book recommendations for 3 and 5 year old boys

[pecanpie]

I'm off to visit my nephews in New York in a couple of weeks time and I would love to take them some great books by British authors. The Grufalo went down exceptionally well when I bought it for the 5 year old a couple of years ago and he's since acquired the whole Julia Donaldson library!

Can you recommend any other good picture books? Thank you!

The Amazing Machines series by Tony Mitton have been a huge hit with my boys since the age of 2 and still is. You can get a whole set of them on Amazon called A Truckload of Fun.

The Oliver Jeffers books (Lost, The Way Back Home and How to Catch A Star) are all firm favourites with us and have beautiful artwork.

The Night Pirates is fab, as are the Elmer books by David McKee (he of Mr Benn fame).

The Hairy McLary series by Lynley Dodd has great rhyming and word play and good animal drawings.

And of course there is that German book about a very annoyed mole that wants to know who's done a poo on his head. He goes around asking lots of animals and examining their droppings... lovely! But the kiddies seem to like it. In English it's called The Mole Who Knew it was none of his business, by Werner Holzwarth. They'll think you very European if you bring that one along!

Enjoy NY, you lucky thing...

I'd 2nd the Oliver Jeffers books,there are also the Simon Bartram books.

My 5 year old boys love Winnie the Witch and Where's Wally(not sure if they're British)but the Book People companies have packs of both of those.

Hairy Mclarey's Lynley Dodd is from New Zealand.

The Little Red Train books are good if he's into trains.

You Choose is a great picture book for a 3 year old which the 5 yo will like too - just pages of pictures of different things eg different houses and they choose where they'd like to live. Provokes lots of discussion in our house. Illustrated by Nick Sharrett.

Harry and the Dinosaurs is fab and very popular

Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs is great for this age ... and the sequel .. can't remember what it is called.

Another vote for the Simon Bartram books .. especially A day in the life of Bob (man on the moon).

Winnie the witch books ...

Thank you for all of your recommendations! I do like the Hairy Mclarey series which a friend introduced to me a couple of years ago...thanks for reminding me. Perhaps I'll expand my authors to British Commonwealth!!

You choose v. popular with my 3 year old ds.

He also loves why dinosaurs wear underpants at teh mo.

Am off to look at the machine ones mentioned above as he loves any book with big pictures of cranes, diggers etc.

We also have a book called 'Harry Builds a House' that is v good.

Not sure of authors sorry.

Duck in a Truck and all of Jez Alborough's books

OOo just wanted to add 'dig dig digging' and the other two in teh same series...ds loves them and has done for 2 years now (since 1).

here

Mungo & the Picture Book Pirates - ds1's absolute favourite book (2.10 yo).

Katie Morag stories - not too girly, imo.

Thank you for all of your suggestions!

Jez Alborough is incredibly irritating, especially Duck In A Truck, however children LOVE it. Why?!

Aliens Love Underpants
and
Dinosuars Love Underpants are both really good.

Another vote for You Choose here. Also, Pirate Pete, also by Nick Sharratt, has been a big hit with my 2 and 4 year old, although most appropriate for the 3 year old I would say.

My Ds's favourite book is "hungry hen"he is 4.

Another vote for Nick Sharratt. My almost 3 yr old loves anything by him. Great artwork and v funny.

He also likes the Piggy Wiggy series - Christyan and Diane Fox. Think they're British!

Another vote for Oliver Jeffers though that's more my choice than my son's.LOvely simple stories.

I like Duck in a Truck (and all of JA's books) - don't find them irritating at all, I loved the fact that when DD was small we would read them to her and she would shout out the rhyming bits ('still stuck' etc).

Another vote for Aliens love Underpants

Where the wild things are
Harry & His Bucketful of Dinosaurs

Oh God, yes, the mole/poo book . DS (4) loves it.

We are currently thoroughly enjoying The Rattletrap Car by Phyllis Root - lovely lovely to read out loud (I have a 3yo and a 2 yo). We also like the Mrs Armitage books by Quentin Blake - fabulous illustrations, of course, but v funny texts too and terribly English if that's what you want (Mrs Armitage on Wheels and Mrs Armitage Queen of the Road).

Another vote for Katie Morag (Mairi Hedderwick) - both my boys love them - great, detailed illustrations. She's also done a sweet one called The Utterly Otterlys about a family of otters.