What was/is your toddlers favourite book?

[SlightlyB0nkers]

My dd is 1.2 years and loves books. As I live abroad most of her books are in Finnish. I have to buy English books online and miss flipping through the pages terribly. It's so hard to tell anything about a book from just looking at the cover on a computer screen.

What books were favourites in your house or what would you reccommend?
Thanks for your help.

My DS is 19 months and loves

Hairy McClary by Lynley Dodd (who also wrote Slinky Malinki)
Handa's Surprise by Eileen Browne
Brown Brown Brown Bear What do You See by Eric Carle (good for teaching colours)
Draw me a Star by Eric Carle
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
This is the Bear by Sarah Hayes (rhymes)
Dear Zoo, I'm Not Scary by Rod Campbell
Spot books
The board books of Elmer so Elmer's Weather, Elmer's New Friend - the paperback versions are a bit too long at the moment

Bit of an Eric Carle theme there sorry :-)

My son loved and loves:
The Gruffalo (performed the part of the owl at nursery play last year) and the Gruffalo's Child, Monkey Puzzle
The Cat in the Hat
The cat in the Hat Comes Back
Green Eggs and Ham

Now enjoying the 'Don't let the Pigeon .........' and Elephant and Piggie series

When DD was that age she loved books with different textured pieces like the That's Not My.. books.

Now that she's a little older she likes simple story books, preferably fewer than 3 lines of text oer page or she gets impatient! And lift-the-flap books like Spot the dog. Also picture books that she can point to things and you tell her what they are, or you ask "where's the.." and she points them out :) We have the Animals and Colour books in this collection, she loves them.

You can't go wrong with classics like:
The Hungry caterpillar
Each Peach Pear Plum (we still read this one alot)
Peepo (and read this one alot too)
Dear Zoo

I'm not overly fond of the 'Guess How Much I Love You' books, but DD loves them!

DD is 3 & currently she really likes:
Gruffalo & The Gruffalo's Child.
The Troll (also by Julia Donaldson)
(Actually most of Julia Donaldsons books are hits here!)
Captain Flinn & the Pirate Dinosaurs
Hairy Maclairy (series)
Elmer (series)
Not Now Bernard
Where the Wild Things Are
Aaaaaaarrgh Spider!
Aliens Love Underpants
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Anything by Catherine Rayner because the illustrations are so lovely!

My son loved
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis
Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
Wheels on the Bus by Paul O Zelinsky (a pull the tab type)
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
The Tickle Book and Bedtime Bear by Ian Whybrow (pull the tab)
Julia Donaldson as above
Sandra Boynton
My First Book of Sushi by Amy Wilson Sanger (hard to explain!)
Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy E Shaw
Jez Alborough as above
One Red Dot by David A Carter (a bit fragile but totally unique!)

I almost menioned Goodnight Gorilla, hdoodle. A lovely book. I haven't seen it in bookshops in the UK, but DH brought it back from a business trip in Canada.

Foxes Socks and Dear Zoo. We read Foxes Socks at least once a day but usually more like four or five times!

DD is 2.1
If she had her way, every night we'd read The Night Pirates. She loves it, but I like a little variety!
She also really likes Whats In the Witches Kitchen (although its not really a bedtime story book as she gets too excited!)

Hairy McClary omnibus.

Or Nick Inkpen 'One bear at Bedtime' omnibus.

Yes, MissPenteuth, Goodnight Gorilla is really charming, isn't it? I like how
each page has much to look at - from each animal's stuffed toy, to the little mouse with the banana. It used to be available on bookdepository but I believe it's just amazon now.

Peace at Last

DS loved the Tiger who came to Tea. We read it every night for at least 4 months. DD was born when he was 22 months and in the bag I packed for him (in case he ended up staying with someone else while DD was being born) I put a library copy of the Tiger who came to Tea in :)

bedtime ones - Goodnight moon
The way back home - oliver jeffers
My new favourite are the Lulu series - lots of flaps to open and lovely artwork. Gorgeous and perfect for a toddler age 2-3.

The Hum books - can't remember the author

Percy the Park Keeper - nice gentle stories, nothing bad happens to anyone.

Giraffes can't dance is a lovely one - DD was obsessed for ages

Seems to have moved onto classic fairy stories now like Goldilocks, Gingerbread Man, Jack & the Beanstalk etc...

You can get modern versions of these but DD really likes the old versions where people get eaten and the pictures can be a bit scary (the troll in the Three Billy Goats Gruff book we've got is not pleasant at all but is one of her favourites)

Skilbo - have you seen the m&s £3 "Ladybird" versions of the classics? Brilliant value and will be great for learning to read (although the words will have been memorised by then!)

For 1-2 yos - I agree "that's not my...", Dear Zoo, Hungry Caterpillar, etc. DD liked the Buster books by Rod Campbell too. There is a box set of little books illustrated by Axel Schr.....r - Pip the Puppy, Katie the Kitten, Lizzy the Lamb etc that was a good intro to rhymes. Michael Rosen's Bear books are lovely. Ladybird do some lovely touch and feel editions of the classics - Three Bears etc.

Since about 2, DD has loved a lot of the books mentioned above - Mog, Hairy McLary, Gruffalo etc. She also loves a series about a dog called Fergus. We have some classic Noddy books which she loves too. Owl Babies is good if mummy has to go away for a while - bought it before a business trip!

Topsy and Tim are now a big hit but def save those for a while as they are of the explanatory type - going to dr, dentist, new baby etc.

shirley hughes, especially bathwatrs hot amd dogger

My boy loved the Shirley hughes one about the concrete mixer and the little red tractor books so much that thge library gave them to him in the end.
Janet and Alan Ahlberg are a safe bet-Pocket postmen books are fun and they a re good to read too. Poocket postmen have lots of bits and pieces so maybe a bit young for that yet
Jez Alborough? wheres my teddy and wheres teh bear and Farmer Duck
All Julia Donaldson

Commotion in the Ocean and Rumble in the Jungle are great fun

Each Peach Pear Plum
This is not my cat (Eric Carle book, she loves the tear out pages)
Anything by Anthony Browne, but especially 'I Like Books'
Hairy Mclairy
Opposites (a picture book by the Early Learning Library)
And of course the Grufallo