I have been reading to Anvi since she was 2 months old and I think we would have more than a 100 books to read by now while she is just 2.5 years old. I am so glad to get her interested in books instead of screen time and seeing her love for books makes me feel delighted. I am not sure who loves books more – Anvi or her book hoarding mother! I am a recent member of KBC and am amazed to see their book recommendation lists and such an active community of like-minded parents, and look forward to adding several more books to our expanding bookshelf. I hope our recommendations are helpful to other book readers too. Presenting our Top 30 curated reading list for participation in the KBC Book Bingo 2023:
1. A yellow coloured book – Augustus And His Smile
A feel good book where a tiger named Augustus seems to have lost his smile and searches through different lands to find out where his smile has gone. The book teaches a good lesson that we can find our happiness anywhere if we want to. The book is a beautiful read, especially when we are feeling gloomy it instantly cheers us up. It has nice illustrations.
2. Leaf or flower on the cover – Monkey Puzzle
This Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s book is a funny story of a lost monkey in a jungle trying to find his mother with the help of a butterfly who keeps getting it wrong. The book has been written so creatively by our favorite authors and the illustrations are also captivating that keep Anvi hooked till the end. I also found the book to be a good lesson in teaching kids how children might look different than their parents.
3. A book with siblings – Giving (Olly & Me)
This Shirley Hughes book talks about sharing and giving different types of things to others and specifically to a girl’s naughty younger brother. The illustrations are captivating and the book has been quite useful to teach Anvi the concept of giving and sharing her things with others.
4. A book that features mom – My Mummy
It is a Mr. Men and Little Miss Rogers Hargreaves book with cute illustrations of how special a mother is while being funny, wise, silly, cheeky, tired, loving, magical and what not. Anvi loves to read this one sitting on my lap every time.
5. A book that features dad – I Love My Daddy
This Giles Andreae book has lovely illustrations showing what all activities a girl does with her funny father like cooking, going on swings, sitting on shoulders, playing horsies, watching tv and story time while sleeping. Anvi loves to point out all the funny things the father does on each page in the book.
6. A bedtime book – The Bear With Sticky Paws Won’t Go To Bed
The book has an interesting storyline with a girl who did not want to sleep gets visited by a naughty bear who takes her on an exciting adventure and a beach party until she gets exhausted and understands it is really time to sleep. Anvi can recite this story even without the book and wants to hear it before sleeping every night! She loves chanting the phrase “Oh no! Sticky paws everywhere” from the book. She also likes the other book in this series called The Bear with Sticky Paws goes to School.
7. Lift the flap book – Look, Look Again
This is a fun one to ten counting and guessing book where on each page a different shaped item is shown. You might believe it looks like something but when the flap is lifted, it turns out to be something else. Anvi finds the surprises in the book amusing and keeps opening and closing the flaps over and over again.
8. A cat book – Where’s That Cat?
It is an interesting optical illusion book in search of a cat by Dan Crisp. There is a small cut out on each page showing the cat’s body parts. So you keep thinking every time you have found the cat, the next page reveals not the cat, but something else entirely. I think Anvi has read the book at least a hundred times herself by turning the pages back and forth.
9. A book by Debi Gliori – No Matter What
A lovely feel-good book with a message about never ending love between a child and their caregiver. The book illustrates an irritated small fox not settling for sleep and asking the big fox whether it would love him even if he were some other animal. The big fox replies wonderfully how it would love the younger one each time and how love goes on forever no matter what. This is our favorite book to read when Anvi is feeling grumpy.
10. A book on first experiences – Bedtime Billy Bear
If your child has no experience of being comfortable with others in your absence, this is the book for it. It tells the story of a worried baby bear whose mother needs to go out and he is put to bed by a caregiver but something or the other keeps bothering him. The story is emotional yet reassuring. We got this book specifically to get Anvi to sleep with anyone other than me.
11. A book that makes you giggle – Open Very Carefully
This is a funny story that starts with the story of an ugly duckling but is actually about a crocodile that somehow lands into the book. The story continues about how to deal with the crocodile’s antics and how he makes it out of the book. There are funny elements on all pages that make us giggle while reading it. The book feels interactive by making us do actions to feel involved. Anvi finds the crocodile’s actions hilarious.
12. A book on big emotions – How Do You Feel
The book covers all the basic emotions of feeling hunger, anger, sad, naughty, shy, sleepy, love illustrated through animals. The book has been really helpful for Anvi in naming the basic emotions she goes through everyday.
13. A book that was helpful in addressing an issue – First Day At Bug School
The book shows what all happens inside a small bug school in a jungle when the bugs come in on their first day. This book really helped us through Anvi’s first day at school. It has presented the creepy crawlies in such a cute manner that any child would love to go to the bug school. She loves to hover over the illustrations of different classes inside the school and counting spots on the lady bugs.
14. A book you love for the illustrations – The Crayons’ Book Of Colors by Drew Daywalt
This one was really hard to choose since we have several well-illustrated books. This book introduces different crayons coloring different things on each page from a child’s crayon box. The storyline is simple about teaching colors but the illustrations are fantastic and look exactly like a child might draw and color things – probably the reason that draws Anvi to this book. We use the last page illustration as a search and find activity.
15. A book by an Indian author – Incy Wincy Spider (My Indian Baby Books)
The book showcases the poem with super cute illustrations from Kavita Arvind. It has a hand pump at the beginning and I was glad to explain to Anvi what it is and how it works. The book also includes a small fun game of spotting a snail on each page which Anvi loves to play.
16. A book that has food in the title – Cheese and Tomato Spider
This is a mix and match book where each illustrated page is cut into two halves and you can make up hilarious combinations by turning the page halves. Some of the combinations include: A wriggly ice cream, A cheese and tomato car, A strawberry flavoured granny, An exploding cake! We can’t stop giggling while reading this one.
17. A book with a stuffed animal – Play With Peppa
The book has Peppa as a stuffed animal with her doing some mistaken action or the other on every page and saying Sorry for it. It is funny and at the same time teaches the concept of saying sorry if you make a mistake. Anvi finds this book quite amusing and giggles away if I bring the Peppa puppet too close to her.
18. A book about a day out with family – Cars And Trucks And Things That Go
This book is about a pig family going out in their car for a picnic on the beach and all the vehicles they see on their way. The book is overloaded with so many interesting vehicles and things happening during the car ride and on the beach that it is impossible to put it down once we start reading it. Anvi loves this and 5 more Richard Scarry books we have. These books are good for enriching vocabulary and can really keep her engrossed for a long time.
19. A book that teaches an important lesson – Dandylion
The story is about Dandylion – a new student who looks like a wild haired lion, completely different from other kids in class. The plot follows how the other students along with Dandylion learn about his uniqueness and celebrate it. This book teaches an important lesson about being different from others and that it need not be a bad thing.
20. Grown up’s favourite book in the house – The Button Book
This is a hilarious book where on each page, a different colored shaped button is pressed and on the next page some animals perform the action related to that button. It includes beep, clap, sing, blow raspberries, hug, tickle buttons and a mysterious new button at the end. I personally loved the interactive concept of the book and Anvi can’t stop laughing when we reach blowing raspberries and tickle buttons.
21. A hand-me down book you are attached to – Read Sing Play ABC Sing-Along
This is a nice interactive rhymes book that teaches the alphabet to small kids in a fun way. There are poems starting with each letter and have multiple words from the same letter that can be sung to well-known nursery rhymes’ tune. Several pages also have textured touch and push-pull elements that keep Anvi engaged.
22. A book you tore – Ten Little Fingers And Ten Little Toes
A lovely illustrated babies book which I have been reading to Anvi from a long time. It shows babies from all around the world born in different places and looking different, but having the same fingers and toes as everyone else. Anvi loves looking at different babies on each page and keeps bringing the book so that I can sing it like a poem with her.
23. A book you have carried to bed and slept with – You Choose In Space
I think it is our favorite book. We also have You Choose Fairy Tales but she clearly states that she loves this one only! The book is about kids in a spaceship travelling to a new planet where on each page, they can choose from multiple scenarios what activity they want to do, what to wear or eat, whom to meet or choose as a pet, how they want to travel, where they want to rest, etc. This is like a never ending book and we keep making our own space adventure story every time we read it without ever getting bored of it. The book not only makes your child come up with imaginative stories but also helps them understand that they need not always stick to only one option but explore multiple options around them. There are other books in this YOU CHOOSE series.
24. A book written in rhyme (not nursery rhymes) – Upsydown Town by Sue Hendra
The book shows the animal world completely upside down in which fishes fly, birds swim, cows and sheep hang off trees, elephants are thin and so on. The world goes back alright towards the end after you turn the book. The rhythmic couplets and illustrations are funny to read while imagining such a hilarious upside down world. Sue Hendra’s books are full of fun.
25. A book your grandparent read to you – My First Library
This boxed set of 10 books by Wonder House was gifted to us. It has been helpful in teaching Anvi fruits, vegetables, animals, shapes, colors, ABC, counting and transport. These books have been significant in enriching her vocabulary and specifically understanding differences between several animals that seem similar. Her grandparents are amazed that she knows animals like porcupine, hyena, guinea pig, etc. thanks to these books.
26. A book that has food stains on it – Lulu’s Lunch
This interactive book is about a girl called Lulu who is hungry and shows the variety of food items she loves to eat. It includes opening and closing a velcro apron, some flaps to lift as well as a sticky to touch pudding. It makes for a great food time read especially for fussy eaters like Anvi (hence, the food stains!)
27. A book given to you so mom/dad could have tea in peace! – Where’s The Unicorn
This is an amazing search and find book to keep my unicorn crazy daughter busy looking for 7 different unicorns with fascinating outdoor scenery on each page. We can keep working while she keeps on shouting “I found it” in the background.
28. A book by Wonder House – My First Animals Sticker Book
Our first sticker book from Wonder House from which Anvi was able to peel off the stickers by herself and when I pointed to the page where to put them, she was able to put them in the right place as well. The book kept her busy with a new activity, includes big sized stickers and aided in learning about numerous animals in a variety of environments. Even after sticking on all the stickers, she still loves to read it.
29. A book you gift often – The Very Hungry Caterpillar
We have found this book to be so amazing that we often gift it to other kids. It is the story of a hungry caterpillar coming out of an egg and eating different items everyday, getting bigger and turning into a butterfly. In just a small story, we get to learn multiple concepts like days of the week, colors, counting and importance of eating healthy. It has magnificent illustrations with small cutout holes in which fingers can go in making the book a super-hit with small kids.
30. A book you got from kbc recommendations – Unicorn And Yeti : A Good Team (added by asha: this book is recommended for 4-6 years)
A cute comics type Acorn storybook on friendship. It has three well-illustrated stories about two friends – a Yeti and a Unicorn, trying to do something the other one finds hard but still end up managing to have fun together. I have been trying to make Anvi understand the concept of playing with friends and found it to be a good recommendation. It is an easy to carry book that can also be taken on outings to keep a child occupied.
This book can be ordered from Scholastic India via our kbc storefront as well. Scholastic India always has special offers on.
[Note from Team Kids Book Café: For your convenience, affiliate links (MARKED IN PINK) to some of the book titles & images 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 absolutely no extra cost to you!). Do let us know if you need information about other children’s books by writing to asha@kidsbookcafe.com.]
