What books did you most enjoy reading for your Newborn/Toddler?

Bill2673

For me
1. I love you through and through
2. Down in the woods at sleepy time
3. 10 little fingers and 10 little toes
4. Tiddler

plus, Nursery Rhymes by the dozen

PS, apologies if this has been covered in a dozen other threads. I didn't see any of them.

metrovelvet

Guess How Much I Love You.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Goodnight Moon
The 'this is not my.....' series.
The Little Engine That Could

Das Kitty

metrovelvet wrote: »

Guess How Much I Love You.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Goodnight Moon
The 'this is not my.....' series.
The Little Engine That Could

I can't read that first one with a steady voice!

At the moment it's just the touchy feely books but he keeps trying to theeth on them and hurts himself

Grawns

There's a brilliant book in M&S called Ten Wriggly Wiggly Caterpillars, it's €7 and well worth it. It's in 3d with a pop out of 10 butterflies at the end.

metrovelvet

That sounds like a good one. Thanks.

silja

We are going on a Bear Hunt.
The Selfish Crocodile.
Guess How Much I Love You.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

When they were little, ie until about a year old and not much interested in "reading" with me, I read a lot of my own books (politics, mediveal mysteries) aloud to them at playtime. That way they could hear me talk and understand books were important, and I got some quality reading in

Bill2673

silja wrote: »

We are going on a Bear Hunt.
The Selfish Crocodile.
Guess How Much I Love You.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

When they were little, ie until about a year old and not much interested in "reading" with me, I read a lot of my own books (politics, mediveal mysteries) aloud to them at playtime. That way they could hear me talk and understand books were important, and I got some quality reading in

@ Bear Hunt

".......we can't go over it, we can't go under it, we'll have to go through it....." :-)

silja

Bill2673 wrote: »

@ Bear Hunt

".......we can't go over it, we can't go under it, we'll have to go through it....." :-)

My twins loooove the book. We editorialise and include grandma sometimes, as my husband's mother- 78 this year- goes bear hunting in South Dakota with a bow and arrow still! So if they had grandma with them, they would not need to be afraid of the bear.

crazy cat lady

The very hungry caterpillar (I dunno if Megan loves it but mummy does!)
Guess how much I love you
The tiger that came to tea
Wheres Spot
Dear Zoo
Little Tiger (with pop up surprises!)

I've also read her a few of the Roald Dahl books

Georges marvellous medicine
The Giraffe the pellie and me
Charlie and the chocolate factory (we're about a quarter way through this one)

She loves listening to me read to her but only when she's in the humour to sit and listen. I think I read her the Roald Dahl books more for my own enjoyment!

Cat Melodeon

Clip clop by Nicola Smee
The Dirty Bertie books - hilarious
Guess how much I love you

I've also made up a few books using photos of family - it's great for practising names etc (my lad is only 12 months). You can make them up online on photobucket or love2read.co.uk.

lynski

My 2 are all about the stories, since they were very young, so we have been reading lots - 6-8 books a day.
Here are our hits:
- Before you sleep - or anything from this series - adamsprintingpress.ie great back story and money to charity.
- lost and found - or anything by Oliver Jeffers - www.oliverjeffers.com - lovely illustrations and nice stories
- Here in Space - great view of our world. http://www.amazon.com/Here-Space-Pbk-Milgrim/dp/0816744629/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_4
- Where did all the Dragons go - lovely pictures and nice rhyming - http://www.amazon.com/Where-Did-All-Dragons-Go/dp/0816738092/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1280909313&sr=1-1
- Set of phonic readers from Osbourne Books
- baby versions of beatrix potter and velveteen rabbit
- and the classics guess how much i love you, the hungry caterpiller, goodnight moon,

We go to the local library every week also and get a few new ones. Most local libraries are child friendly and encourage young members. Ours also have a baby book club weekly for nursery rhymes and meeting up.

1 last edit - we now avoid Bob the builder books - every one we read was total cr*p, really boring and badly written

Moonbeam

The best books we bought were the - That's not my .... books
She is 19 months and still loves them and "reads" them to us.

kingcantona

Where would you buy these books? My son is 13 months and enjoys me reading this Thomas the Tank book to him which has buttons on it to make train noises etc. Many thanks

Moonbeam

I buy them from thebookdepository.com because they are cheaper then the shops here.

crazy cat lady

Amazon is great for kiddies books

wolfpawnat

Every night at bedtime Wolfcub gets read actual childrens books. Reading this I dunno if thats a good a plan as I thought it was.

I have read several to him as he hates repetition, these include;

The Silver Brumby,
Under the Hawthorn Tree,
Wildflower Girl,
Fields of Home,
The fantastic Mr. Fox,
Medicine for Grandma (or something like that),
I know it sounds rediculous but he starts screeching at any I have read before. He adores new material and especially loves nursery rhymes aand babbles tunelessly along with them.

Bill2673

kingcantona wrote: »

Where would you buy these books? My son is 13 months and enjoys me reading this Thomas the Tank book to him which has buttons on it to make train noises etc. Many thanks

We had the same, I thought it was a good day time book but not a great bed time book......he loved the sounds.

In general I'd agree with an earlier post that a lot of the tv character based books aren't great - Bob Builder, Noddy, Spot - a lot of them seem to be more about the add-ons, the fold-out stuff and lights and noises, that bump up the price but don't help to make it easy to read. I guess its interactive.....

As well as on-line sources (I use amazon), Hodges Figgis and Waterstones are both quite decent in Dublin.

Gurgle

Everything by Julia Donaldson. Little people get a great kick out of the humour.

Nevyn

Over in the grasslands
Ten out of bed

Guess how much I love you
Can't You Sleep, Little Bear?

Wonderful books, I miss reading them but mine are far far too old for them now,
a lot of our books were passed on to my nieces but one or two I have kept just in case
I do become a grandmother, it would be wonderful to read them to my children's children or to pass them on to them.

Ayla

Our 3.5 yr old has a bookcase that has all sorts on it...

- nature books
- Dr. Seuss
- a rotating stock of random library books
- the classics (Babar, nursery rhymes & books my mom kept from my childhood)
- random books that the library sold at €0.20/ea
- Some Disney (Aladin, Jungle Book, Little Mermaid...)

When our daugther was younger (ie: before the arrival of #2) we'd all curl up in bed & read at least a chapter out of larger books. Don't know if she got as much from them - if she remembered the story line from one night to the next - but we all benefitted from the longer cuddle time.

Since the arrival of #2, #1 picks a book off her shelf everynight for bedtime and that's what we read to her. I really love the books by Jez Alborough ("Where's My Teddy?", "Fix it Duck," etc) and "Snuggle up, Sleepy One" by Claire Freedman. All these have lovely illustrations & a nice reading rhythm. Sometimes, though, she'll pick out the nature books & we'll spend 10 mins or so learning & talking about whatever we're reading.

Haven't managed to settle the 10 mo old into reading yet...she's still too fixated on eating the pages

cynder

My first baby i read the chronicles of Narnia
when she was a toddler all the ladybird books (loads of them about 30 )
also eyes, nose fingers and toes and tales from percy's park
little beaver and the echo

my other 2 boys who were born 6/7 years later (now aged 5 and 3.5 )

tales from percy's park
eyes nose fingers and toes
aliens love underpants
dinosaurs love underpants
aliens love underpants save the world
the gruffalo
the gruffalo's child
room on a broom
adams pirate adventure
adams space adventure
(those two book were written by a dad who lost little adam to a brain tumor )

some ladybird boys stories

Nevyn

Reading and cuddles time is awesome.

Bill2673

In response to an earlier post on 'where did you get these books'; a lot of the books I/ we enjoyed most were given to us as presents; and in turn, for example I've bought '10 little fingers and 10 little toes' for a few people since. I think they make super presents.

sarahlulu

my girls all love books. The smallest one is 2 and her favourites at the moment are:
Dirty Bertie,
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo's Child
The Cat in the Hat series.

She can recite the gruffalo books along with me as I read, which is my favourite thing ever!!

RoryMurphyJnr

My Dad and Me (I'm daddy bear, he's baba bear)
Cops and Robbers by Allan Ahlberg this always helps him nod off, so much so I can now recite the whole book word for word

After that it's pretty much anything, he loves his books and reads them to his Ted

R

ebmma

maybe a stupid question, but do people really read books to newborns??

crazy cat lady

Well we certainly began reading to Megan when she was a newborn, if fact she was getting stories when she was still in my belleh!

Apparently babies that are read to in the womb and from birth are better eaters and sleepers. Not sure how true this is but we found it very enjoyable reading to her so there was nothing lost in doing so and she has always been a very contented little girl.

She's starting to lift the flaps on her story books at bedtime now. Its great to see her becoming so interactive

Das Kitty

I didn't read to James as a newborn, I read a bit now but he's obsessed with getting them in his mouth! He's been pretty good at flipping the pages, it seemed to come naturally to him.

Winnie the Pooh is on my shopping list now. Mike read me the last chapter the other night and we were both in tears! It's such a lovely style too.

ebmma

this is interesting..Robin is 6 months now and can't imagine reading to him just yet. He's just...a very active baby. He's very sociable and just never stops...very tiring. He won't sit still for me to read and will just try to climb me and squeal into my ear! and eat the book..
when he was a newborn I was in no condition to read so maybe a missed opportunity there.

maybe in a few months :-) and then it'll be Wheel of time because it's what I'm reading and he's way more interested in tone rather than words so everybody wins

cynder

ebmma wrote: »

maybe a stupid question, but do people really read books to newborns??

I started to read to my lady when i was pregnant (from around 20 weeks), i read to her as a newborn as well, i wanted her to hear my voice, as it is supposed to be soothing...... TBH i cant say its better either way as i didn't read to my boys as newborns or when i was pregnant with them.


TBRH i think that my lady now hates the sound of my voice!!!!!!!!

ebmma

grindelwald wrote: »

I started to read to my lady when i was pregnant (from around 20 weeks), i read to her as a newborn as well, i wanted her to hear my voice, as it is supposed to be soothing...... TBH i cant say its better either way as i didn't read to my boys as newborns or when i was pregnant with them.


TBRH i think that my lady now hates the sound of my voice!!!!!!!!

never felt comfortable with 'bonding with the bump' activities...I figured he'll hear my voice anyway from me talking to other people

Akrasia

My young fella (15 months) loves 'Emergency Rescue' by Jonathen Emmett.
It's a pop up book, lovely pictures and nice rhymes and he gets to point out the different animals and find the hidden objects
http://www.scribblestreet.co.uk/pops/emergency/emergency.html
Need a new one tho as the old one's getting a little battered

Johnny_Fontane

1. Elephant Wellyphant
2. Very Hungry Caterpillar
3. A Hug for Humphrey

he's 16 months old and when we tell him to go get elephant wellyphant, he'll find it wherever it is.

bit weird really

metrovelvet

ebmma wrote: »

this is interesting..Robin is 6 months now and can't imagine reading to him just yet. He's just...a very active baby. He's very sociable and just never stops...very tiring. He won't sit still for me to read and will just try to climb me and squeal into my ear! and eat the book..
when he was a newborn I was in no condition to read so maybe a missed opportunity there.

maybe in a few months :-) and then it'll be Wheel of time because it's what I'm reading and he's way more interested in tone rather than words so everybody wins

My son was like that too. Law of perpetual motion. I still had books around for him though. Not real ones, but rubber and cloth ones that could take the beating. I did it so he could get used to books, being around books, so that books were there from the start and he would know they would always be there and just be a part of life.

Then I moved onto the board books. He is three now and loves story time. Seriously he could sit there now and read books with you for hours. And now Im more confident that when he starts school that will be in him now.

Vikki09

My daughter, who is 3, loves the Thats not my Santa/Snowman/Fairy etc range of books. She has loved them since she was about 18 months & she could feel the various textures in the books!

bubbaloo

Any of the Usborne stories were great. My little boy was completey OBSESSED about them, handing the book to me every haf hour to read a story. They're lovely stories with great pictures too. The link below shows the books on Amazon. Happy reading.

http://www.scampsandrascals.co.uk/books/farmyardtales/index.html

Das Kitty

I got James his first leabhar Gaeilge at the weekend.

Bill2673

Just wondering have I got it wrong here:

We have two kids, a boy, 2 yrs, and a baby girl, 2 months. When I look back on the books I read to my son, nearly all of them are based on male characters, even when the author is female. Its not that we set out to buy books that way, its just the way it was. Anyone else notice that?

Now that we have a baby girl, who we will start reading books to shortly, I don't want to read her baby books that only or mainly feature baby boys? Should I just not care about that? Does it make a difference?

(Obviously some books like the Gruffalo are gender neutral also, I'm not).

jimmyendless

Was the Gruffalo a stay at home dad?
Most of our books are neutral except for Charlie Cook.

Three books every night before bed and in this order always:

Tyrannosaurus Drip,
Tell the time with Winnie the Pooh and
Charlie Cook's Favourite Book

goosie2005

Ten in the bed
Ten out of the bed
Ten play hide and seek

...all by Penny Dale are favourites, lots of hidden details, my 3 all liked these books

Moonbeam

Das Kitty wrote: »

I got James his first leabhar Gaeilge at the weekend.

Aww:)
My little girls dog is called Bran in preperation for the books so she is convinced they are all about her Bran:)
We have a good few lovely irish books for her now.

She got some Bran books and Bándearg in the library this week.
(http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1568)
mama quack quack was what the decision was based on:)

She can't quite say Gruffalo but as soon as bedtime comes mama dada uffalo story:)

Got her the Gruffalos child last week but it is just not as good:)

Got her 2 books to prepare her for the impending arrival too -
Waiting for baby and There's a house inside my mummy.
She was kissing the mammys bump in waiting for baby:)

annetted

our little man loves
little red riding hood
gossie
gossie and gertie
postman pat
tractor tom

only thing is you may have to read each one 10 times before he goes to sleep!