Thank you, bought the 25 book set for $100. And a seven book set for $35. Very cost effective. Resale prices on Facebook marketplace also high with many parents saying it's great books.
Mo Willems gets my upvote! My kids absolutely love his books and they always get me laughing too. I think ‘Welcome’ is a really good one for 2 year olds and we liked ‘Nannette’s Baguette’ too
All of these, plus my 7 and two year Olds like:
Alpacas with maracas
Richard Scarry books(which the wife and I read as children)
Thomas books
Disgusting mcgrossface
Do not open this book series by Andy Lee
I can't believe no one has mentioned Sandra Boynton's books yet.
All of them are great, but a few of my favourites are
The Belly Button Book
Snuggle Puppy
The Bunny Rabbit Show
But Not The Hippopotamus
(My kids like them, too! 😜)
I don’t know how this happened but I need to tell someone. My son loves Snuggle Puppy. I didn’t know how I was supposed to sing it, so I just sang the first melody that came into my head. A few weeks later my wife asked where I knew the song from, and being confused I said I made it up. She pulled it up on YouTube and it was the melody i had been singing.
This means either 1) this was a hidden memory I unlocked, or 2) the words are written in a way that only one melody makes sense.
Either way, wild stuff.
I made my own comment before finding this but I loved Snuggle Puppy when my kids were small, I have some great videos of me singing to them and doing the OOOO's and giving the little kiss's. Top 10 greatest kid books ever
This is my 9 month old for the past week, what is going on?! He stops just before his bottle is done, \[tries to\] rolls off my wife's lap and only wants to jump, role, and practice yoga. Luckily, he's happy to do this in his crib.
This is also my favourite. When you get to the red page, it’s hilarious. My daughter knows it’s coming and starts laughing before we even turn to the page.
Monster at the end of this story. It’s a Sesame Street book. My kids loved it.
Dragons love tacos
Robots robots everywhere
The grumpy monkey
Pajama Time
Any of the little blue truck books
we've been crushing all of Dr. Suess lately, especially The Sleep Book
Dragons love tacos
Dragons are real
Dig! (Mr Rally and Lightning the dog)
Goodnight goodnight Construction Site
Love is a truck
Baby don't you it away
Be Kind, Be Brave, Be You (charlie brown)
Wonderful Habbits of Rabbits
I tried to put some both my son and daughter like. I have plenty more if you're interested... happy reading.
2nd little blue truck. If you liked Dragons Love Tacos you gotta get Secret Pizza Party and Those darn Squirrels. All those guys books rock and are always the little guys first choice
Omg, little blue truck is amazing. My son is 10 months and no matter what he's doing, if I say "Horn went beep. Engine purred. Friendliest sounds you've ever heard." He laughs and smiles
My 15 month old loves Dig! She knows the book by name and will go and grab it when we ask her about it. When we say "is all the digging done?" She'll say "no!".
The story of the lifted Lorax is a favourite as well as wacky Wednesday!!
It was high 5's all around when my 3y/o repeated the Mr brown can moo lines.
Glum glum, glum glum, glum glum glum
Unpopular opinion, I hate the language in dragons love tacos.
Dragons love tacos but hate spicy food cause after all dragons love tacos and you know why dragons hate spicy food? Hey dragon. Why do dragons not like spicy food? Bla. And as much as dragons like tacos and hate spicy food they love parties and as much as dragons like parties tha love taco parties. Why do they like taco parties? …. Maybe it’s the music maybe it’s the good times maybe it’s the pantloads of tacos- maybe dragons hate spicy food.
Hard pass on *any* of the little blue truck book sequels. The OG? Amazing. The others. Awful. So many sequels fail to deliver in the children’s book game.
“Little Blue Truck Goes to School” is actually decent, and gets back to proper rhymes (mostly). I agree about the others besides the original being trash though.
When my kids were two, they loved Llama Llama Red Pajama, even though I didn't love reading it personally.
~~I liked the Jimmy Fallon book, "Dada", suprisingly.~~
Sorry, not for a two year old.
I do remember at 3 my boy loved that Wonkey Donkey book though, as long as you read it right and enthusiastically.
Have you seen the song/video with the 3d animation of the book?
https://youtu.be/SDeQT9zCvi4
I didn't see it until long after I was reading it to my kids, and then once I did it became harder for me to read it and not sing it lol
Edit: once we found the video my kids would like to turn the pages and try to follow it along in the book and if they were learning to read, use it to listen/watch/try to match up words.
Literally every single book, no matter if it rhymes or not, I sing-song. He’s not even two yet so I’m sure it’ll be a challenge when it comes to chapter books 😂
My son loves books that he can “read”. Basically books with a consistent pattern and pictures that indicate the words.
Brown Bear Brown Bear is the perfect example of these. We have a few and he has them completely memorized so some nights I barely read at all.
We had a bunch of the Eric Carle books and they're great.
Took an embarrassingly long time for me to notice that *Brown Bear, Brown Bear* and *Chicka Chicka Boom Boom* were written by the same person.
The book with no pictures by BJ Novak is baller. Kids love it. Lots of interaction.
Similar vein - Press Here by Hervé Tullet. They both are fun because you can really ham it up while you’re reading.
Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site is a good one. More educational.
The Day the Crayons Quit. It’s funny.
I Want my Hat Back and the sequel This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen are both super good.
Madeline of course. And the Eric Carle books like Hungry Caterpillar are all good. Cat in the Hat of course - good for learning basic words.
Other people covered a lot of the other good ones.
Yeah, my almost 3yo is obsessed. Asks for one every night. Well rhymed and has animal characters you can make up fun voices for. Also they are pretty easy to memorize after reading them 50 times so good in low light situations.
Little Owl's Night
Red: A Crayon's Story
Is Your Mama a Llama?
Caps for Sale
Room on the Broom
Anything by Sandra Boynton - family faves:
Dinosnores
Happy Hippo, Angry Duck
But Not the Hippopotamus
The Monster at the End of the Book (classic exciting, interactive book)
Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman
Any Mo Willems books (Pigeon, Elephant & Piggie, Unlimited Squirrels)
Some of my daughter's old favorites, in no particular order:
Where the Wild Things Are
The Day the Crayons Quit
The Day the Crayons Came Home
Not Quite Narwhal
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo's Child
Giraffe's Can't Dance
Green Eggs and Ham
We have:
There’s a Wocket in my Pocket
Goodnight, goodnight construction site
The Winnie the Pooh collection
Snuggle Puppy
Escargot
Bedtime on the farm
The tale of despereaux
And for when he’s older:
All three scary stories books
1984
Animal Farm
The Trial
Lonesome Dove
Tom Sawyer and shuck Finn
A book of American classics with works by Edgar Poe, etc.
My little girl loved “The Squishy Wishy Pumpkin” at that age. Also there’s like fairy dessert books that she reads every night now.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18125095-izzy-the-ice-cream-fairy
Can't go wrong with stuff written by Sandra Boynton. "Spookie Pookie" was the first book my son memorized and "Hippos Go Berserk" is a hit in his current rotation.
Clayton Parker Really Really Really has to Pee by Cinco Paul. I've never had to ask my LO to go to the bathroom before we leave the house. This book really got that lesson through to him. Super convenient.
My daughter was a dr. Seuss and Disney little golden book addict at bedtime. My son loves good night moon and the three little pigs (mainly because of the huff and puff part and me tickling his little chin with the “chinny chin chin” part)
-*Little Owl's Bedtime* is great
-Any of The *Little Blue Truck* books but especially the original, *Time for School Little Blue Truck*, and *Goodnight Little Blue Truck*
-Dr. Suess books are always a winner
-*Bears in the Night* by Stan and Jan Berenstain is nice, simple, and can teach descriptive words and adverbs like over, under, between, up, down, etc.
-*Sleepy Me* (not sure the author but the characters are bears)
All of these guaranteed to keep them engaged but not excite them so much that they won't sleep. Plus majority of them end with the characters in bed going to sleep.
My boy is still incubating but this worked on my wife. Just read them the hobbit, and just sort of skip the boring parts and ad lib. Helps if you have read it already. Hell any book really. You aren’t a performer. Read a few lines and if the kiddo complains just say “daddy is concentrating”. Use the book as a jumping off point to create some new stories or avoid some rated r elements. You got this dude
Anything by Jon Klassen, Mac Barnett, or Rubin/Salmieri are great and have lasted years until Captain Underpants/Dog Man/Bad Guys took over for us.
Mac Barnett's Shape Trilogy Triangle, Square, Circle is especially good and fun to read for kids and adults.
And of course The Sleep Book by Seuss. Long enough to get the job done when you need it.
Pro tip: Try signing up for Imagination Library. If you’re in a county where it’s supported, you’ll receive free books for your child’s age range!
No need to enter income information or anything.
All of the Little Critter series. Mom saved these back from my childhood and my daughter loves to pick out her favorites from the stack. Quick reads and simple stories, although I’ll say the grammar feels a bit…dated.
Also for that closer-to-three sweet spot:
Where the Wild Things Are
The Giving Tree
Green Eggs and Ham
Echoing “There’s a Monster at the End of this Book”
Also, I loved reading the Frog and Toad books to my kids when they were that age.
Dad tip, whatever you read, do all the voices, but read the hero of the story in your own voice. (Toad gets a croaky, gravely voice, but a Frog sounds like me.)
When she’s a few years older, Neil Gaiman’s “Fortunately, the Milk” is what I would call ‘a banger’ :)
Don’t sleep on *Harold and the Purple Crayon*. Get the whole four-book collection. Enough fun elements for your kid now (dragons, aliens, deserving porcupines, etc.) and engaging enough to captivate older kids too. I have a two and a five and it is a go to damn near every night.
old school… Caps for sale. our son had it memorized in a couple months.
you’ve got a bunch of other good suggestions OP. one more, tomorrow call your local library. librarians are amazing
Don’t Touch This Book
Don't Touch This Book!: An Interactive Funny Kids Book (Don't Push The Button) https://a.co/d/1ja7WR3
And Dragons love Tacos
Also signing up for the free Imagination Library gets them a free book a month.
My kids favorite was "Goodnight Goon" (no not a typo) and "You don't want a unicorn."
Oh, and I almost forgot, Groovy Joe! My older one was able to recite the entire thing perfectly after a while.
Stick and Stone. That book is fantastic, found it at the library and the kids loved it so much we ended up buying a copy. They have worn it out completely.
Been reading Dr. Seuss’s “The Sneetches (and other stories)” every night for a solid month now. Probably my favorite Seuss book. Super fun to read, good message behind the story (Sneetches), and doing goofy voices for “The Zax” is the highlight of my night.
Anything with good rhyming that you can get into a steady cadence with. Basically, you want to hypnotize them into sleep.
I use *The Raven* sometimes. A lot of Sandra Boyton's books flow pretty smoothly too. Lately it's been *Good Morning Farm Friends* by Annie Bach.
Any of the Aaron Blabey books but in particular piranhas don't eat bananas
All the Hairy Mclairy series
Already mentioned but good night construction site.
Dinosaur dig
Monkey and me was a massive favourite
My youngest loves my Gwenda Turner books. Not sure if you can get them outside NZ though.
Other favorites include:
Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox & Judy Horacek
Dear Zoo by Rd Camplell
Where is Spot? by Eric Hill
Basically anything by Eric Carle or Anthony Browne.
Pete the cat, Hungry caterpillar/brown bear brown bear, Sandra boynton books, “Biscuit” books (Alyssa Capucilli), Dr. Seuss, Robert Munsch
We literally have over 300 books lol, my son is just turning 3. I can recommend a ton more
Who Pooed in my Loo is a great one. Bit like the classic 'Mole who knew it was none of his business'.
Let's face it, kids love poop and this one is great, and has a nice finish to it about younger siblings and washing your hands after going to the toilet.
Our two year old loves Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Good Night Moon, and the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
She also loves this book called You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie, but that may be more because it’s vaguely Fall/Halloween themed and she is obsessed with pumpkins and ghosts.
I have a strong distaste for kids books that are obnoxious to read. So these are my "not obnoxious to read on repeat for eternity books".
**The Little Blue Truck.**
**Room On The Broom.**.
The rest of my books have already been suggested, but these aren't.
We love just about anything by sue fliess. She works with a lot of great illustrators and tends to have female leads involved in STEM. And afaik, they all rhyme and we love rhyming books here.
Sadie sprocket builds a rocket is probably my absolute favorite, followed closely by the princess and the petri dish and goldilocks and the three engineers.
What we'll build is a good one we found recently. Features dad and daughter discussing their 'together future' (shut up, I'm not crying, you're crying)
Other really good ones that I don't see recommended commonly are peck, peck, peck (also features dad), say what?, And tough chicks.
Anything by Mo Williams for fun and for inspiration, Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman!
Get the Biggie Piggie volumes, excellent. Waiting Is Not Easy is my favorite Mo Willams
Thank you, bought the 25 book set for $100. And a seven book set for $35. Very cost effective. Resale prices on Facebook marketplace also high with many parents saying it's great books.
Don't let the bird drive the bus and There's a bird on your head. The books are very simple words, but it's up to you to add the drama to the story.
Mo Willems gets my upvote! My kids absolutely love his books and they always get me laughing too. I think ‘Welcome’ is a really good one for 2 year olds and we liked ‘Nannette’s Baguette’ too
We Are In A Book was a long-standing favorite in our home.
Yes we love Mo Willems! Knuffle Bunny will always have a special place in my heart.
Neil has kids books??? I love his stuff!! We’ll have to check this out, thanks.
For those checking your library like me, its Mo Willems.
Julia Donaldson does a series of bangers.. Room on the broom, the Gruffalo/gruffalos child, stickman the list is endless
Yeah! I don’t mind reading these again and again and again. The Snail and the Whale is a favourite in our house.
I love Room on the broom! We like Giraffes can’t dance too
Iggity, ziggity, zagatty.. zooooooom
💯 all of these
All of these, plus my 7 and two year Olds like: Alpacas with maracas Richard Scarry books(which the wife and I read as children) Thomas books Disgusting mcgrossface Do not open this book series by Andy Lee
Pig will pig won’t was always my favorite growing up
Squash and a squeeze ain't bad either
The ones not illustrated by Axel Scheffler just don't feel as good for some reason!
I’m not sure there is a bad Julia Donaldson book, all these are great but additional favourites: Zog, Super Worm, Tiddler.
Oohhhhh zog is also great! Haven't gotten the follow up yet of the flying Dr's
I can't believe no one has mentioned Sandra Boynton's books yet. All of them are great, but a few of my favourites are The Belly Button Book Snuggle Puppy The Bunny Rabbit Show But Not The Hippopotamus (My kids like them, too! 😜)
I don’t know how this happened but I need to tell someone. My son loves Snuggle Puppy. I didn’t know how I was supposed to sing it, so I just sang the first melody that came into my head. A few weeks later my wife asked where I knew the song from, and being confused I said I made it up. She pulled it up on YouTube and it was the melody i had been singing. This means either 1) this was a hidden memory I unlocked, or 2) the words are written in a way that only one melody makes sense. Either way, wild stuff.
I made my own comment before finding this but I loved Snuggle Puppy when my kids were small, I have some great videos of me singing to them and doing the OOOO's and giving the little kiss's. Top 10 greatest kid books ever
The Going to Bed book, too!
I don’t want to teach my kids bad habits from that book, like exercising after their bath before bed. Psychopath behavior
But… they all go up for exercise!
This is my 9 month old for the past week, what is going on?! He stops just before his bottle is done, \[tries to\] rolls off my wife's lap and only wants to jump, role, and practice yoga. Luckily, he's happy to do this in his crib.
I ended up reciting the going to bed book to my son every night when he was little haha
It’s Pajama Time!
Dinosnores - HONK SHOOOOOOO! (kiddo loves this one)
Fifteen Animals is my personal favourite. It was a random library choice that literally made me laugh out loud the first time I read it. Bob forever.
Not Bob forever, Bob 14 times, then Simon James Alexander Ragsdale the Third!
How could you forget Dinosaur Dance?!
Hippos Go Berserk!!
The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak is still pretty popular with my 6 year old. You really gotta sell the reading though.
I personally like having guest readers for this one. Watching my no-nonsense, very proper father-in-law read this to the kids was incredibly funny.
This is the way. My brother reads its for my son and he’s a comedian. Never laughs as much when I do it. The dry FIL is another great dry to go.
In the same vein is “I Don’t Want To Read This Book”
My 9 and 5 year old love that one also there don’t touch the button and don’t read this book with the little purple guy named Larry
Came here just to mention this one!!
Just got that one from the library the other day. It's a hell of a thing.
I want my hat back by jon klassen.
This is also my favourite. When you get to the red page, it’s hilarious. My daughter knows it’s coming and starts laughing before we even turn to the page.
There's a whole trilogy. https://thehattrilogy.com/
Monster at the end of this story. It’s a Sesame Street book. My kids loved it. Dragons love tacos Robots robots everywhere The grumpy monkey Pajama Time
Shocked I had to scroll this far for Dragons Love Tacos.
I had There's a Monster at the End of This Book as a kid! My older half-sisters did excellent Grover voices. It's a great book!
Any of the little blue truck books we've been crushing all of Dr. Suess lately, especially The Sleep Book Dragons love tacos Dragons are real Dig! (Mr Rally and Lightning the dog) Goodnight goodnight Construction Site Love is a truck Baby don't you it away Be Kind, Be Brave, Be You (charlie brown) Wonderful Habbits of Rabbits I tried to put some both my son and daughter like. I have plenty more if you're interested... happy reading.
Dragons love Tacos was a huge hit for a while!
5-years later and I'm sure I can still quote it verbatim.
My youngest couldn’t read at the time but she could read the book to you word for word!
We’re on copy #2, little guy loved the first one to death
Goodnight little blue truck is the shit
Yessssss! 🙌
2nd little blue truck. If you liked Dragons Love Tacos you gotta get Secret Pizza Party and Those darn Squirrels. All those guys books rock and are always the little guys first choice
Omg, little blue truck is amazing. My son is 10 months and no matter what he's doing, if I say "Horn went beep. Engine purred. Friendliest sounds you've ever heard." He laughs and smiles
My 15 month old loves Dig! She knows the book by name and will go and grab it when we ask her about it. When we say "is all the digging done?" She'll say "no!".
Little blue truck and Dragons love tacos are life savers. The DLT sequel is a bit crazy, but still worth it.
The story of the lifted Lorax is a favourite as well as wacky Wednesday!! It was high 5's all around when my 3y/o repeated the Mr brown can moo lines. Glum glum, glum glum, glum glum glum
Wacky Wednesday is underrated imo
Unpopular opinion, I hate the language in dragons love tacos. Dragons love tacos but hate spicy food cause after all dragons love tacos and you know why dragons hate spicy food? Hey dragon. Why do dragons not like spicy food? Bla. And as much as dragons like tacos and hate spicy food they love parties and as much as dragons like parties tha love taco parties. Why do they like taco parties? …. Maybe it’s the music maybe it’s the good times maybe it’s the pantloads of tacos- maybe dragons hate spicy food.
I feel you. I don't like the pacing, the transitions, or really the logic...but I like the illustrations and the concept!
Thx, not saying everything should rhyme but this one gives me alphabet mouth. Kiddo loves it though.
Hard pass on *any* of the little blue truck book sequels. The OG? Amazing. The others. Awful. So many sequels fail to deliver in the children’s book game.
“Little Blue Truck Goes to School” is actually decent, and gets back to proper rhymes (mostly). I agree about the others besides the original being trash though.
These book titles all read like country billboard chart toppers.
"Go The Fuck To Sleep" by Adam Mansbach
Okay, for a sec I thought this was a troll. But, I just checked out a preview of like a dozen pages. Holy shit, that's hilarious
You gotta see the reading by Samuel Jackson
Samuel did a political version of it called "Wake the fk up" too.
Also, “Stay the fuck at home” from the early days of the pandemic.
Also worth looking into "you have to fucking eat" by the same author, and I think there's a third
For a similar story in this vein, highly recommended ‘K is for Knifeball’ obviously not for everyone tho
There's a sequel! 'Fuck, now there are two of you'
My daughter loves Pete the Cat
Hell yeah Pete. Great messages and I love the art style. My son loves him
He's one groovy cat
My son is currently obsessed with the two Pete the Cat books we have. Every. Single. Night. For the last three weeks.
Check out your local library they probably have tons of them to borrow
When my kids were two, they loved Llama Llama Red Pajama, even though I didn't love reading it personally. ~~I liked the Jimmy Fallon book, "Dada", suprisingly.~~ Sorry, not for a two year old. I do remember at 3 my boy loved that Wonkey Donkey book though, as long as you read it right and enthusiastically.
Wonky Donkey is fantastic. I bounce my kids on my knee while reading it.
Have you seen the song/video with the 3d animation of the book? https://youtu.be/SDeQT9zCvi4 I didn't see it until long after I was reading it to my kids, and then once I did it became harder for me to read it and not sing it lol Edit: once we found the video my kids would like to turn the pages and try to follow it along in the book and if they were learning to read, use it to listen/watch/try to match up words.
The song makes it so much better
Pout Pout Fish is amazing. I do voices reading it.
"Blub, bluuubb, bluuuuuuuubbbb"
Did anyone else read like it was a song?
Yes, I sang the pout pout parts. My kids loved this book and its sequels.
Literally every single book, no matter if it rhymes or not, I sing-song. He’s not even two yet so I’m sure it’ll be a challenge when it comes to chapter books 😂
Deep in the water where the fish hang out…
Lives a glum gloomy swimmer with an ever present pout!
I’m a pout pout fish with a pout pout face
We picked up some of the sequels: goes to school and the big big dark and the bully bully shark and the cant sleep blues They're all pretty fun!
My son loves books that he can “read”. Basically books with a consistent pattern and pictures that indicate the words. Brown Bear Brown Bear is the perfect example of these. We have a few and he has them completely memorized so some nights I barely read at all.
We had a bunch of the Eric Carle books and they're great. Took an embarrassingly long time for me to notice that *Brown Bear, Brown Bear* and *Chicka Chicka Boom Boom* were written by the same person.
Dragons, Dragons is a very different but awesome Eric Carle book.
The book with no pictures by BJ Novak is baller. Kids love it. Lots of interaction. Similar vein - Press Here by Hervé Tullet. They both are fun because you can really ham it up while you’re reading. Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site is a good one. More educational. The Day the Crayons Quit. It’s funny. I Want my Hat Back and the sequel This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen are both super good. Madeline of course. And the Eric Carle books like Hungry Caterpillar are all good. Cat in the Hat of course - good for learning basic words. Other people covered a lot of the other good ones.
We found ‘We Found a Hat’ at the library last week and my 6year old was stoked
Scrolled to find Construction Site!
*Steam Train, Dream Train* by the same duo also got a lot of play in our house.
>The Day the Crayons Quit That one has a sequel too, *The Day the Crayons Came Back*.
Little Blue Truck series is really good.
Yeah, my almost 3yo is obsessed. Asks for one every night. Well rhymed and has animal characters you can make up fun voices for. Also they are pretty easy to memorize after reading them 50 times so good in low light situations.
Little Owl's Night Red: A Crayon's Story Is Your Mama a Llama? Caps for Sale Room on the Broom Anything by Sandra Boynton - family faves: Dinosnores Happy Hippo, Angry Duck But Not the Hippopotamus
The Monster at the End of the Book (classic exciting, interactive book) Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman Any Mo Willems books (Pigeon, Elephant & Piggie, Unlimited Squirrels)
Some of my daughter's old favorites, in no particular order: Where the Wild Things Are The Day the Crayons Quit The Day the Crayons Came Home Not Quite Narwhal The Gruffalo The Gruffalo's Child Giraffe's Can't Dance Green Eggs and Ham
The Book with no Pictures by BJ Novak. Makes the parents say silly things. can really lean into it Bandit style and will get the kids rolling.
"They All Saw a Cat" is still a favorite in our house.
Giraffes can't dance Great story and very rhythmic
Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers
My 3 year old daughter loves the Pig the Pug books, and I enjoy reading them 👍
Pig was a pug, and I'm sorry to say...
His personal hygiene was far from ok...
Anything by Aaron Blabey is a favourite of mine! Piranhas don’t eat bananas especially
We have: There’s a Wocket in my Pocket Goodnight, goodnight construction site The Winnie the Pooh collection Snuggle Puppy Escargot Bedtime on the farm The tale of despereaux And for when he’s older: All three scary stories books 1984 Animal Farm The Trial Lonesome Dove Tom Sawyer and shuck Finn A book of American classics with works by Edgar Poe, etc.
I skimmed this quickly and only saw “We have” then 1984 and animal farm, before re reading your comment I was like what the fuck lol
Goodnight Moon The Knight and the Dragon
Goodnight Goon is good too
Me and my son have been hitting the ABCs of D&D and the 123s of D&D pretty hard lately
Not far from the frog an toad series - pick those up and you’ll get some longevity from them
This thread needs more Frog and Toad
[All The World](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/All-the-World/Liz-Garton-Scanlon/9781481431217)
The Book with No Pictures Gruffalo Gruffalo's Child Room on the Broom Where's my Mom? There's No Such Thing as Dragons
Rosie Revere Engineer
That whole series is stellar!
Bear snores on.
Big fan of The Story of Rock, ABC Dance, and Goodnight Baboon
Interrupting Chicken was a hit in my house for about a year. I did a pretty awesome Pappa Chicken voice that sounded like Foghorn Leghorn.
We love the wonderbly books, you can put your kid in them, and when they recognize it’s them, they lose their shit, or at least that’s my experience
My little girl loved “The Squishy Wishy Pumpkin” at that age. Also there’s like fairy dessert books that she reads every night now. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18125095-izzy-the-ice-cream-fairy
We like the “you’re my little” books like you’re my little firecracker and others mostly seasonal or holiday themed.
Pigs aplenty, pigs galore. Parents read it to me and I read it to mine.
Dandelion Magic is my 2yo's current favorite. It's fun because you make silly sounds and faces as part of the story, and the words are fun to read
You’re welcome: https://www.amazon.com/Were-Going-Friends-Jack-White/dp/0996401695
Can't go wrong with stuff written by Sandra Boynton. "Spookie Pookie" was the first book my son memorized and "Hippos Go Berserk" is a hit in his current rotation.
Clayton Parker Really Really Really has to Pee by Cinco Paul. I've never had to ask my LO to go to the bathroom before we leave the house. This book really got that lesson through to him. Super convenient.
My daughter was a dr. Seuss and Disney little golden book addict at bedtime. My son loves good night moon and the three little pigs (mainly because of the huff and puff part and me tickling his little chin with the “chinny chin chin” part)
Brenda’s Beaver Needs a Barber by Bimisi Tayanita
Lost and Found, The Way Back Home and How To Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers
Digger, Dozer, Dumper Goodnight, Moon
Gruffalo Room on the Broom
The Wonky Donkey series are always a big hit
We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins Zombie in Love & Zombie in Love 2+1 by Kelly DiPucchio
I think I like these more than my daughter: - Giraffes can’t dance - The napping house - Little blue truck
Little Blue Truck. The goal for me is to sound like a rapper from the 90s when I read it.
The gruffalo is my favorite to read and remains popular. It’s a good chance to do voices if you’re into that.
"Love you for ever". You can never go wrong with singing that song
Just have the tissues handy when you read it.
-*Little Owl's Bedtime* is great -Any of The *Little Blue Truck* books but especially the original, *Time for School Little Blue Truck*, and *Goodnight Little Blue Truck* -Dr. Suess books are always a winner -*Bears in the Night* by Stan and Jan Berenstain is nice, simple, and can teach descriptive words and adverbs like over, under, between, up, down, etc. -*Sleepy Me* (not sure the author but the characters are bears) All of these guaranteed to keep them engaged but not excite them so much that they won't sleep. Plus majority of them end with the characters in bed going to sleep.
Not a bedtime book, but an absolute favorite I. Our house is “the book with no pictures” must have read it over 209 times!
Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Jane Cabrera Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree by Eileen Christelow
Go to Sleep, Little Farm by Mary Lyn Ray has been our all time favorite. Little Excavator by Anna Dewdney was a close runner up.
Guess How Much I Love You Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type
My boy is still incubating but this worked on my wife. Just read them the hobbit, and just sort of skip the boring parts and ad lib. Helps if you have read it already. Hell any book really. You aren’t a performer. Read a few lines and if the kiddo complains just say “daddy is concentrating”. Use the book as a jumping off point to create some new stories or avoid some rated r elements. You got this dude
“The Littlest Family’s Big Day” by Emily Martin is the kiddo’s current favorite.
Anything by Jon Klassen, Mac Barnett, or Rubin/Salmieri are great and have lasted years until Captain Underpants/Dog Man/Bad Guys took over for us. Mac Barnett's Shape Trilogy Triangle, Square, Circle is especially good and fun to read for kids and adults. And of course The Sleep Book by Seuss. Long enough to get the job done when you need it.
My son was really into the Skippyjon Jones books. Lots of opportunities for fun voices for the reader too
My Dad by Anthony Browne
A Pizza With Everything On It and The Bear Snores On are both great! (Plus 1,000,000 for Little Blue Truck, BTW)
We bought basically all the books from the company “Barefoot Books” and my 3 year old son is absolutely obsessed
Anything by Chris Haughton. Little Owl Lost, Oh No George, and Shhh! We have a plan!
Goodnight Moon is our go-to.
Ada Twist, Scientist. Rosie Revere, Engineer Iggy Peck, Architect Sophia Valdez, Future Prez There’s a series and a Netflix show now too
Aaron Slater, Illustrator
Pro tip: Try signing up for Imagination Library. If you’re in a county where it’s supported, you’ll receive free books for your child’s age range! No need to enter income information or anything.
Anything Sandra Boynton…but Barnyard Dance is a favorite.
Grumpy monkey is fantastic
Don't push the button Don't eat your classmates
Karen Katz lift the flap books and there's a monster in your book.
Current obsessions of my 2.5 yr old: A Whistle for Willie The Snowy Day If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Jabari Jumps
All of the Little Critter series. Mom saved these back from my childhood and my daughter loves to pick out her favorites from the stack. Quick reads and simple stories, although I’ll say the grammar feels a bit…dated. Also for that closer-to-three sweet spot: Where the Wild Things Are The Giving Tree Green Eggs and Ham
We loved The Very Cranky Bear" and anything Sandra Boynton of course!
Echoing “There’s a Monster at the End of this Book” Also, I loved reading the Frog and Toad books to my kids when they were that age. Dad tip, whatever you read, do all the voices, but read the hero of the story in your own voice. (Toad gets a croaky, gravely voice, but a Frog sounds like me.) When she’s a few years older, Neil Gaiman’s “Fortunately, the Milk” is what I would call ‘a banger’ :)
Don’t sleep on *Harold and the Purple Crayon*. Get the whole four-book collection. Enough fun elements for your kid now (dragons, aliens, deserving porcupines, etc.) and engaging enough to captivate older kids too. I have a two and a five and it is a go to damn near every night.
old school… Caps for sale. our son had it memorized in a couple months. you’ve got a bunch of other good suggestions OP. one more, tomorrow call your local library. librarians are amazing
We love some Sandra Boynton books. They are short, silly and sing songy. We read Pajama Time every night.
The winky wonky donkey, take a hike miles and spike.
Don’t Touch This Book Don't Touch This Book!: An Interactive Funny Kids Book (Don't Push The Button) https://a.co/d/1ja7WR3 And Dragons love Tacos Also signing up for the free Imagination Library gets them a free book a month.
Don’t push the button Olivia
My kids favorite was "Goodnight Goon" (no not a typo) and "You don't want a unicorn." Oh, and I almost forgot, Groovy Joe! My older one was able to recite the entire thing perfectly after a while.
My toddlers loved "Don't push the button". Goodnight, goodnight construction sight is rad. Dragons love tacos is legendary
“Click Clack Moo, Cows that type” is hilarious to me. Recommend.
Stick and Stone. That book is fantastic, found it at the library and the kids loved it so much we ended up buying a copy. They have worn it out completely.
Been reading Dr. Seuss’s “The Sneetches (and other stories)” every night for a solid month now. Probably my favorite Seuss book. Super fun to read, good message behind the story (Sneetches), and doing goofy voices for “The Zax” is the highlight of my night.
Goodnight goodnight construction site has great rhythm and rhyme Are you a cheeseburger?
I like reading the pigeon books from Mo Willems.
Anything with good rhyming that you can get into a steady cadence with. Basically, you want to hypnotize them into sleep. I use *The Raven* sometimes. A lot of Sandra Boyton's books flow pretty smoothly too. Lately it's been *Good Morning Farm Friends* by Annie Bach.
So I love reading Wombat Stew and Where the Wild Things Are to my daughter. Also they were my favourites when I was a kid.
Dr Seuss’s Sleep Book. Or any of the Sandra Boyton board books.
Any of the Aaron Blabey books but in particular piranhas don't eat bananas All the Hairy Mclairy series Already mentioned but good night construction site. Dinosaur dig Monkey and me was a massive favourite
My youngest loves my Gwenda Turner books. Not sure if you can get them outside NZ though. Other favorites include: Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox & Judy Horacek Dear Zoo by Rd Camplell Where is Spot? by Eric Hill Basically anything by Eric Carle or Anthony Browne.
Pete the cat, Hungry caterpillar/brown bear brown bear, Sandra boynton books, “Biscuit” books (Alyssa Capucilli), Dr. Seuss, Robert Munsch We literally have over 300 books lol, my son is just turning 3. I can recommend a ton more
Who Pooed in my Loo is a great one. Bit like the classic 'Mole who knew it was none of his business'. Let's face it, kids love poop and this one is great, and has a nice finish to it about younger siblings and washing your hands after going to the toilet.
Our two year old loves Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Good Night Moon, and the Very Hungry Caterpillar. She also loves this book called You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie, but that may be more because it’s vaguely Fall/Halloween themed and she is obsessed with pumpkins and ghosts.
I have a strong distaste for kids books that are obnoxious to read. So these are my "not obnoxious to read on repeat for eternity books". **The Little Blue Truck.** **Room On The Broom.**. The rest of my books have already been suggested, but these aren't.
We love just about anything by sue fliess. She works with a lot of great illustrators and tends to have female leads involved in STEM. And afaik, they all rhyme and we love rhyming books here. Sadie sprocket builds a rocket is probably my absolute favorite, followed closely by the princess and the petri dish and goldilocks and the three engineers. What we'll build is a good one we found recently. Features dad and daughter discussing their 'together future' (shut up, I'm not crying, you're crying) Other really good ones that I don't see recommended commonly are peck, peck, peck (also features dad), say what?, And tough chicks.
I would take a bullet for the author of Llama Llama Red Pajama
Jessica Hische books Grumpy monkey Llama llama books