To compliment our summer reading lists for first and third graders I made the below list of our favorite board books for younger kids. We still read many of these books to our kids even though they are way past the board book phase!
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Peek-A-Boo by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. This is hands down my favorite baby book. Even though we love the Jolly Postman series we did not discover this baby book until we had our youngest. The rhyming is superbly written and the peek-a-boo aspect of the book kept our very active baby engaged enough for me to actually read it to him all the way through. I frequently give this book out for new parents since we love it so much and it isn’t as well known.
Mustache Baby by Brigit Heos. Mustache Baby was given to our youngest by our oldest daughter and it is delightfully silly. The baby is born with a mustache that changes it’s behavior and it was a great way to show a baby’s perspective on how their moods change.
Where’s Baby’s Belly Button? by Karen Katz. This book and the others in the series were favorites of my kids. This book goes through different body parts playing peek-a-boo with lift-a-flaps to teach babies where everything is. My kids loved reading these, especially when I gave the wrong answers and they had to correct me.
Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton is another favorite bought by our oldest daughter. This book follows four figures trying to catch a bird. Only the smallest one figures out how to make friends and get close to the bird. This is a great book because a lot of the story is in the pictures which kids will pick up on while the parents are reading out loud.
Baby Faces by DK. This book was a huge hit with my kids and I was able to start “reading” it with them from a young age by just looking at the pictures and talking about the different emotions. My kids loved seeing the different babies and each had their favorite baby. This is another book that I give to new parents since babies love it so much.
Fire Engine Man by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha. My son loved this book when he was younger. It is about a little boy who pretends to be a fire fighter and what things he would do. It is written from the perspective of a little boy which really helped draw him in.
Count a Block by Christopher Franceschelli. This book teaches kids to count to 100 and if that seems overwhelming for a young child, the way it is written is fabulous and both of my younger kids learned to count at a young age with this book. We love the surprises that are intertwined and that it shows how things change like short hair to long hair, eggs to chickens etc.. We are fans of the whole series!
Last but not least, you can’t do a board book list without Sandra Boynton. She is a huge hit amongst the younger crowd and I have linked a few of our kids’ favorite books below. She is amazingly silly and has so many books that kids with any interest can find something that they like!
Blue Hat, Green Hat (the OOPS book)
Thank you for reading our board book list! There are so many other good books out there it is hard to pick just a few. Leave some of your favorites in the comments!
