Favorite Kids’ Books

We are a book-loving family. These days, my book reading consists of listening to audiobooks and reading kids’ books on repeat. Our oldest has memorized books and we hear her reading them to herself when she goes to bed at night. Unfortunately, our love of books has already caused almost daily fights, the need to hide a few books to detox from, and the loss of a few due to our son being a bit rough. According to Eloise’s first day of school paper, her favorite is The Elves and the Shoemaker, but there are many more she could add to that list.

Here are some of the books we have grown to love in our home:

Usborne Big Book of Colors: This book has started several arguments in our house because the twins both want to play “can you find” and there’s only one book. Each page dedicated to a color in the book is filled with things of that color, so we use it to build vocabulary along with learning our colors. It also has a color wheel, teaches mixing colors, and feelings that are associated with each color. So it’s more than just colors. They also have a fold out Baby’s Book of Colors. The Crayons’ Book of Colors is another learning book we love.

The Gruffalo: This book is just cute and funny. My sister reintroduced it to us and we’ve since added it to the book shelf. Our kids also like to play Gruffalo too. The author has another book called Room on the Broom that teaches kindness and inclusion.

Little Excavator: We discovered this book through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. It’s about a little excavator who wants to help all the other big trucks on the construction site but he’s too small until there’s one job left that only he can do. Our copy is on its way to needing to be replaced because it’s been so beloved. It written by the same author as Llama Llama Red Pajama, so you know it’s good.

The Rabbit Listened: This is another Imagination Library book we’ve come to love. It’s about sometimes needing a friend to just sit and listen as you process emotions instead of them chiming in with advice. This is one of those books that is a good lesson not only for kids, but adults as well. My favorite with that kind of lesson is called Where Happiness Lives and it’s been a good reminder for me this past year as we’ve been wanting a bigger house but not able to find one within our requirements.

The Berenstain Bears: My husband and I both grew up with these books, so we’ve dutifully introduced them to our kids. Eloise’s favorites are about finding a dinosaur bone, a spooky old tree, and Christmas. She loves anything Christmas.

The Dinosaur Rap: We received this book in a Kiwi Co box and it also has caused strife in our house. It’s already been replaced once and we have broken up many arguments due to someone having it or taking it from the other. It’s a fun little song about dinosaurs with motions to get the kids moving. We discovered their YouTube channel and the plethora of other songs and books.

The Biggest Story: Another Usborne book, this one is about imagination and learning to create your own stories. The Prince and The Witch and The Thief and The Bears is also a fun read about making up bedtime stories. These two books have occasionally had to be hidden away due to the need for variety in our reading. 

Most of these books are beloved by all our children, but mostly by Eloise. The twins are sort of in between board books and paper books; they like both, but we have to be careful with distructosaurous William. Their favorites are usual animals, cars, songs, and anything Thomas or Toy Story. Due to limited space in our home, the local library has become a good friend to us. Every couple of weeks we go and play while picking out a big stack of books. A few that are usually among the mix are Amelia Bedelia, Just a Little Critter, Angelina Ballerina, Curious George, If You Give A Mouse collection, and any book about Christmas.

What are some of your favorite kids’ books?