Suggested Reading for Toddlers

Suggested Reading for Toddlers (18 months - 3 years)

Updated October 14, 2023
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I Like Trains
Hirst, Daisy
Paper Book
Daisy Hirst's charming ode to a toddler's love of trains, featuring her sweet signature artwork Whether sending toy animals on a journey around a model track or driving a cardboard-box locomotive, this little puppy really likes trains. All aboard! But best of all is riding a real...
One fox : a counting book thriller
Read, Kate
Paper Book
Counting from one to ten has never been so thrilling in this Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor Book and recipient of the Mathical Book Prize from Kate Read! One hungry fox with two sly eyes is on the prowl . . . three plump hens had better watch out! Rich...
Don't worry, little crab
Haughton, Chris
Paper Book
From the award-winning creator of Shh! We Have a Plan comes a vibrantly colorful story about mustering the courage to try something new. Little Crab and Very Big Crab live in a tiny rock pool near the sea. Today they're going for a dip in the big ocean. "This is going to...
Don't worry, little crab
Haughton, Chris
Paper Book
From the award-winning creator of Shh! We Have a Plan comes a vibrantly colorful story about mustering the courage to try something new. Little Crab and Very Big Crab live in a tiny rock pool near the sea. Today they're going for a dip in the big ocean. "This is going to...
The button book
Nicholls, Sally
Paper Book
This silly and sweet picture book introduces young children to colors through humor and clever interactive elements. For fans of Hervé Tullet's Press Here. Here's a button. I wonder what happens when you press it? Follow a group of animal friends as...
A polar bear in the snow
Barnett, Mac
Paper Book
A majestic polar bear heads out on a mysterious walk in a dazzling, playful collaboration from an exciting pair of picture-book creators. Follow a magnificent polar bear through a fantastic world of snow and shockingly blue sea. Over the ice, through the water, past Arctic...
Butterfly, butterfly
Horá?ek, Petr.
Paper Book
Little ones will hover over this colorful look at insect critters as they peek through die-cuts and enjoy a final pop-up surprise. Lucy sees a beautiful butterfly in the garden, along with a bright green beetle, a brilliant blue dragonfly, some red ladybugs, and many more flying...
I am bat
Hood, Morag
Paper Book
I am bat. I love cherries. They are juicy and red and delicious and... My cherries! Some of them are missing. Who took my cherries? Was it YOU? Join the grumpily adorable Bat as he searches for his missing cherries in this vibrant and hilarious picture book.
Where is the green sheep?
Fox, Mem
Paper Book
Little ones are sure to be lulled off to a peaceful, sheep-filled sleep by this cozy book from acclaimed author Mem Fox. There are red sheep and blue sheep, wind sheep and wave sheep, scared sheep and brave sheep, but where is the green sheep? The search is on in this cozy, sheep...
Everybody in the Red Brick Building
Wynter, Anne
Paper Book
A fresh, urban take on bedtime stories in the spirit of The House That Jack Built and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, from debut author Anne Wynter and Caldecott Honoree Oge Mora. Everybody in the red brick building was asleep. Until . . . WaaaAAH! Rraak! Wake up! ...
One of these is not like the others
Saltzberg, Barney
Paper Book
One of these is not like that other--and that's great! This gently subversive picture book points out-- and celebrates!-- the differences between subjects. Barney Saltzberg's hilarious and delightfully direct text and simple illustrations introduce children to the concept...
I want my hat back
Klassen, Jon
Paper Book
A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2011! A picture-book delight by a rising talent tells a cumulative tale with a mischievous twist. The bear's hat is gone, and he wants it back. Patiently and politely, he asks the animals he comes...
Again!
Gravett, Emily
Paper Book
A little dragon and his favorite book make for a combustible combination in this clever picture book with a surprise ending. It's nearly Cedric the dragon's bedtime, and for Cedric, bedtime means storytime! When his mother reads him his favorite book, he likes the story so much...
I want my hat back
Klassen, J.
Paper Book
A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2011! A picture-book delight by a rising talent tells a cumulative tale with a mischievous twist. The bear's hat is gone, and he wants it back. Patiently and politely, he asks the animals he comes...
Crunch, the shy dinosaur
Dunlap, Cirocco
Paper Book
From Cirocco Dunlap (This Book Will Not Be Fun) and Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner Greg Pizzoli (The Watermelon Seed) comes a charming, giggly read-aloud that illustrates the particular art of making a friend! Crunch is a lovely and quiet brontosaurus who has...
Get out of my bath!
Teckentrup, Britta
Paper Book
Ellie the elephant loves to have fun in the bath, but she's not the only one. Her fun is interrupted when a crocodile decides to join her, followed by a flamingo, then a mouse and even a tiger! Poor Ellie's bath is ruined. What can she do? She sucks all the water into her trunk, of course! Then she...
This is a book of shapes
Kraegel, Kenneth
Paper Book
The creator of King Arthur's Very Great Grandson and Green Pants switches gears with a slyly silly introduction to shapes--just watch out for the emus! First comes the circle. Then the square and the triangle. Then the . . . emu pushing a pancake wagon down a...
Circle dogs
Henkes, Kevin.
Paper Book
Young readers will want to wiggle and bounce and dig through the day with the circle dogs . . . until it's time for bed! The circle dogs live in a big, square house with a big, square yard. See the dogs? See the circles? The sun comes up, the baby cries, and the circle dogs stretch...
Wiggle
Cronin, Doreen.
Paper Book
Do you wake up with a wiggle? Do you wiggle out of bed? For energetic toddlers (are there any who aren't?), here's a book that invites them to wiggle along with the story. Told in rollicky, wiggly rhyme that begs to be read again...
The Rainbow Snail
Akesson, Karin
Paper Book
A strikingly-designed early learning picture book introducing colors and a fabulous new character--the Rainbow Snail! Karin Åkesson's beautiful artwork and easy-to-read text combine to create a wonderfully interactive book to teach toddlers colors and a charming read-aloud children's book for...
Todos bostezan
Bijsterbosch, Anita
Paper Book
¡Un libro ideal para los niños que se resisten a irse a dormir! Cada doble página presenta a un animal que, bostezando, nos muestra su enorme boca mediante un mecanismo de solapa, hasta que al final? ¡todos duermen! Un libro de compañía para compartir con tu hijo el momento mágico de irse a...
Chugga chugga choo choo
Garcia, Emma
Paper Book
Chugga chugga choo choo. Here comes the train. And it's rolling down the tracks in this vibrant picture book! Follow it along and count the birds that join the trip. All aboard, and all join in as the cheerful little train chugs past the seaside, the farm, the forest,...

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