7 Children Books Your Kids Will Love

Books! How do they stack up in today’s age of smart­phones and high-tech laptops? Well, when it comes to young tod­dlers, they are a fun­da­men­tal learn­ing tool. As a par­ent or teacher, you know the ben­e­fits of read­ing with your child are endless! Improved vocab­u­lary and lan­guage skills, bet­ter con­cen­tra­tion, an increase in cre­ativ­i­ty, and imag­i­na­tion are just some of the many ben­e­fits your child will expe­ri­ence with you read with them. But where do you start? There are mil­lions of children’s books out there that are all vying to make it to your child’s book­shelf. Get­ting a child excit­ed about read­ing may not be as easy as them get­ting excit­ed about watch­ing their favourite car­toons. Well, luck­i­ly for you, we’ve cho­sen 7 of our favourite best-sell­ing books that you and your child are sure to love!

1- Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Dear Zoo is a won­der­ful and inter­ac­tive, lift-the-flap book. It has been enor­mous­ly suc­cess­ful and has found a home in many house­holds since it was first pub­lished in 1982. The book tells the first-per­son sto­ry about some­one who asks the local zoo for a pet. With each turn of the page, your tod­dler will be drawn into the sto­ry, lift­ing a flap to reveal a dif­fer­ent kind of animal. What will the per­fect pet be? You’ll have to keep flip­ping the pages to find out. Through­out the book, tod­dlers will have to imag­ine receiv­ing the wildest of ani­mals as pets! Lions, Giraffes, even Gorillas! The book is a sim­ple read, yet fun for any tod­dler. It pro­vides fun illus­tra­tions; a vari­ety of ani­mals and the flaps also pro­vide your child with some fun and excitement.

2- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

First pub­lished in 1994, The Very Hun­gry Cater­pil­lar has sold over 12 mil­lion copies in more than a dozen lan­guages. This fun and edu­ca­tion­al clas­sic is one of the most suc­cess­ful children’s books of all time. The Very Hun­gry Cater­pil­lar is a pic­ture book that focus­es on the life of a new­ly born cater­pil­lar look­ing to quench its large appetite. The pic­tures in the book are very bright and colour­ful, and your tod­dler will learn a bit about the life process a cater­pil­lar goes through. One of the sub­lim­i­nal qual­i­ties this book pro­vides is that it teach­es your child about count­ing num­bers. As you jour­ney on and see what the cater­pil­lar eats, the book lists the dif­fer­ent food items and the quan­ti­ty of each item. This makes for a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to count out loud with your child to devel­op math­e­mat­i­cal skills as well as improv­ing their read­ing and vocab­u­lary. The book ends but teach­ing your child the entire life cycle of this won­der­ful crea­ture, with the cater­pil­lar enter­ing its cocoon and emerg­ing as a beau­ti­ful butterfly.

3- The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin

Pos­i­tive rein­force­ment in young chil­dren is essen­tial to help them grow into pro­duc­tive young adults. The Won­der­ful Things You Will Be is a great read for chil­dren as it instills in them the qual­i­ties and attrib­ut­es they should aim for as they grow up. The text is a rhyming poem that is divid­ed through­out the pages of the book. The book tells the sto­ry from a par­en­t’s per­spec­tive, with each page describ­ing a dif­fer­ent pos­i­tive qual­i­ty that a par­ent hopes their child develops. It’s a fun and moti­va­tion­al read for any tod­dler. It pro­motes many pos­i­tive influ­ences, such as being kind to peo­ple and ani­mals, being brave, and putting a strong empha­sis on learning. The illus­tra­tions in the book are warm and detailed and depict var­i­ous expe­ri­ences through­out dif­fer­ent phas­es of a child’s life. The Won­der­ful Things You Will Be tru­ly aims to teach chil­dren the val­ue of behav­ing well and being respect­ful to one anoth­er. This New York Times best­seller was pub­lished in 2015 and will con­tin­ue to find its place in homes across the world for many years to come.

4- Touch The Earth by Julian Lennon

This heart­warm­ing book by Julian Lennon (son of Bea­t­les singer John Lennon), takes aim at teach­ing chil­dren — and any­one else who reads it regard­less of their age — that we must respect the earth and do what we can to help pre­serve it. The impor­tance of pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment is one of the biggest issues peo­ple of all ages face today. Odd­ly, how­ev­er, it’s a mes­sage that is not com­mon­ly found in many children’s books, and yet, it’s some­thing we should all aim to instill in younger gen­er­a­tions as one of their basic rules: Love your plan­et and keep it safe. Julian Lennon does exact­ly that with this fab­u­lous piece of writ­ing. The book is very inter­ac­tive and has won­der­ful illus­tra­tions, which is great for keep­ing chil­dren engaged with the story. His pas­sion for heal­ing our plan­et is evi­dent in this book, and it’s easy to read text will trans­late well for chil­dren of all ages. It’s a beau­ti­ful sto­ry with a strong edu­ca­tion­al com­po­nent, moti­vat­ing young read­ers to keep our plan­et healthy for all the gen­er­a­tions to come. Be sure to add this amaz­ing book to your read­ing col­lec­tion for your tod­dler!

5- If Animals Kissed Goodnight by Ann Whitford Paul

Kiss­ing our kids good­night is one of those tra­di­tions that cross con­ti­nents. And for that rea­son, If Ani­mals Kissed Good­night by Ann White­ford Paul is a book that every par­ent and child can warm up to for some bed­time reading. The con­tent of the book is adorable, to say the least. It’s a fun read with rhyming text and full of colour­ful illus­tra­tions of car­toon ani­mals like sloths, ele­phants, and pea­cocks, just to name a few. It asks the read­ers to pon­der the inter­est­ing ways these ani­mals might kiss their chil­dren good­night. Kids will love let­ting their imag­i­na­tion take over and visu­al­ize them­selves and their par­ents as the car­toon ani­mals in the story. The author makes sure to include both mom and dad as the ani­mals in the book. It’s a nice touch to encour­age cre­ative think­ing and bond­ing with both par­ents. Ann Whit­ford Paul has been writ­ing children’s books since 1985 and pub­lished If Ani­mals Kissed Good­night in 2008.

6- From Head to Toe Board Book By Eric Carle

Eric Car­le makes to the list again with his fun pic­ture book, From Head To Toe. This book is dif­fer­ent from his oth­er work, The Very Hun­gry Cater­pil­lar, in that it is a much more inter­ac­tive and asks chil­dren to par­tic­i­pate as they read along. Chil­dren will be taught dif­fer­ent move­ments that ani­mals make and then asked to repeat the same move­ments themselves. While on the sur­face, it appears to be a fun activ­i­ty book, the chil­dren who read it walk away with greater lis­ten­ing skills and equal­ly as impor­tant, a greater sense of self-con­fi­dence. The book describes an action done by an ani­mal and then asks the chil­dren, “Can you do it?”. Their reac­tion is, “Yes! I can,” and in an instant, they find the self-con­fi­dence to repeat the action they just learned in the book. This all takes place while learn­ing to focus, read, and have fun at the same time. This kind of mes­sage and fun way of deliv­er­ing it is an invalu­able tool for class­rooms and in the home.

7- Potty by Leslie Patricelli

The life of a tod­dler is one of many achieve­ments. Their first word. The first time they walk. First day of preschool/kindergarten. And of course, learn­ing to use the pot­ty for the first time. It is a sign of their first per­son­al inde­pen­dence. Not rely­ing on an adult to clean up after them. It is tru­ly a great mile­stone, and some­times they need a lit­tle extra help along the way. Leslie Patricelli’s Pot­ty is the per­fect advo­cate to help par­ents com­mu­ni­cate with chil­dren how and when to go to the pot­ty. The book has a comedic tone to it, which makes it an enter­tain­ing read for both par­ents and toddlers. The ani­mat­ed illus­tra­tions are easy for chil­dren to iden­ti­fy with, and the book teach­es chil­dren to be patient in the process. They may not be suc­cess­ful the first time around, but they’ll know after read­ing this book that they shouldn’t give up.

The Bottom Line: Choose Books Instead of Monitors

Whether you’re read­ing to your chil­dren at night before bed­time or through­out the day dur­ing some down­time, any one of the books list­ed here is the per­fect addi­tion to your collection. When you read to your child, you’re not only teach­ing them valu­able skills such as lan­guage and social skills, but you’re also open­ing up their imag­i­na­tion and build­ing their self-con­fi­dence. It’s impor­tant to remem­ber how much read­ing helps to devel­op a child’s brain. In today’s age of tech­nol­o­gy and mon­i­tors, few­er and few­er chil­dren are tak­ing to books. Tech­nol­o­gy is not to be ignored or pro­hib­it­ed. It also pro­vides great tools, infor­ma­tion, and ways of learning. But read­ing with your child keeps you in the dri­ver’s seat with the infor­ma­tion their brains absorb. It will help to set the stage for the great per­son they will become, espe­cial­ly dur­ing those impor­tant devel­op­men­tal years.