I bought my son his first book before he was born—If you are thinking that was a little premature, you IS RIGHT! 🙂 The proof is in the half-chewed selection of books I’ve had to hide away for when he is older. At the time, I had not done any research on child literacy and the age at which you introduce books. But, going off of my own love for books at an early age, I was CERTAIN that he would love them too😭😂. Fast forward to two years and some personal research later, I realized that some of my book choices were made in error🤦🏽🙄. I hadn’t considered the child himself nor the age appropriateness of the books when I bought them. At the time, the concept of diversity in characters was not at the forefront of my mind and the illustrations were a mere afterthought. I’ve obviously come a long way since then and with baby #2, I am certainly better prepared.
Knowing my son now, I recognize that his disinterest in some of the earlier books spanned a number of factors. He is really into interactive books, the kinds with large colorful illustrations that tell a story he can easily remember. The ones with diverse characters tend to be his favorite because he can see himself in some of them. I noticed that he also gravitates to books with more illustrations and less words on a page. Honestly, story time with my son can be magical sometimes, especially on the days he curls up on my lap and “reads” to me. I love discovering characters through his eyes. His absolute favorite title is the Three Little Pigs. And his favorite character is a the “naughty wolf” a term he coined himself. As you can imagine, we have spent many a day huffing and puffing our way through story-time! He is such an animated kid. If you follow me on Instagram stories, you have likely seen this for yourself. It’s been such a blessing to be introduced to some of these classic characters through his eyes. To him, the naughty wolf is nothing more than a flawed character that will try, and probably fail, to do better next time—a lot like my son himself 😊.
Here is a list of board books curated by my two year old & his mama :
I’m certain that your toddler will enjoy these books for their colorful illustrations and the interactive nature in which they are written. Hope you have found this list useful. As I’m forever looking to expand my kids’ book collection, please sound off in the comments: Let me know your favorite book as a child or your new favorite that you and your little have come to love.
Stay blessed my loves 🖤!
Just wanna tell that this is extremely helpful, Thanks for taking your time to write this. Stephi Abran Hulbard
Author
thanks for reading!