It is not a surprise that as a book lover, I want my kids to read as well. From the time my older one was born, I was in constant look out for books for different ages.

• Do I go for fairy tales?
• Do I go for animal books?
• How many words should the book have?

These were some of the questions that came to my mind. Initially, I had no idea where to begin.

The obvious choice was of course ALPHABET books. Kids under 5 do not care about the words. They love pictures, colorful pictures.

Also, I learnt very quickly not to go for regular paper books for the first 3 years. Babies love tearing papers and putting them into their mouths:).

Board books or bath books are good options for they last longer. My younger one enjoys the Board books that I bought for my older one years ago.

Here are some of the books that babies, toddlers and young children may enjoy.

• Picture books containing alphabets and numbers. Again go for board books with A B C books showing bright photos of apples and balls. These are universally loved.
• Books on nursery rhymes. Something like this is super loved. There are also Rhymes books music released by brands like Fisherprice, Vtech. But these are expensive.
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle – Both my kids love this book. The illustration is wonderful. In addition to that, this book teaches about the days of the week, numbers, the names of different food items and how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. For a small book its surprisingly informative.

Eric Carle has many more books including
– The Very Busy Spider
– The Mixed-up Chameleon
– Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

• Om books picture books – There are many board books released by this publication. Most of them are based on animals Lion, Cat, Dog, etc. The words in the books are beyond not for under five-year-old but the illustrations are attractive.
• There are multiple Level 1 books with really simple sentences and words along with cute illustrations. These are not board books so I would recommend it for kids over 4 years.
  – LadyBird Publications – Goldilocks and three bears, The Magic Porridge Pot, The three Billy Goats Gruff, etc.
  – Usborne Publications – Greedy Dog, Ant and the Grasshopper, The Lion and the Mouse, etc.
  The best part about these books is that there are multiple levels. So based on your child’s interest and proficiency, you can slowly increase the level.
• If your child is fond of any cartoons, say Peppa, check out the Peppa board books. It will redirect the TV watching to Book Reading.
• Pop-up books. Although I am not able to find the exact books I got my kids, I would recommend them since my kids loved pop-ups.
• There are also Pepper/Bruno Book series which kids like. These are books that teach kids something – it could be stories about how to cross a road or do not talk to strangers or moral stories about not lying.

I am sure I have missed quite a bit. If you can think of something, please feel free to chime in and I will add to the list.