Good Books for 2 Year Old

My two year old loves all of the Bill Martin/Eric Carle books. Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do you See? Polar Bear,Polar Bear What Do You Hear? Etc. He loves to read them to me too.

My son's both loved "Knuffle Bunny" and "Knuffle Bunny Too". He also loves "Click, Clack Moo: Cows that Type" and "Giggle, Giggle Quack". Pretty much any book with cars and trucks, & snowmen. We go through books like wild fire as well. Do you have a local library? That is the BEST way to keep new books rolling through while still reading the favorites that you have at home!

Anything with repetition, The Bear Snores On, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, The Very Hungary Caterpillar. Also, my daughter is a huge fan of the author Mo Willems; Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late, and Knuffle Bunny.

A 2007 release that we just love is The Biggest Thing in the Ocean.

My kids both absolutely love poetry, and it's fun to read. I mention it because it came up recently with some friends and I was surprised that other people don't read poetry as much as we do. Two of our favorites are "Polka Bats and Octopus Slacks" by Calef Brown, a collection of his poetry and illustrations, and a traditional illustrated collection of classics, "Eloise Wilkin's Poems to Read to the Very Young."

Stories for that age - the Frog and Toad books sound exactly like what you're looking for. Anything by Jan Brett. You could also try a fairy tale collection - the one we have is from my childhood so probably out of print, but I'm sure there are many to choose from.

Mine love anything by Eric Carle! The Hungry Caterpiller and many more! Barnes and Noble has an awesome childrens section where you could see what he migrates to!

Another vote for Eric Carlye. We also love The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord. There are also the Tales of Virtue- there's I think 10 books in the series like Stone Soup, The Tortoise and The Hare, etc. Tacky in Trouble by Helen Lester is very cute. Good Night Moon is sweet. And we really like Golden Books at our house. Same with Winnie the Pooh. Good luck!

My 2 year old son loves to hear stories and "read" to us. Some of his favorites are "Is your Mama a Llama" by Deborah Guarino and books by Doreen Cronin "Duck for President" "Dooby Dooby Moo" and "Click Clack Moo" and of course, ANYTHING Thomas the Tank Engine. We often get him the featured book(s) through Kohl's Cares for Kids. Good books and a great cause.

Have you read "5minute Good Night Stories?" It's a rather large book with probably at least 25 stories in it, including "The Velveteen Rabbit", "Little Red Riding Hood" to name a few of the famous ones, but also some cutesy ones that you likely don't own already, "Paper Route Puppy," "Cedar's New Tooth." It's a very cute book and will keep your little one entertained for awhile.

Other than that, I like Golden Books...the classic ones though like The Pokie Little Puppy, The Puppy who wanted a Boy, etc. Good luck.

I got my son a set of Tonka books and he LOVES them! Also, I really like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Chicka Chicka 123. And we read a lot of poems for little ones, ie: Shel Silverstein, etc. The Bear Snores On...

I would recommend any Eric Carle books, for example "The Hungry Caterpiller" or "The Very Busy Spider" both my kids really love these books and for years. My daughter is 5 and my son is 3. These book have great pictures and are very kid friendly. After a few weeks of reading this to my daughter when she was 3 1/2 or so, she would tell me the story from the pictures.

You should check out Barefoot Books...It is a small independent children's publisher. They have great books!
readingbarefootbooks.com

My daughter is 18 months. Her current favorites are the 5 little monkey books and A Frog in the Bog. We also like Franklin and Arthur books.

A trip to the library may be fun!

I would strongly suggest to go to your local library. We read to our kids every night too, and seriously check out about 30 books every three weeks or so. My kids have been exposed to a wide range of books and rarely have we checked out the same book twice. Plus, they have seasonal books and topical books, that match their current interests. Lately we have been reading a lot of Valentine books and books about the tooth fairy. In fact, we have read so many books, I can't remember all the good ones :). Then what I do, if it's a really loved book, we buy it. My son is really into Diego, and my daughter, princesses, so we have bought quite a few of those!

Good luck!

My son is 2, as well. He really loves anything written by Monica Wellington or Karen Katz. He, also, likes the "I Spy" series of books, Barenstein Bears books, and anything with flaps to open.

Monica Wellington: Night House Bright House, Fire Fighter Frank, etc, but his all time favorite is Night House Bright House, which I check out at the Library. I keep meaning to buy him a copy of this book for his own.

I buy a lot of children's books at garage sales and 2nd hand stores. Over the last couple of years, I really have found some great ones for .25 cents. I clean them up with Clorox Anywhere, and we read them. Plus, we check out stacks from the library.

My 2 are girls, so we always do Dora books. But a different thing that they've really been getting into lately are the classics. I found these Golden Book Collections where each book has like 6 stories in it and it was maybe a $7 book at Kmart or Target I think.

Then they have the one book that has these 3 minute stories of all the real classics that you remember. The 3 Little Pigs, Goldilocks, The Pied Piper and all those. I would just go to Barnes and Noble and tell them you wanted a book with a bunch of stories in it, I think they'll have a section.

Hit your local libary OMG what a great resource the libary is. They usually have story time, plenty of books to borrow.
it would take a life time to get thru all the books.

good luck!

Debbie

Lots of great ideas from the previous posters. If your son just loves being read to and doesn't mind stories with no pictures why not try some classic novels. 1001 Arabian Nights, The Neverending Story, The Hobbit, Anne of Green Gables, etc... The list can go on and on. All books you can find on Amazon.com and they have really reasonable prices. sometimes you can find books for $0.50. It's also a great way for you to read some classic novels you may have never read or haven't read in a long time. Im currently reading The Neverending Story to my 17month old, and he loves just listening. It's also supposed to help build a kids vocabulary. Just make sure that the story isn't too greusome. My mother in Law gave us the original Pinoccio which is actually really gory, so I had to put it away till he's much much older.

Kudos for reading to your little one! I will recommend a must have book for every parent, especially those who are passionate about reading to their kids. It's called 'The Read Aloud Handbook'. It doesn't teach you how to read to your kids! It's a wonderful book that explains the benefits of reading to children, how to raise readers and it has a comprehensive list of age and reading level appropriate books for kids from birth on up. The author is constantly updating the book to keep the reading list fresh and up to date. I bought mine used online. Enjoy! Copy and paste this web address:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.a...

I received a great resource book when I had my son. It's called The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. The first section of the book is about the importance of reading and how he did various studies to prove it. The second half of the book is a reference section that lists all kinds of books that are great to read aloud because not all books are good to read aloud. It also shows an age next to the book.

Also, if you go to the American Library Association website they usually have a children's section and they show what the new books are that have received awards and are good read aloud books.

Barefoot books has great books and several come with CDs that "sing" the story. You can go to www.barefootbooks.com. Borders and the library sometimes carries the books, too.

My 2 yr old loves Thomas the Train stories which also have great morality/lessons. He also likes Usborne books: the Poppy & Sam collection (soooo many to choose from) and many others by that company. Have an Usborne book party and you can get a great deal on building your own collection.

eric carle board books are great
look at mashalls tjmax home goods places like that

i also bought a bunch on ebay

usborne books are AWESOME. there's probably a WAHM listed somewhere in here that sells them.

oh there are so many- go to the library- theres the hungry caterpillar, goodnight moon, bear snores on, any eric carle books. I also like to get books about valentines day, st patricks day etc..

i'd try kids poetry. things like shel silverstien. silly poems and silly pictures and they are still entertaining to read after reading them for the 1000th time.

Nick Bruel is a really good author as well. Also, a book of my daughter's favorates is The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Stawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear.

Another good idea, which I did with my daughter, is to join a scholastic book club or some other book club. She loves getting new books in the mail every few weeks and they are not that expensive.

we buy all are book for children from GOODWILL- they have always been clean and nice and CHEAP

If you have a teacher-friend, definately ask their input! We have friends who are both teachers and they are telling us all the time about books they love.

Also, do a book swap with a friend or two. Make sure you keep track of who had your books and who's books you have. Keep them on a three month cycle, then swap again. You can do this with toys, too. Instead of tossing old ones your son doesn't use anymore and buying him new ones, just swap with a friend or two for a few months.

We also go to the library twice a week. Our girls are in free (which is great!) classes there where they play games and are read stories. The library always has great book ideas and if you borrow them and don't like them you didn't spend any money on it! Our girls (even our youngest) love picking out books for themselves and that whole week we have them it is such a treat to not only read them new stories, but to see them excited to pack them in their library bag, return them, and get new ones! :) And as a bonus to us parents, it's all free! :)

We started buying the Step Into Reading type of books (level 1) because they have simple stories and aren't too long. My daughter loves them. (she is 3.5, but we've been buying them for a while now)

Other books that are favorites: I Know a Rhino, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, The Monster at the End of this Book, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Maxi the Taxi Dog, and Fancy Nancy (although your son may not be into the last one!)

Happy reading!

There are some great books in the dollar section at Target right now. I was at the one in Tinley which I do not typically shop at.

There were mini board books, but what I bought were the paper Sesame Street books with Elmo and Zoe. They looked to be easy to read for my 6 yo and my son would love them also (3yo).

I LOVE buying books, and our paper ones rarely get torn.

Also, keep reading my truck is stuck - my son can now "read" it to us. It is too cute. "Help, Please Help - Does anyone know how to make my stuck truck go." Total tongue twister!

Hope this helps.
B. :)

I was a store manager for a bookstore for several years plus a M. here are some ideas;

Some times I like to curl up in a ball

Where's the Dragon

Human Race

sb M. of 2