by doing fun voices and trying to keep her engaged by asking her to "point a the fish" or "where is the dish?" etc. Sometimes she sits through a whole book and sometimes she gets up halfway through. Sometimes she goes and gets another book while we are reading a book…just depends on her mood 🙂
Sandra Boynton's books are very fun. We read Barnyard Dance quite often.
We loooove all Sandra Boynton books (seriously, check her out!). The other favorite in our house right now is Dear Zoo.
Those Highlights magazines are wonderful! My mom got my daughter a subscription and we will be renewing it when it expires!
oh my goodness my Scarlett is obsessed with the highlight books!
https://scarlettmoonblog.blogspot.com/
Love this! Great choices, Veronika. I must have forgotten how LONG Dr. Seuss books are sometime between childhood and adulthood, because the first time I read The Cat in the Hat to Sam, I was like 'OMG, does this book EVER end???'
I'll second the recommendation of Sandra Boynton, though her books are kind of hit or miss for us. Our faves are Hippos go Berserk and Birthday Monsters. The latter is especially fun if you're into doing voices.
A couple others that I think you guys will REALLY enjoy are Iggy Peck, Architect, Rosie Revere, Engineer, and Stick Kid. That final one is out of print, but you can get it used on Amazon and it's worth every penny. Personally, I don't care for The Giving Tree, but generally speaking, people who love The Giving Tree, love Stick Kid. It's just the sweetest book and encapsulates parenthood perfectly. Get it!
My son is 22 years old, and I wish I could read to him again!! We had many of the books you mentioned. I have to say, though, I was never able to read "Love You Forever" without getting emotional and teary in the end. I really enjoyed adding to his book collection as he grew. Happy Memories! 🙂
Great picks! Marli is OBSESSED with the Cat in the Hat books, anything with Curious George, and loves those Sophie books because they're short and have tons of pop ups for her to play with. We recently bought her the Baby's First 100 words and she can say or point out almost 90% of them. It's so crazy what she picks up on and how fast. I don't have the Giving Tree (yet), but I'll add that to my list for her. Thanks for sharing!
-Linh
https://abeautifulrawr.com
We love the Highlights magazines too and I love how durable they are- they can really take a beating (or a drooling). Aubrey loves the Olivia books too but I have to say I'm a little tired of reading them already! Some of our favorites are: On the Night You Were Born (makes me tear up every time), The Going to Bed Book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Moo Baa La La La, and Snowmen All Year (Snowmen is a series of books- there's also, Snowmen at Night, Snowmen at Work, etc.)
My 15 month old will only sit still for Dear Zoo! My 5 & 6 year olds are big Julia Donaldson Fans (the author of the Gruffalo) and we have nearly all her books! The Snail & the Whale being my favourite as it makes me cry every time!
Really good picks V! We read a lot of those together too. "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes" was the first book I read to him when he was 6 days old. It's never too early! Being a Librarian, I am something of a book addict when it comes to my little guy's library. I just can't stop! Have you read "Go the F*** to Sleep" by the way? It's a hilarious spin on "It's Time to Sleep, My Love" which is such a beautiful book – makes me teary!
Wow thanks for sharing! I Love You Through and Through is good too. The message is simple and I read it to my daughter so many times that I can recite it by heart now.
Hi Veronika,
I am a Junior Infant Teacher/Kindergarten teacher and I just love your blog. I have a blog called http://www.missmernagh.com that you might find useful now or in the future. I just love books and am always reviewing them on my blog. I just had to comment when I saw this blogpost!
Here are some that I just LOVE to read to toddlers and are all available on book depository.com:
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Owl Babies- seriously the cutest book about Mom having to go away at times but always coming back!
Going on a Bear Hunt
Peepo
On the night you were born
Each Peach Pear Plum
Guess how much I love you
Where is the Green Sheep?
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
Here is one that is great but uses American Food terms. It's the only reason I haven't purchased it. We call Zucchini Courgettes in Ireland, eggplant is aubergine etc…
Eating through the Alphabet
Thank you! I will add some of those to my cart in amazon 🙂
Fun post! My kids have my Dr. Seuss books from when I was a kid, which were passed down to me from my older siblings. They are worse for wear but very treasured! We read the 10 Little Fingers & Toes book often here too, but I change the end to 4 babies and 40 fingers & 40 toes (and 4 kisses on the tops of their nose!) to accommodate the quads. 🙂 Other favorites of ours are the Pout Pout fish books, Little Blue Truck, Poke a Dot books (the quads LOVE them!) and we recently added Chicka Chicka 123 since we liked the alphabet version so much!