Reading books is one of the best ways that we as parents can support language for our toddlers. Even a few minutes of reading per day has been shown by research to dramatically improve children’s language abilities.
It is also easy to get overwhelmed with the wide range of books available. I hope that this break down gives you some great inspiration for choosing books for your 1-3 year old.
A word of advice: choose books for your toddler that cover a variety of topics. It is easy to see bookshelf inspiration images on social media and to get fooled into thinking that you need 10 books of every different theme. You really don’t. Having books that cover a variety of interests will give great language exposure and also keep your bookshelves manageable.
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10 of the best books for 1 year olds
- Nursery rhymes texture book and CD
- Lift and flap first 100 animals
- Where is baby’s belly button
- Goodnight moon
- The Hungry Caterpillar
- Brown Bear
- From Head to Toe
- Tails
- Things that go vroom texture book
- Itsy bitsy finger puppet book
Books for 2 year olds
- Little Blue Truck
- Here we go round the mulberry bush
- Paddington’s suitcase collection
- Winnie the Pooh box set
- Pete the cat
- Maisy Mouse
- Guess how much I love you
- Playtown emergency flapbook
- The Julia Rothman Collection
- Tabby McTat
The best books for 3 year olds
- The bad tempered ladybird
- The gruffalo
- Have you filled a bucket today
- Behaviour matters series
- My mouth is a volcano
- Arnie the Donut
- There’s an elephant in my kitchen
- The snail and the wail
- Piggins
- My encyclopedia of very important things
Looking for more ideas? Head back to the ultimate gift guide for 1- 3 year olds.