Monday, July 16, 2012

Best Books for Three Days to Three Years Old

I love making lists.  To list the books I've read, I have a Goodreads account.  I've spent a lot of time cataloging books there over the last few years.  But when a close friend and my sister were both expecting their first babies, I wanted a list of books to recommend for them that was more manageable.  After a few months of work off and on, I came up with the list below, which I hope to revise from time to time as William moves through the toddler years.

I've had other moms ask me a few times how I know what books to pick.  Before Natalie was born, I didn't have much respect for the simplest board books.  But as I've watched both kids develop relationships with books, I have a much wider appreciation for children's books.  I learned about books partly through trial and error.  I read anything that looked interesting to me to Natalie since she would sit and play quietly while I read.  But after a year or so of story time at the library, I started to learn about other authors and titles.  Beyond that, I look for authors with multiple books at the library or in the book store, best sellers, and recommendations from people I trust (whether they are other moms or bloggers).

So here is my list three years in the making. 

Click here to go to Google Docs to download the list. 

You have to download it from Google docs as a read-only file.  I wish I could just copy it here, but its a spreadsheet and I don't know how to add a table to Blogger. 

There are a few typeos in there because I wrote the list in a very small font at first.  I'll clean them up next time I update it.  Most of them are small like Chick instead of Chicka, or Blue instead of Blueberries. 

A couple abbreviation explanations.  

B = board book
P = picture book

* Caldecott winner
** Caldecott honor

Caldecott is the big award for picture books.  Books with this award have excellent artwork.

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