My son Aarav is 3.6 yrs now and we’ve been busy making the most of the lockdown, reading and enjoying and more reading. This list of 15 books have topped our current list of favourites. All these books fall under the age category of 2yrs -7yrs. This is for the #kbcKeepCalmAndReadOn Campaign.
1. The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld – It’s a lovely book about a kid who’s trying to build blocks and they topple. The kid has many visitors but they only suggest what to do. But then a Rabbit walks by, sits and waits silently for the kid to respond. The kid pours out his heart and feels a lot better and rest is beautiful. Read it to experience the beauty. Aarav to relates sometimes with the rabbit sometimes with the kid. He becomes my rabbit when I look & feel low and sometimes I become his when he’s feeling sad.
2. Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson & Lydia Monks – A beautifully illustrated story of three sea creatures trying to share a shell. They have a fall out but eventually come together in harmony and become friends forever. He has learnt how beautiful sharing is, how lovely friendship can be when you share.
3. Merry Christmas Curious George by Margret and H.A.Rey’s – The story is about a little monkey named George who is always curious to explore. He goes Christmas Tree shopping with his man friend and gets lost in the tree garden and reaches a children’s hospital. Ahaa… I won’t share the story, read by yourself to see what an adventure he goes on… Aarav is already a curious kid, phew now he feels when a monkey can be curious why can’t he ? So.. yes his loves exploring and adventure even more.
4. Hands are not for hitting by Martine Agassi – This book is pure love, especially when toddler troubles begin. It has some beautiful lines on how not to use hands for hitting, instead hands are meant to love, write, wave and so on…. Aarav himself was getting aggressive and started hitting us at home, this book came to us right on time. We read this book over and over and over, he realised he shouldn’t be hitting – and how instead he can beautifully use his hands for other things. Hands are Not for Hitting: Revised & Updated (Ages 4-7, Paperback) (Best Behavior(r) Paperback) Paperback – Picture Book, 14 March 2009
5. The tiger who came to tea by Judith Kerr – We love the illustrations of the book. This tiger randomly visits a home for tea, eats up and gobbles down all the food and drinks. Left with nothing to eat, the family plan a dinner outside and stock up more food including food for the tiger who never shows up. Aarav has always been fond of guests, this book has like assured him guests are good. Now we wait everyday for a guest to come home, so he can play host.
6. Disney Bed Time Collection (compilation of 3 stories – Dumbo, Pinocchio, Peter Pan) – we have fallen in love with the story Dumbo. It’s about a baby elephant that is born in a circus, but is teased for having big ears like the wings of the bird. How this baby elephant becomes a hero is what the story is all about. While writing this review, I’m slightly moved because Aarav recently started comparing his skin colour to mine and others. When kids do that at this age, it’s really necessary to address it. Through this story I taught him it’s not about how your looks are, but who you become. Now he doesn’t talk about his skin colour anymore, and I’m really glad about it.
7. Moin and the Monster by Anushka Ravishankar – a hilarious story about how a kid Moin handles the situations thrown at him when a monster decides to visit him and stay on with him. The best thing that Aarav liked about the story is that the monster loves to sing and starts singing at the sound of music. Oops…this book has made him check every day under the bed hoping he too can own one monster 😂😂 and do naughty things. This book is actually for 6 years+.
8. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss – the illustrations are too good, the rhymes are hilarious. In all, a lovely book. Aarav and I, we literally sing it like a song. It’s about a cat who chooses to visit these two kids on a rainy day when they cannot go out to play and their mom is not at home. He plans game after game. And then there’s a fish who is constantly worried and wants to get rid of it. This books urges Aarav to sing in rhyming words, every time we read this or talk about it, he starts off…!
9. I am a Pilot (read it yourself Ladybird) – Aarav’s fascination for planes is immense and every time someone asks about him dream, “I want to be a pilot” is his answer. This book has just enough information and pictures to help him understand what a pilot does and also about the different kinds of planes. He is now waiting to train in a simulator so he can fly me and his papa for a ride.
10. A troublesome disguise (cuddly tales) – we’ve now read this story at least 15 times. It’s about Juno a Panda and Fafa. Juno chooses to disguise as a wolf, Fafa warns him against it. But Juno still goes ahead and before he could enjoy his success of scaring other animals, he is chased by a group of monkeys. Aarav likes Juno the panda, but yes he has learnt that “when you do something wrong, you are sure to get into trouble. ”
11. An elephant’s tale by Priyanka Handa Ram – a beautiful book that speaks about how poaching is become a threat to wildlife and how the baby animals become prey when they lose their parents to poaching. But here’s a baby elephant that’s rescued and trained by rangers and sent back to wildlife. The story is about, how it saves a rhino and gets the poachers arrested. Aarav loves animals a lot – this book made him relate to the plight of wild animals who fall under the knives of the poachers. He says, we should never harm animlas because they are, our friends. Compassion is real in kids and it needs to be made stronger.
12. Panchatantra – we all know Panchatantra tales especially of the story of the foolish sons of a king who become wise men and great rulers by listening to the 5 stories filled with moral and wisdom. This book that we have has big beautiful illustrations and is making reading fun. Each story has a beautiful moral. Like “never believe in others blindly”. Since the stories involve animals and the language is simple he has been able to connect and understand the good and the bad.
13. The Way back home by Oliver Jeffers – This is a very cute story of how an alien and a boy bump into each other on the moon. When their respective vehicles break down they help each other get back home. Aarav loves this book, he wants to fly you see, and when he’s learnt to fly he wants to go the moon. So now you know why this book keeps him encouraged. Every child must have at least one book by Oliver Jeffers.
14. Lost and found by Oliver Jeffers – a boy who finds a penguin tries his best to take it back to his home only to find out that the penguin was never lost! They remain friends forever together. Friendship is beautiful in this budding ages and when they have good ones to hang around. Aarav really likes the concept that the boy and the penguin have become such inseparable friends.
15. Be Brave little Penguin by Giles Andreae – The story of a penguin who is scared of water. While playing with his friends, he falls into water just to realise it isn’t bad and all the while he’s been scared unnecessarily. From then on he goes swimming with his friends and overcomes his fear. Aarav didn’t express any fear any day, but this book has prepared him before hand just in case. Now he tells me, “Mumma it’s always important to try, remember the penguin tried and he didn’t get scared.”
So why wait, grab them and read on while your sitting at home. Stay home, stay safe.
We bought most of these book by reading recommendations on the kidsbookcafe facebook group and we bought them from kidsbookcafe.com’s amazon affiliate links.
[Note from Team Kids Book Café: For your convenience, affiliate links (MARKED IN PINK) to some of the books have been added to enable you to buy the books from AMAZON, should you wish to! A very small amount of money comes to kidsbookcafe.com when you purchase a book via the amazon affiliate link provided (at no extra cost to you!). Do let us know if you need information about other children’s books by writing to asha@kidsbookcafe.com.]
