What books for 2 year olds can you read over and over again without losing the will to live?

[stubbornstains]

...because The Little Princess is about to meet a sticky end in our house, I fear...

Maybe it has to go back to the "library...." But actually that could be a good place to start as then you don't have to read anything for more than a week and it is free. I know how you feel though, we have the same problem with certain books but then after a while something else becomes the favourite..

The old ones are the best for me - Where the Wild Things Are and Dr Suess books like One Fish Two Fish.

Julia Donaldson always made me smile, no matter how often I had to read it.

Bear Hunt?

I know gruffalo child by heart and still enjoy it

I love stick man

yeah, you need to go to your local bookshop and get some more!

Julia Donaldson ones are good - there are loads now, so you can change them regularly and still keep the same style of writing.

I am about to collapse with You Choose fatigue but I do think anything by Nick Sharratt is pretty good. We read You Choose and Shark in the Park many many times a week.

Dear Zoo as it is wonderfully short.

I have yet to bore of The Tiger Who Came to Tea. But my DP now hates it.

I also can read Tiddler over and over again.

I love Tiddler, but DS hates it.

We can all read "IF I had a sailboat" over and over, not very well known but very sweet. I think we probably all know it by heart.

Current favourite is "The Smartest Giant in Town".

I work in a pre school so have been in the 2-3 year old reading bracket for many years! Books I could read over and over again are many of those already listed, and also Harry the Dirty Dog, Ginger, My Granny is a Juggler, Balloon.
I'm sure there are more, I'll get back to you if and when I remember any more!

Penguin by Polly dunbar, I love you stinky face,

Bear hunt makes me want to poke my own eyes out.

(busily taking notes)....

Have you tried In the Night Kitchen - another Maurice Sendak. Proper text, gorgeous illustrations and has taken dc through from 2 - 6+ without me 'losing' book or patience... The first Olivia book (haven't read the later ones) is a favourite. I love Click Clack Moo (Cows that type). (A children's book that gets away with mentioning arbitration. Weird & fab). Farmer Duck. All bear multiple readings. Oh, and the Benedict Blathwayt Little Red Train books have got lovely detailed illustrations that counterbalance slim plot + lots of repeated train sounds.

Man on the Moon
Pumpkin Soup
Mr Magnolia

Room on the broom (my favourite)

The gruffalo (not the gruffalos child)

The tiger that came for tea (DD's still think the picture of the tea pot on the floor looks like tiger poo)

Hungry caterpillar

Where going on a bear hunt (really feel sorry for the old bear)

Anything with really good pictures, so when you get bored of the same old words you can make up a different story.

This is all wonderful material for the Ultimate Christmas and Birthday Book List that I am compiling for me and all the relatives who would otherwise buy him dreadful plastic junk.

Downpipe- we hadn't been to the library for months after A Very Embarrassing Incident (the librarians obviously hadn't thought about babies when they put their paper display of flags of the world at floor level- by the time I caught up with him he had eaten half of Cuba)- but we did risk it the other day, and Babies Love Books by the Anholts has become a mutual favourite...

Lightroom - In the Night Kitchen scares me!

I find ones in verse easier to bear.
Love all the 'Hairy Maclary' books.
Also 'Bear Hunt' and 'Each Peach Pear Plum'.

Oh yes, and Tom and Pippo books were great and quite short!

"We're going on a bear hunt" is just brilliant, and DD3 (2½) recites it from memory several times a day.

"The Gruffalo" (I can recite it off by heart, it has such lovely rhythm too) and "The Gruffalo's child".

"Duck in a Truck" is great

Monkey Puzzle, also by Julia Donaldson

Goodnight Gorilla - hardly any words, but DS really likes it and we talk about what is happening in the pictures. Essentially, the gorilla steals the zookeeper's keys and lets all the animals out. They follow the zookeeper home and get in bed with him and his wife. The wife takes them all back to the zoo, but the gorilla sneaks back again.

Goodnight Moon (a classic!)

Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack is possibly my favourite children's book.

And I find that pretty much all of the Julia Donaldson books are ok to read over, and over, and over, and over, and over....

No matter what by Debi Gilori is lovely, but sadly my boys both hate it - hopefully I can get DD I to it instead!

Each Peach Pear Plum, the baby's catalogue by ahlbergs, Cave Baby by Julia Donaldson, the Elephant and the Bad Baby, Mog the forgetful cat.
Yy to good illustrations helping. And I find I dread anything with alot of repetition which the bad baby does to be fair but I skip some. She is now requesting more Alfie books by Shirley Hughes after a library trip.
Sorry for terrible 'phone typing- reading books really has helped me!!

Slatternly Mum Alert
Choose rhyming books, you will learn them by heart and be able to "read" them while watching the telly.

Snail and the Whale and Smartest Giant in Town

Tiger who came to Tea