There are SO many books out there it can be really hard to know what to pick. In this post, I’ve put together a selection of my favourite children’s books from books for first words all the way through to books for early and enthusiastic readers. You need never be stuck for ideas again!

First word books need to be photos of real objects as they are a concrete representation of the thing itself. Coloured drawings are more abstract while line drawings in black and white are the most abstract. Here are some ideas:

 

Really, you don’t need anything fancy either- for younger children, you could use your junk mail to look through and talk about the pictures. You can talk about categories like fruit, vegetables, toys, jobs, furniture etc.

Reading with your baby and child is one of the best things you can do to build your connection with your child while also building their language skills. Books allow you to spend quality time connecting with your child; being in the present moment together. You don’t have to spend ages with the book- it depends on the age and interest of your child. But a few minutes of real connectedness is priceless.

Next up are books for children from about 2 & 1/2 upwards. The main thing at this age is to follow their lead- let them start wherever they like, let them turn the pages- it’s all about cultivating a love of books at this stage in their own unique style. Here are some of our favourites:

 

As they get older then, children get more into the story. I love traditional fairy tales like The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood so oldies are definitely goodies! I don’t worry too much about the gorier side of the stories like the wolf eating the granny and Little Red Riding Hood because these aspects serve a psychological function for the child; somewhere to project their darker feelings. The wicked stepmother is very handy for dealing with negative feelings about your own mother which may be uncomfortable when you depend on her for everything! Here are some more ideas for books for older children:

Here are ideas for early readers which were a big hit in our house- sorry about all the pink but we live in a sea of it in our house! Usborne have a fantastic range of great books for early readers from fairly simple text to books with chapters:

And here is what we got at the library on Saturday:

 

I’m not sure about the political correctness of Fat Alphie and Charlie the Wimp- the book was published in 2002 but we had interesting discussions nonetheless!

Finally, I love books that deal with feelings- there are some really great books out there to trigger conversations about feelings and here are our favourites so far: 

Scary Noisy Things is a book I wrote with my colleague Eithne Mc Greal and it’s all about dealing with fear. It’s suitable for children from aged 2 & 1/2 to aged 4 ish. If you’d like a free copy, just email me at marypat@talknua.com and I’ll send you a free copy, no strings attached!

I hope you’ve got ideas now for new books to try. In my next post, I’m going to give you tips for how to make the most ou of reading with your child so be sure and watch your inbox! If you like this post, please pass it on!

Let’s get talking!

MP