The best way to teach your child new vocabulary is through reading. Here are the best 15 books you must read to your toddler.
Has your toddler tried to talk to you (repeatedly), but you are unable to figure out what he wants to say? At this point, you get frustrated because you can’t understand his or her vocabulary and a lot of murmurs.
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Books are a great solution to teach kids how to communicate even though they can’t read independently. You will find it beneficial to read books to your toddler for bedtime. It will teach your kids and will also put them to a deep slumber without an extensive workout.
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Toddler books are a great addition to your library because they will enrich your child’s vocabulary. The best part is that you can find picture books, interactive books, or any books with colorful pictures and they will appreciate it.
Your preschooler will be thrill to learn and interact with something new. And this is a great opportunity for big brother or sister to read to them as well.
How do you get your toddler ready to read books?
Toddlers of age two love the attention when you sit together and read books because spending quality time with each other creates a strong connection between you both. A colorful picture book would be best for a toddler since they can’t read they can interact with the pictures.
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Toddler age is a prime time to create a habit of reading with kids. Books are a fabulous technique to help kids learn new things and improve their vocabulary.
Try to make your reading sessions delightful so that your kids can enjoy learning with you. Of all, fun and engaging tones of reading assist your kids in building early literacy skills that remain forever.
Here are the best books of 2021 for 2-year-olds that will teach kids’ speech development, object/animal recognition and highlight their imagination.
During this age, kids love to see colorful pictures, animals, cartoons, etc.
BEST BOOKS FOR TODDLERS AGE 2
1. I Love You to the Moon and Back by Amelia Hepworth
This book is my first choice! One of the best books for a two-year-old toddler. It has colorful pictures, and it’s easy to read, even on nights when you don’t have the energy to read a ton of words.
The book shows how much parents love their children. ‘I love you to the moon and back’ is a bear and her cub’s story and how they spend the whole day with love! They touch noses, play chase and catch, splash in the water, watch the shimmering sky, and hug a lot!
Not just the two bears, there are a lot of illustrations of many other wild animals like-foxes, fishes, rabbits, mice, squirrels, and an owl.
The book helps kids to recognize and learn about new animals every day. It is a sweet rhyme with a meaningful story that parents can share with small children.
2. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
The first page starts with an illustration of a large brown bear and a question, “what do you see?”- it points out to the next page! And when your kid turns out the next page, there is a colorful bird. So, the answer is, “I see a colorful bird looking at me!”
Curiously, kids turn page to page to know the answer for each question! The repetitive questions make this book more interesting. It’s a better way to familiarize kids with animals and birds.
Parents can talk about colors and let the kid recognize the shades on each page.
Children love its quiz-like interface that prompts the next page. ‘Brown bear…’ is a lightweight book with lovely illustrations that a two-year kid understands.
3. Little Green Peas by Keith Baker
These cute and petite green peas are busy spreading different colors on pages with a little text. Each color is introduced in a block letter. Young kids follow how these tiny peas are busy doing hard work on each page.
Kids will learn different colors present in nature like the blue sky, green leaves, violet eggplants, yellow mangoes, etc., with this book. The concept of knowing colors is unique and funny!
My son loves all the “pea” books series. He’s especially fond of the small details in the illustrations. It’s a charming book that brings giggles on every page.
You can help your kids to point out little fun things that they might overlook. The peas series are the best books for toddlers aged 2-3.
4. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The story points out the lifespan of a butterfly excitingly and funnily. When the caterpillar hatches the egg, it feels famished. It begins to eat through the foods; it even starts to eat the book’s pages.
First, the caterpillar starts eating junk foods that cause stomach aches, but when it starts eating through an apple, plums, and green vegetables, the pain goes away.
After getting full, he gets wrapped up in a cocoon and goes to sleep. A few weeks later, he transforms into a beautiful butterfly!
My kids have loved this book since they were six months old. It also teaches numbers till five counts with days’ names in the story form. Plus, the moral of the story is beautiful.
Small kids like to hear and catch the holes punched into the foods within the book.
5. Goodnight Moon By Margaret Wise Brown
Goodnight moon is a short & sweet poem sung by a young rabbit who wants to postpone his sleep. He says goodnight to everything present in his room.
It is a good activity for kids to watch the objects mentioned in the book. By the end of the poem, you can see a sleepy-smiley rabbit yawn when you turn the last page!
Although this book has the same room on every page and not all pages are colorful, it’s still a sweet delight with little rhymes.
Every kid is different, and mine has found this book to be engaging in a few ways. This book is a great pathway to introduce storybooks to kids. Many children like to read it every night before bed.
The book says goodnight to all objects in the bunny’s room. It has some colorful pages and then focuses on black and white items with sentences and rhymes. (comparing the darkness of the night)
You can buy Paperback as well as Board Book editions of the same book. I truly recommend it if you have tiny toddlers.
6. Where’s Spot? By Eric Hill
This book introduces readers to Spot’s world, where they find many objects, situations, and environments in a playful style. Its lift-the-flap feature is an excellent hit among small kids.
Kids lift the flaps to find their endearing puppy as he hides somewhere in the house.
I got this book when my daughter was ten months old. She loved it and always urged me to read it again and again! This book is super engaging.
Its flaps are so fragile that little kids like to flip pages while reading.
I’m sure that small kids will love the story and be excited to do the spot activities.
7. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom By Bill Martin & John Archambault
This book teaches ABCs in a fun and straightforward way to kids. Its colors and illustrations are engaging.
In this book, the lowercase letters (refers to small kids) of the alphabet run on a coconut tree, and uppercase letters (Parents) come to rescue them.
Children repeat the phrase. “Chicka Chicka boom, boom, will there be enough room?” throughout the reading session and enjoy the story’s rhyme. Finally, lowercase letters land on the ground and feel comfortable with their uppercase parents.
Suppose your kid is not interested in learning the alphabet. This book is a fun source to excite your kids to learn letters.
8. The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli
The story introduces a funny crocodile who fears swallowing a watermelon seed that can sprout out of his body. How does he react when his anxiety is realized? Will creepers sprout out his ears? Or will his skin turn pink like the watermelon? Kids love his funny imagination throughout the story.
You can’t stop falling in love with this sweet crocodile because it reminds us of how we used to fear having a plant growing inside our stomach in our childhood!
Its funny illustrations, wild imagination, and hilarious texts will make you and your kids laugh out loud.
9. Corduroy By Don Freeman
Corduroy is a fantastic story of a sad and lonely teddy bear toy who’s looking for his missing button. He wants a new home and, of course, a friend, but without that button, no one wants to buy him.
When a little girl fell in love with Corduroy and wanted to buy it, her mother did not let her purchase Corduroy because he did not seem as fresh as other toys. That night Corduroy tries his best to find the missing button, but he fails miserably.
At the end of the story, the girl returns to the shop with her piggy bank and buys Corduroy.
Finally, Corduroy gets a new home, a separate bed, and a good friend! This story teaches children the bond of friendship and love for the family. Corduroy wasn’t a new toy and also didn’t have its button, but the little girl still loved him no matter how he looked!
10. Dear Zoo By Rod Campbell
Dear Zoo is my all-time favorite book. It is a lovely book with an animal on each page. I love this book because my son enjoyed looking at its pictures.
In the Dear Zoo book, a child writes a letter to the zoo asking them to send a pet. The zoo community asks, “What would you like to keep as a pet, a lion, an elephant, or a frog?
In the middle of the story, kids learn that not all animals can be kept as pets. The ending of the story is a big surprise for children!
It is a lift-the-flap book; my son tried to open the flaps and was happy to see different zoo animals. It is a simple and adorable story that interacts with the children to guess which animal is there in each flap.
11. Huggy Kissy By Leslie Patricelli
Leslie Patricelli wrote the story about a one-haired baby. When you have a bald baby, in what ways does your family love him?
Such a lovely book by Patricelli! My kids like it so much and often turn its page before naptime.
It’s a must-book if you love to give hugs and kisses to little ones. This book has attractive colors with safe and smooth edges!
12. Press Here By Herve Tullet
It’s a creative book not only for the little ones but also for parents. Kids love to press and are excited to see what happens on the next page? You can keep your toddler busy without any electronic gadgets with a ‘press here’ book.
It is a genius book that teaches kids about cause and effects in an artistic and fun way. Every page in this book is a mystery, and you never know what might happen after pressing, flipping, or tilting the pages.
13. Baby Touch-Peekaboo By Ladybird
Peekaboo teaches small kids to have fun while touching and observing different textures and playing peekaboo with the large flaps. They enjoy the beautiful illustrations and bright colors.
It’s an award-winning, highly-recommended book for age two toddlers. It helps babies learn, play, and assist in their motor skills activities. Your kid will love to play peekaboo with caterpillars, octopus, and tiger. This book offers it all.
Kids like to touch and feel bumpy bubbly octopus, furry cats, fuzzy caterpillars, and even a helicopter!
14. Llama Llama Red Pajama By Anna Dewdney
It’s one of the best bedtime storybooks for small kids! Its beautiful illustrations, morals, and storyline are all amazing.
The story is about When a baby llama is put to bed and how he faces separation anxiety from his mama! Kids love enacting all the emotions and faces shown within the book.
15. Where Do Diggers Sleep At Night? BY Brianna Caplan Sayres and Christian Slade
This book is beautifully illustrated and is easy-to-read for 2-year-olds. Yes, there is no real connecting story for parents, but it’s perfect for little boys who love diggers. This one is the best book with lovely rhymes about machinery and vehicles.
Kids naturally want to know the mechanism behind snowplows, dump trucks, giant crans, and overall adult life. They love to act, talk, walk and perform things like the adults.
End Point
I had collected sweet memories of my kids when they snuggled on my lap with a heap of bedtime storybooks.
I have enjoyed these books hundreds of times with my kids and still want to read them! This list of the best books for 2-year-old toddlers will introduce new vocabulary, concepts and will be a great addition to your library.
