My kids have loved books since they were babies! If you’re looking for book recommendations for your young ones, take a look at our favorites! I will add more as my kids reach the older ages!
Our library has a great children’s section where we discovered a bunch of books from my childhood and newer series that I’ve not heard of before. All the books are placed together so the kids can easily pick and choose. I highly recommend checking out the children’s section at the library nearest you!
At the younger ages, our kids loved most books we read to them. There is one book that I wouldn’t recommend though – It’s Not Fair by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. My kids didn’t know the phrase “it’s not fair” until after reading the book. Now it’s a regular phrase around the house. Maybe it’s not fair to blame the book for our kids’ behavior? 🙂
Books for Ages 3 and under
Spot books – Eric Hill
Little Blue Truck books – Alice Schertle
Elmer books – David McKee
Stanley books – William Bee
Bear books – Karma Wilson
Peppa books
Thomas the Train books
I Love Trains (and other I Love books) – Philemon Sturges
Brown Bear Brown Bear – Eric Carle
The Grouchy Ladybug – Eric Carle
The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Eric Carle
Do You Want to Be My Friend – Eric Carle
Elephant & Piggie books – Mo Willems
Maisy books – Lucy Cousins
Books for Ages 3-5
Both our kids started having interest in reading on their own (with our help) by the age of 5. We started by using Step into Reading phonics boxed set. Each book of the 12 books series teaches a different phonics concept. My kids love Paw Patrol so these characters motivated them to learn to read. Another levels series that we like are the I Can Read books. There are so many books/series out there that do the same with different themes and characters . You are bound to find one that interests and encourages your child to start reading on their own!
Mr Monkey books – Jeff Mack
Pigeon books – Mo Willems
Arthur & D.W. books – Marc Brown
Berenstain Bears books
Curious George books – H.A. & Margret Rey
Clifford the Big Red Dog books – Norman Bridwell
Go Diego Go books
Dora the Explorer books
Ladybug Girl books – Jacky Davis
Magic School Bus books – Joanna Cole
Shine-a-light books – Carron Brown
If You Give a Mouse books – Laura Numeroff
Bear books – Salina Yoon
I’m Fast – Cars/Trucks books – Kate McMullan & Jim McMullan
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site books – Sherri Duskey Rinker
Where’s Waldo? books – Martin Handford
Books for Ages 5-7
We’re starting to encourage our kids to read chapter books. They still love all the books that we had from the earlier ages but are reading those books themselves without our help! Hooray!
The first chapter book we gave our daughter was Ivy and Bean. She really liked the book but we thought the main character was a bit mean in her interactions with others. We found this guide to chapter books with reviews of over 250 chapter books ! This guide had the same sentiments we had about Ivy and Bean. So now it’s become our go to source for chapter books. This guide also lists out the reading levels of each book (J through P). We gauged our kids’ levels via trial and error. Then the kids picked which books (that didn’t have bad reviews) interested them from their levels.
My daughter has liked most of the books that we’ve thrown at her. Below are some of her favorites so far. The one series that she hasn’t loved are the Magic Tree House books. I’ve heard good things about them and thought she would like the science/history behind the stories, but nope!
Katie Woo books – Fran Manushkin
Princess in Black books – Shannon Hale
Cam Jansen books – David Adler
Judy Moody & Stink books – Megan McDonald
Agent Amelia books – Michael Broad
Ada Lace books – Emily Calandrelli
Zoey and Sassafras books – Asia Citro
Alvin Ho books – Lenore Look
My son, who isn’t ready to read completely on his own yet, also wants to read chapter books because his sister is doing it. This guide has chapter book reviews for younger readers too.
The Dragon books by Dav Pilkey are the only series that my son (age 5) reads all the way through in one sitting. He loves these for the pictures and easy reading and makes him feel good because they are chapter books. We’ve tried a bunch of other chapter books for young readers but these do not capture his attention like the Dragon books and takes multiple sittings to complete.
Young Cam Jansen books – David Adler
Henry and Mudge books – Cynthia Rylant
Mr. Putter and Tabby books – Cynthia Rylant
Our son doesn’t love reading as much as our daughter. Even though he desired to read chapter books like his sister, the lack of pictures in chapter books made reading a chore for him. When we checked out a bunch of Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems and similar such books that he read as a toddler from the library, we would see him reading on his own and actually enjoying reading. The books have elevated his confidence. He proudly tells us that he has started “reading in his head” (silent reading). So just a note of caution for those with early readers to be careful about pushing chapter books!
My husband loves these books by Andrea Beaty because her books encourage kids to think outside of the box. Our kids have perfectionist tendencies and these books teach that failure is a great thing!
The Questioneers books – Andrea Beaty