Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Books for 2-4 year olds

As a mom who loves to read and would love to inculcate her love for books and reading in her daughter I am always on the look out. Sites like the Saffron tree and Amazon provide much help and specially Saffron tree because the recommendations come from parents who have similar aged kids. Books recommended by other mommy-bloggers rate very high on my radar when I am looking out. Also the other problem is, many of these books I might not find in stores like crossword, landmark or Odyssey anytime I choose to walk-in. Once in these stores I just need to pick random books that look interesting but they are never half as interesting as the ones recommended by other bloggers. So this post is just for moms like me out there, who are looking for what to buy for their 2-4 year olds.

1. Barnyard Dance - Sandra Boynton
This is the first book that I bought after seeing it on ST. It was an instant hit with the both the kids, my daughter and my niece. They loved the rhyme and the different animals sketched.







2. JamBerry - Bruce Degen

Its a sweet story about a little boy and big bear out to collect all kinds of berries. The peapod wouldn't even let me bypass the first page, I have to begin with "JamBerry by Bruce Degen". The illustrations are so beautiful that even after reading it out to the peapod for almost 1-1.5 years she still finds interesting stuff in there. Yeah she knows the book front to back and can now sit on her own and recite the whole book..





3. The very Hungry Catterpillar - Eric Carle

Its a small book that we have. I am not sure if there are different sizes available but it is totally worth it. The book illustrates the transformation of a beautiful butterfly from an egg. I am still reading this one out almost every night.>







4. The Runaway Bunny - Margaret Wise Brown

This one is about how a little bunny tries to keep running away from its mom only to be found by his mom in various scenarios. This one is a cute book but not quite as hit as the others we have. Since this one doesn't have rhymes and a little too many lines to be read, the peapod looses patience while we read them. I hope she will begin to like it in the coming years.




5. Is your Mama a Llama - Deborah Guarino

This one is about a little llama trying to find his mom. The rhymes are easy, the pictures very cute and the illustrations are so well done there is always something new the peapod finds in there.







6. Who are you baby kangaroo? - Stella Blackstone

This book was an instant hit with peapod and she knew it by heart in 2 days time. She totally loved the repetitions and she already knew what the young ones were called and so it was familiar and new all at the same time.




7. My Granny went to Market - Stella Blackstone

When the book first arrived I was a little apprehensive. It talks about various places like Istanbul, Russia, Switzerland and so on and the pages illustrate various specialities about these places and I kept thinking this is too much for my 3 yr old. But once I started reading it, I realised I underestimate her pronunciation skills. She says Istanbul, Australia, Switzerland and now also identifies the things that come in from each of these places. And it helps me build a bit more about each place each night we read it. Initially she was pretty amused that the granny had short hair and was wearing frocks :), she has got used to it now. I think its a lovely lovely book.

8. My little picture dictionary - Rogger Priddy

This was a gift from her cousin and it is a beautiful book. She has had it now for more than a year and she can identify almost 60% of it all. A lot of verbs and adjectives that she can identify ONLY if we ask her the right questions but then its all malayalam and hardly any english verbs or adjectives. Its good for an another year or two.






A couple of books that we haven't opened yet are
1. Bringing The Rain To Kapiti Plain: A Nandi Tale by Verna Aardema
2. The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown
3. If I were a Lion by Sarah Weeks
4. All the way to Lhasa - A tale from Tibet

Will tell you how they all turn out in a couple of months.

Most of these books can be bought in India at flipkart or landmark online. None of the other umpteen books around she has holds as much charm and wit as these. Feel free to drop in a few names of your favourites for your kids or your favourites as kids.

9 comments:

Monika said...

u guys are blessings with this list of books first ra and now u, my task is simple now... :)

Anonymous said...

I feel like I m a two year old and I want to read all these books too!! :D

B o o said...

Great list, Sunita.

All the books by Eric Carle are awesome. Especially brown bear, brown bear and the very busy spider.
Good night moon by Margaret Brown was Ashus fav when she was around 2to 3.
All the Dr Suess and Curious George books.
chicka chicka boom boom.
guess how much I love you.
I love those Little Tiger books by Julie Sykes. I dont want to go to bed is our fav.
I think I should do a post intead of hogging your comment space. :)

Sunita said...

@Monika: Ra's is a list for a little older kids, that reminds me to save that link for the future.
@thethoughtfultrain: :) I am telling you I love the kind of details in these books.
@Boo: Please do your list, that would be lovely, would give me more to pick and choose from. Dr Seuss and Curious George series is something I haven't tried yet. The lack of a children's library forces us to choose a handful of books.

Risha said...

thats a nice list!!
Mr men series is the one my nephew enjoyed the most!

Just Like That said...

ok, Sonny boy hasn't read any of these! :-( and he might be a li'l too old for 'em now. Sigh! will check them out anyways on my next visit.

Now could you pls send me Ra's link, someone?

Poppins said...

That's a really nice list Sunita, we haven't tried any of the ones on that list yet. We should! Where do you buy them btw? Or do you order from Amazon?

Sunita said...

JLT@:Here it is, that way even I have it on my blog :). http://punarjaman.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/must-haves-in-a-childrens-library but I think the list still might not be right for sonny boy. @poppins: I buy it using flipkart.com or landmarkonthenet.com

Nagesh.MVS said...

Nice list Sunitha. Keep it up.
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