Fun Books to Read with Toddlers

In our home we love to cuddle and read books together. Little Bee has always enjoyed books ever since he was a baby. His favorite books as a baby were the wordless books with white on black (or black on white) backgrounds. As a toddler, his favorite books are the ones with silly rhyming stories (songs), touch and feel books, and truck books. This post is a collection of fun books to read with toddlers.

Basket Toddler Book Storage

We have books in several rooms in our home - the living room, family room, homeschool room, and in Little Bee's bedroom. I like to store the smaller toddler board books in a square basket to keep them looking neat and inviting.

Book Display Shelves

These shelves from IKEA are also a wonderful way to display and store several books. The photo's below are from Little Bee's "Reading Rainbow Nook" tucked secretly away in his bedroom closet. 

Let's get started with our favorite toddler books!

Transportation Books

That's Not My Train by Fiona Watt & Rachel Wells (Usborne Touchy-Feely Books) - This is a simple book with a sensory experience of rough, smooth, bumpy, and more.

Freight Train by Donal Crews - This book has bright rainbow colored train cars and only a few words to describe the train as it goes on a journey. It's a fun book to make your own sound effects while looking at the pictures.

Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle & Jill McElmurry - This book is so much fun to read with its catchy rhyme and silly story line. It also teaches the character qualities of kindness and friendship.

Roadwork by Sally Sutton & Brian Lovelock - This is a beautifully illustrated book on the realistic process of building a road from start to finish.

Toddler Life Skills Books

Potty by Leslie Patricelli - This book is cute as it describes the thinking process of a little boy contemplating using the potty for the first time.

Brush, Brush, Brush by Alicia Padron & Children's Press - This book encourages toddlers to brush their teeth to keep them clean and white. The words in the book can be sung to the tune of "Do Your Ears Hang Low?"

Goodnight, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann - This is a sweet story of a zookeeper who makes his rounds to say goodnight to all the animals in the zoo and a silly gorilla who steals his keys.

A Book of Sleep by II Sung Na- This book is beautifully illustrated as it tells the story of an owl who visits other animals while they are sleeping at night.

Just Like Daddy! by Harriet Ziefert & Erik Brown - A sweet book about a little boy who wants to do everything his daddy does in the morning as he gets ready for the day - dressing, brushing teeth, shaving, and more.

Educational Books - Counting, Sensory, Alphabet & First Words

123s by Charley Harper - This book has modern illustrations and helps to teach number counting.

Tails by Matthew Van Fleet - This is a fun sensory book about animal tails. "The whale's tail is the longest tail of all!"

I Like Fruit by Lorena Siminovich - A wonderful book with a sensory learning experience about various fruit shapes with their names.

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert - This book marches through the alphabet naming various fruits and vegetables. I love that there is a fruit and/or vegetable for each letter of the alphabet!

My Big Animal Book by Roger Priddy - A wonderful book with bright pictures for learning about all the animals and their names.

First 100 Words by Roger Priddy - Another great book with bright colored pictures for learning objects and their names.

Extra Book Storage

The photo below is of our Montessori homeschool room in our unfinished basement. I keep all our extra books here on these wire shelves. The preschool aged books are on the upper shelves and the toddler books are on the bottom shelves for easy access for Little Bee.

Canvas Sling Bookshelf Storage

Upstairs in our family room, we have a canvas sling bookshelf that holds several books. It's hard to see the smaller board books in this bookshelf. However, the larger books work wonderfully in this bookshelf with the bright titles peeking over the top. In this bookshelf I have books that are transitioning from the small toddler board books to larger preschool books with paper pages. I'll write another post on the books featured below. Please come back and visit to learn about our favorite books for preschoolers.

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Please also visit, 15 Montessori Toddler Shelf Themes.