I am posting this entry for #KBCBookBingoToddler2022 on behalf of my 2.4 yrs old son, Saiprasath Mohanavannan. We introduced books to Sai when he was around 3 months but those were the books that Hari used to read. I joined KBC when Sai was 9 months old. I was not active initially so I was buying books randomly. Later, I started following the group and bought age appropriate for both my boys. I am really forever grateful to Asha ji and KBC for raising my little readers.
Few weeks back, my sister-in-law was telling that she had a call with her friend and told her that why are you giving mobile to your child instead engage her with books. I was having a big grin. She said that “whenever kids are using mobile, I remember Hari and Sai only akka, how both of them are into reading.” I felt so happy that day. At least we could make an impact on our new member (sister-in-law) to our family because not everyone accepts. In fact, when we were around with her in native, she even read books to Hari and Sai and helped in doing activities too.
1. An orange colored book – Alphabet Ice Cream by Nick Sharratt and Sue Heap
This book is beautifully illustrated with Nick and Sue throughout the book. A is for apple, aeroplane and B is for bat, butterfly, some words are hidden like B for bite where Sue bites an apple, brown and black color hair, C for crocodile, camel and cat where cup and clouds are illustrated and so on. So each alphabet has atleast 2 words or more. Sai loves to read this book and he says “Nick Sharatt and Sue” while we read the book. He says the letter sounds and reads, so it is a great book to introduce phonics to younger kids cheerfully.
2. A Lift-the-flap book – Busy Zoo
This wonderful book takes us to the jungle safari along with keeper Katie who makes the elephant bathe, feeds food to gorillas, penguins and so many zoo activities are beautifully explained with sturdy lift-the-flaps. We liked lift-the-flaps inside the lift-the-flaps the most. There is a ladybird to be found on each page which is really interesting for toddlers. Sai says,
“Amma, there is amma lion, Hari and Sai. There are three tiger cubs 1, 2, 3 (giggles). See, monkey is swinging and gorilla is having baby gorilla, Aunty is feeding bananas to gorillas”
3. A Sandra Boynton board book – Happy Hippo, Angry Duck
This book explains the different types of moods through different animals like ‘Grumpy as a Moose or Excited as a Dog’ in a beautiful way. It is a wonderful Sandra Boynton book to make kids aware of their emotions, how each day is different with different feelings and to express it. We love the rhyming text and funny illustrations so much.
4. A book with a vehicle – Usborne Farmyard Tales Train stories
This book comprises 4 stories – The Old Steam Train, Rusty’s Train Ride Woolly stops the Train and Dolly and the Train. This book is about Poppy and Sam who are excited to see their renovated Apple Tree Station and the old steam train. The illustration is self-explanatory and catchy for my toddler. As it has many train stories collectively, he often reads this book. We love to see the hidden yellow duck on every page. There is a detailed map of Apple Tree Village at the end which everyone of us love to look at and correlate to the stories.
5. An elephant book – Gajapati Kulapati Gurrburrrrooom written by Ashok Rajagopalan, translated by Jeeva Raghunath
We love all the Gajapati Kulapati series books. This book is about Gajapati Kulapati who ate all the eatables given by his dearly friends. Then he got a severe stomach ache, so his friends plan to bring a doctor to cure him but before the doctor arrives, his friend cow tickles him, and there’s a loud sound ‘Gurrburrrrooom‘ from him and after that he feels much better and laughs ‘ha ha ha‘. On seeing Gajapati Kulapati recovered, everyone starts tickling and having fun ‘kichuu kicchhu killi‘ which was then heard all around when the doctor arrived. We have all these four books in Tamil and these are available in English and other languages as well.
6. A rhyming book – The Squirrels Who Squabbled by Rachel Bright and Jim Field
This is story about two squirrels ‘Spontaneous’ Cyril and ‘Plan Ahead’ Bruce. As the autumn season is about to end, the animals start gathering food to store for winter. Cyril does not have any food in his store except only a book so he wants to have a last pine cone which was available on a tree. Bruce feels there’s a pine cone short in his store so he too now wants to take it. Both of them started running behind the pine cone where they face so many hurdles. They quarrel with each other and lose their cone. They both feel bad that they should have shared it with each other instead of losing it. It is a wonderful book to explain the concept of sharing and to be friendly. The rhyming text and mind-blowing illustration makes us fall in love with this book again and again. Sai always says to Hari, “You’re Bruce and I’m Cyril” and vice versa. These characters are living in our life. I make sure that my boys share with each other when they are having tough time and explain how Cyril and Bruce fought and end up in despair.
7. A Peppa Pig book – My Daddy
We love Peppa books. This book is all about Peppa’s daddy who seems to be serious but he is not at all, instead he’s funny. Each page is illustrated with activities carried out by his dad and how Peppa and George enjoy things like Daddy trying a DIY job but he is not good at it! Then he tries to exercise but he likes to lie down on the sofa and so on. This book is great fun.
8. A book by an Indian author – The ABCs of Virtue written by Priya Kumari & Komal Garg, illustrated by Maitreyi Ghosh
This book teaches alphabets along with the great qualities. Each alphabet explains good values to be followed. For instance, A for Active, B for Brave, C for Confident and so on. Sai’s favorite qualities are E for ethical and P for patient. The beautiful illustration and rhyming text makes the book quite interesting and it covers day to day scenarios which kids can correlate very well by looking at the picture. You can read a detailed review here.
9. A Scholastic book – All Kinds of Kids by Christina Mia Gardeski And Bob McMahon
This book explains that there are different kinds of kids. Each page has only two sentences and easy to read and by heart by a toddler as it has mostly sight words. The illustration and the simple text make my child want to read this book again and again. I always carry this small book in my bag during travel so this has become one of his favorites. Few lines from the book,
Some kids are girls. Some kids are boys.
Some kids are quiet. Some make lots of noise.
Some kids are tall. Some kids are short.
Some kids ride bikes. Some ride chairs instead.
This book can be ordered from Scholastic India via our kbc storefront as well. Scholastic India always has special offers on.
This book is available in Spanish and French as well.
10. A bedtime book – Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson
One Night Mother Owl went out to search food for baby owls named Sarah, Percy and Bill. Before the mother owl comes, all got up and wondering where was she gone? All owls think a lot so they discuss was she lost and when would she come? Sarah and Percy thought that she would come soon but Bill being the smallest kept saying “I want my mummy” and kept missing her. When mother owl finally arrived, all owls jumped, and hugged her. It is a great book to teach kids to overcome separation anxiety.
This is our bedtime read. Sai says, ” Sarah, Percy, Bill “. After reading this book at night, the next day morning Sai was saying ” Love you ” to me when I gave food. I was shocked and asked “Did you say thank you?” (Because “Love you” comes back only if I say). Then he said ” Love you”. I asked him again how come you say this, “What book we read? ” He replied ” Bill says to mother owl, I love mummy”. I was glad that day 🙂.
11. A dino book – Harry and the Dinosaurs say “Raahh!” by Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds
This book is about Harry and the Dinosaurs who are going to the dentist, Drake to have their teeth check-up. Harry takes his dinosaurs – Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Scelidosaurus, Anchisaurus, Apatosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. Tyrannosaurus is scared to go as he has more number of teeth. Harry tells Tyrannosaurus that he would press the magic button to make him grow. When they asked to show their teeth, all the dinosaurs said “Raaaahhh” with open wide their mouth. The illustrations are funny and the story is about how the dinosaurs behaved during their appointment.
12. A book with a number in the title – Ten In The Bed by Penny Dale
This is a story based on the nursery rhyme. The story goes like,
There were ten in the bed and the little one said “Roll over, roll over”.
So the animals roll over one by one and every time they fall out, there is a sound like Bump, Dink, Ouch, Thud and so on. Everyone falls down and the little one is missing his friends Hedgehog, Mouse, Nellie, Zebra, Ted, Rabbit, Croc, Bear and Sheep so again all of them one by one jump into the bed and sleep together.
This is a lovely book for bedtime reading. When I read “There were ten in the bed,…”, Sai replies, “Roll over, roll over”. We have other lovely books similar to this, Ten Out of Bed by Penny Dale and One Ted Falls out of Bed by Julia Donaldson.
13. A book with siblings – My Big Brother, Boris by Liz Pichon
Little Croc loves his big brother Boris and they would always play together. Later on, Boris started to play with only his friends and act strange with his Little Croc. Little Croc was upset to see this grumpy Boris and worried a lot. One day, Little Croc tells his mom that Boris does not love him.
It’s Boris’ birthday so Little Croc decides to create some fun games and invites his friends to make Boris happy. But things don’t turn out as planned. Boris wears a snout ring, his parents are shocked and react. Little Croc decides to seek his grandparents’ help and executes the party well. Boris seems to have fun with Little Croc’s games and he once again loves his little brother a lot. This book is great for siblings who always avoid the younger one. My Little Croc loves this book a lot.
14. A rib-tickling book – There’s an Ouch in my Pouch! by Jeanne Willis and Garry Parsons
Willaby Wallaby was sobbing that he wanted to be inside his momma’s pouch but he couldn’t be there where he wanted to be there now. The pouch was uncomfortable and so he was in search of a perfect pouch.
Off bounced Willaby, bibbly-bobbly, boingy-boing boing to the Blue Billabong.
Willaby shouted, “There’s an Ouch in my Pouch ! It is making me grumpy, it’s making me grouch. Atishoo! Atishoo! I’m catching a chillaby. Please give a pouch to a poor little Wallaby”
He met a Mummy wombat, Mummy Possum, but their pouches were not as he expected. Willaby Wallaby met Mummy Dingo, the dog and she called Willaby Wallaby saying her pouch was on the tip of her tongue but Willaby Wallaby knew that a dog has no pouch so he ran for his life and back to his mum. Willaby Wallaby told his mum, “I was kicked out by a terrible OUCH”. Momma clarified,
“That’s not an ouch, that’s BABY JILLABY”.
So momma asked Baby to share the pouch for her brother but Willaby Wallaby liked being free and bounced and hopped. He said that he was a big boy, brave and strong now. This book explains how to share with the siblings and how to be independent and stay strong. The text is rhyming and repeated, so whenever we read this book, we have great fun.
15. A non-fiction book – Big Book of Animals (LEGO Nonfiction): A LEGO Adventure in the Real World
This book is like a mini encyclopedia where animals are categorised based on the habitat – Arctic, Woodland, Rain Forest, Mountain, Desert, Grassland and Water. Each animal has information on the type of food they eat, sound, baby name and group name. Some funny Lego structures around make the book hilarious yet has informative jokes. The animal pictures are lively so Sai loves to read this book anytime.
16. A book on toddler tantrums – Elephantantrum! by Gillian Shields and Gally Johnson-Isaacs
Ellie, the girl wants to have an elephant and she keeps asking for the same everyday. One day, her dad brought an elephant home. Ellie was excited and she commanded the elephant to do all her work like taking her toys, to give her a ride. The elephant dropped her down and Ellie threw a terrible tantrum. She was not happy with the elephant and wanted it to go out but the elephant stayed there, out on Ellie’s clothes and slept on her bed. The elephant even went to her school, talked to her friends and sat on her place. Ellie shouted but the elephant ignored. The elephant now in turn wanted Ellie to fold his handkerchiefs, make his sandwiches and clean his boots. He didn’t say please or thank you. If she was not giving, then he would throw an enormous ‘Elephantantrum’.
On seeing this, Ellie was upset and cried. The elephant gave her kerchief and Ellie said thank you for the first time.
She asked ,”Please can I have my things back”. The elephant replied, “Why don’t we share them?” Ellie replied “All right. Let’s share”.
They both became friends. Ellie’s dad was glad to see them. The story goes on. Will the elephant stay with her till the end? It’s a great book to talk about tantrums, sharing and teach good manners to kids.
Whenever my boys throw tantrums, we say “Are you having an elephantantrum?” We say “Please be calm and play. It is nice to share the things”.
17. A bath book – 1,2,3 Splosh! by David Melling
This is a counting book from one to ten with Splosh and his fluffy friend ducks. The ducks one by one join the hilarious adventure to get into the pool and have fun at the end “Splish, Splash and Splosh“.
18. A puppet/ pop-up book – Calm down, Boris! by Sam Lloyd
Boris is a big, kissy, lovable monster who tickles everyone. When his fur was checked for bugs, he tickles. When he goes to the park, he says “kissy, kissy” and kisses are tickly. He loves playing with little monsters but they all want to stay away from him as he’s so tickly. When he kisses, the monsters says,
“No Boris, Calm Down, too many kisses, too tickly!”
With his tickly kisses, when he scares away the big dog all the monsters wanted to kiss him. This is a great book to tickle your kids and make them laugh. We have another puppet book ‘You’re not scary, Sid‘ by the same author and it’s delightful to read as well.
19. A push-pull-slide book – My Pop-Up Body Book by Jennie Maizels and William Petty
This book is having pop-ups, pull the slide, push the tabs so Sai loves to push, pull and slide. It’s great book which has amazing information right from how the baby is formed from the egg and sperm, inside mother’s womb and delivered. The big baby pop-up is loved by Sai and he says “Amma, see this baby was inside mother’s womb and here now”. The body parts – eyes, ears, brain, lungs, heart, intestines are explained in each page so detailed and why do we eat food, how we urinate and poop, how our heart and lungs function, what are the right and left brain activities. There is pull the tab for feelings to match with the correct picture. At the end of the book, there is a giant skeleton pop-up and the details about bones, nerves and skin.
20. A sound book – Vtech Touch & Teach Word Book
This book has words on the things at home, the food we eat, the things at the park, animals in the zoo, the clothes we wear and the toys we play. My kids love to press this sound book and enjoy reading it. We have similar sound book ‘Leapfrog Learning Friends 100 Words Book‘ which has English and Spanish words.
21. A book by Nick Sharratt – Elephant Wellyphant
This book is full of elephants with Lift-the-Flaps here and there. The illustrations are mind-blowing, the elephant names are funny like ‘The Chocolate Caramelephant‘, ‘Cinderelephant‘, ‘Storytellerphant‘ which is our favourite with a small story inside. It is absolutely hilarious.
22. “Bestest” read aloud book at home! – Baby Monkey, Private Eye by Brian Selznick and David Serlin
This book is about a baby monkey who is a detective, reads crime books, takes his magnifying glass and looks out for clues, munches on some snacks and puts on his pants and gets ready to find the missing thing and thief and solves the case.
It has five chapters. All the chapters are illustrated according to the case. For instance, ‘The Case of the Missing Pizza’ has illustration of Italian map, Roman Colosseum and Mona Lisa picture. So every case has different scenes relevant to it. The mind-blowing illustrations, repetitive words, the interjections like ‘Ah, uh, oh, mmm, aha’ make the read aloud bestest in our home.
When I call Sai, “Baby Monkey”, he replies “I’m not baby monkey, I’m only baby” and giggles.
This book can be ordered from Scholastic India via our kbc storefront as well. Scholastic India always has special offers on.
23. A book that kept you busy on your own! – Zayn and Zoey – The World of Birds
This book is about all the birds which Zayn and Zoey look about. It explains, how the birds sing like Parrots squawk, Crow caws, the color of the birds are illustrated beautifully with the rhyming text makes Sai want to read again and again.
Sai looks for the rusty eagle as it flies away and he stands like flamingo and laughs. Sometimes, Sai sleeps with this book.
ONLY KBC MEMBERS HAVE AN EXCLUSIVE COUPON CODE KBC15 which will give you 15% OFF. Simply click the red button below that takes you to the Zayn and Zoey shop on their website where you can buy this particular book. Should you wish to explore other Zayn and Zoey books on their website, simply click here. Be sure to use the coupon code KBC15.
24. A book by your favorite illustrator – Mummy Mine by Tim Warnes and Jane Chapman
This book has minimal text with beautifully illustrated mummy animals and their babies. Sai’s favorite illustrator is Jane Chapman and he keeps reading this book again and again. We have another book by her ‘The Emperor’s Egg‘. Some lines from the book,
Mummy huge, Mummy scary! Mummy flutter, Mummy chatter !
The best mum in the whole world is Mummy Mine. This is Sai’s favourite.
25. A book by your favorite author – Look Out, Suzy Goose by Petr Horácek, Introduced by Michael Rosen
Suzy Goose finds other geese honking as noise so she wants to go to the quiet place of the dark woods. She walks deeper into the woods and she is not aware that she’s been spied by a fox. Then, a hungry wolf spies both fox and goose. Then, a hungry bear spies all three of them. Once Suzy Goose reaches a quiet place, she honks. This makes an old owl screech and all the animals run away. Suzy Goose turns back feels that the place is scary and not safe so she hurries back home. She joins her flock and never finds them noisy after all. This story conveys the message that it’s better to be with family.
The repeated sound is lovely to read aloud.
FLIP FLAP, FLIP FLAP went Suzy Goose
TIPTOE, TIPTOE crept the fox.
CREEP, CREEP sneaked the wolf.
PAD, PAD padded the bear.
26. A new author you were introduced to – Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
This story is about Mr. Panda who is having lots of colorful doughnuts so he decides to give it to the animals he meets. He meets Penguin. Penguin wants the pink one but the panda says he has changed his mind. He carries on with the badger, ostrich, whale and all these were asking and not requesting so he continues his journey. When finally he meets a lemur, who says, “May I have a doughnut? Please, Mr. Panda? “, the Panda gives all his doughnuts. This book teaches how to ask for things politely and say the magic word ‘Please’ when you want something.
In my home, Sai is Mr. Panda. If we say, “Please Sai“, then he immediately gets convinced.
This is a great picture book with minimal words and hidden message. The animals are illustrated in black and white beautifully. The penguin represents snowy animals, the badger represents woodland animals, the ostrich represents grassland, the whale represents water animals and lemur represents island. I’m going crazy on collecting picture books for myself 😂.
27. A book that was gifted to you – The World Made a Rainbow by Michelle Robinson and Emily Hamilton
This book is very special as we got it from our secret santa. This book is uplifting book which assures that this phase too shall pass with the hope that everything and everyone will be alright. We all missed our dear ones during this pandemic. So the girl in this book also miss her friends, school and normal life. They painted a rainbow on their window so when people pass by it and see it, they’ll say
“All rainstorms must end, and this rainstorm will, too”
We have painted rainbow on our window and hope that all rainstorms must end and this rainstorm will too.
28. A book you read in repeat mode – Kitchen Disco by Clare Foges and Al Murphy
At night, when everyone is asleep, the fruits jump from the fruit bowl and decide to have a party. Banana is the DJ who plays music. Every fruit enjoys dancing, banana somersaults, lemons on the chopping board, coconut splashes on the tub, pineapple is high-fiving. The song goes like,
“So shake it like a mango, party like a pear, wiggle like an apple, Hey! And dance like you don’t care. It’s called the KITCHEN DISCO“
This book is full of colorful illustrations with yummy fruits. So we enjoy this book a lot by singing this lovely song.
29. A book meant for an older child that you enjoyed – Usborne Lift-the-Flap Biology by Alice James and Mar Hernandez
I introduced this book to Sai when he was around 21 months old. It’s one of his favourites till now. He loves to Lift-the-Flaps and look at the plants and animals. The book covers topics on how life starts, how it works, microbes, how plants reproduce, animals, human body parts, ecosystem and some species in danger. At the end it talks about how humans pollute the world and how nature needs help from us to save our planet.
30. A book you tore – Dazzling Diggers by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker
This category can have n number of books 😂. Dazzling Diggers is very close to our hearts. The rhyming text and the brightful illustration makes my kids enjoy this book a lot. We sing this like a song instead of reading.
“Diggers are noisy, strong and big. Diggers can carry and push and dig.”
At the end of the page, there are digger bits given where some parts of the digger and its purpose is explained which we keep visiting to read. We have other lovely books in this series – Amazing Aeroplanes, Terrific Trains and Tough Trucks. Amazing Machines series is perfect for vehicle-lovers.
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