Best books for 2 year old boy with short attention span....

[sweetieaddict]

Ds gets very easily bored when I am reading to him. Always sits still for the first couple of pages and then wants to get down and play with toys......

We are really keen to read to him and I would really appreciate any recommendations of good, educational books that will hold his attention.

Many thanks

We had one called Ten Terrible Dinosaurs. Starts off with 10 and ends up with one dinosaur at the end as the rest disappear one by one. Kind of educational as there is counting, it rhymes, has bright dinosaur pictures on it and is quite short!

I loved reading the Hairy McLairy books as the rhymes flow so nicely.

Thank you SoupDragon.

I'll order Ten Terrible Dinosaurs right now. I've just read through the other thread on here about bedtime books for 2 year old and ordered 10 of the recommendations..poor little mite will be knocked out after ploughing through that lot...

I clicked on the used ones on amazon, some for 1p, but pushed up by £2.80 P and P - is that the cheapest way to buy them when ordering a lot?

I've also started to read to him when he is in the bath and that works better as he tends to hang over the edge and look at the pages (I keep it far enought out of reach so he can't splash the pages) but would love for him to sit still for long enough on our laps to just get to the end of at least one book...!

I was just about to post 10 tiny tadpoles or 10 chirpy chicks, by Debbie Tarbett, think these are the same as the dino one! Highly recommended as they have a nice rhyming pace, help with numbers and the last page pops up. Winner!

I got mine cheap on eBay (brand new)

Does he like books with flaps? They are usually quite good for holding attention spans.

I'm with Sittinginthesun. Get books that let your child do something active. There are loads of books with flaps and pop-ups (even sturdy ones) or holes to poke fingers through or little puppety bits. squeakers, noisy buttons etc.

Don't worry about 'reading' the book - if your child is showing any interest, even if he's flipping pages back and forth just go with it and engage in chatting and pointing things out.

Usborne do some good big board books with noisy buttons to press and nice big bright pictures.

Sitting down nicely together to read the words on all the pages and turn each page calmly will come. Just keep on enjoying books in small bursts for now.

Just an update to say I ordered about 15 or so that were recommended on this board and his favourite one that he now will sit through after about a week or so is 'Teeth are not for biting'.

He has plenty of the noisy books with buttons and sound effects etc, so thanks for that suggestion - he does indeed LOVE flaps and anything to pull or grab.

I tend to read him a couple of very brief ones (no more than 8/10 pages before bed) and when he is splashing about in the bath, attempt to read the longer ones as I sit on the loo (with lid shut!) and show him the pictures and he sometimes looks up and sometimes doesn't, but hopefully the vocab is going in....slowly....

Thanks so much for all your hints and tips - much appreicated.

appreciated - need an edit button

My two year olds favourites are Brown Bear Brown Bear - it helped him learn colours too. Tip Tip, Dig Dig is also has very few words but diggers etc to keep his interest. We Are Going on a Bear Hunt is a bit longer but repetitive and we do actions and make it sing songy which my son loves. His favourite thing in TV is the Grufallo so he will sit to read that when I won't let him watch it!

Dear Zoo, Goodnight Gorilla, Duck in a Truck are three books that have held my little boy's attention night after night.