Book Buying Guide—Toddlers

Keep that toddler in your life busy with new books!

This is the second in our series on buying books for children this holiday season. Use the list below to help you select quality titles when you're shopping for ages 12 months to 3 years.

• Lift the Flap and Interactive Pages 
  • With lots of fun parts to explore, these books are easy to sit still for and promote fine motor development. When children enjoy books, they want to keep reading!
• Word Books 
  • Simple word books with clear, simple pictures provide opportunities for pointing and naming. Stop and talk about each picture—your baby will hear even more words!
• Everyday Routines 
  • Stories about familiar routines such as bathtime, mealtime and bedtime help babies and toddlers make a genuine connection to books.
• Animal Sounds 
  • Animal noises are fun to make, and they actually give children practice making some of the language sounds they need to say words!
• Silly, Silly, Silly 
  • Young toddlers are learning so much about their world that they are starting to know when something isn’t quite right—and they think it’s hilarious.
• Action Rhymes 
  • A moving child is a learning child! Short rhymes with hand, arm or body motions give children an additional way to engage with words and language.
• Predictable Stories 
  • Children love to do things over and over because their brains learn from each repetition! Stories that have repeating events are great for young listeners.
• Very Short Stories 
  • Young toddlers still have very short attention spans. Look for books that have just a few words or one sentence on each page.
• Concepts 
  • Children begin learning and thinking about the world by putting objects and ideas into categories. Look for books with basic concepts such as colors, shapes and letters.
• I Spy 
  • Playing I Spy gives children practice using their visual skills. Learning to tell one object from another will help them get ready to recognize different letter shapes, too! 

Also check out our buying guides for Babies and Preschoolers.