Our favorite books this month – best books for 2 year olds

My 2 year old has an admirable book collection. His collection  boasts the best books for 2 year olds. He has over 100 books, all carefully analysed, acquired and stored by his mummy dearest, of course. In the course of #RaisingaReader I have seen first hand, how books have opened his tiny eyes to our world, delighted him, given him comfort and calmness and so much more. While I do share a lot about our book collection on my Instagram page – MommyingBabyT , I realized my blog doesn’t have enough about our books. So starting with this month – November 2018, I plan to write a post about our favorite books of the month.

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We fell in love with Julia Donaldson and her books recently. Although we owned a copy of The Gruffalo for the longest time, but it was not our first favourite. We started our love affair with the story of a stick-man. This book really opened babyT’s interest in the familiar Julia Donaldson writing and illustration style. So much so that today he knows the Gruffalo by heart, of course he cannot read but he knows what every word in the book reads. Yes, I’ve actually read it that many times. #MomLife

So, here’s a list of our favorites for November 2018.

1. 1. Stick Man by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

      Stick man is a regular stick man with his own stick family and a house, with a chimney. One day he goes for a morning walk just like normal folk and that’s when the trouble begins. He encounters people (and animals) along the way who mistake him for a throw stick or use him to build a nest or hoist a flag with on a sand castle. It is only the grey haired guy in the red suit who truly sees him for what he is and grants him his wish to be reunited with his family. This book would make a great Christmas read/ gift too.

      Buy Stick Man here

      

   2. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler
      The Gruffalo needs no introduction to kids these days. They are terrified of him yet, they eagerly wait for him to show up and for the little brown mouse to scare him away. A clever story which teaches kids that no matter how small you are, you can turn the tables even on the mightiest of your predators (or problems in life. ;))Buy The Gruffalo here.

      

   3. Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood
      

      Truly speaking this book is about the colours. However when I had tried to use this book for babyT when he had just entered toddler-hood, it didn’t amuse him too much. But cut to today, oh my God, how much we love this one. And not just for the colours.

      BabyT loves how the Owl is filled with wonder when she sees the many colours that she witnesses in a single day. A pink sky, white clouds, red butterflies and then finally a rainbow.

      The wonder and joy with which the Owl says, “Wow” every time she spots a new colour, resounds with my boy too. When we went on a recent beach holiday he insisted on waking early to see the pink sky as the sun was just rising and then used to run to the beach to view the orange sun at dusk. So many colours of life to marvel and behold every day.

      You can buy Wow, said the Owl here.

   4. Press Here by Herve Tullet

      You’ve seen lift the flap books, touch and feel books, sound books, pop up books et al. But have you seen books that interact with you? And that too without the need of batteries? 😉 That’s the genius of Herve Tullet. He talks to the reader through the book (I know all books do, but this is different.)He asks you to press, shake, tilt the book and the result is a group of objects which dance, move, fly & multiply. This book is a big boredom buster and is guaranteed to have young children totally mesmerised by its magic. Screen time is forgotten when they have a copy of Press here in their hands.Its pricey but totally worth the buy. The genius of Herve Tullet is indeed a collector’s item in your child’s bookshelf.

      You can buy Press Here from this link.

   5. The Insect Boy from Karadi Tales 

      How would kids like it if there were more than two ways of telling a story? They would be delighted of course. And that’s what The Insect Boy does to its readers – gives them two perspectives on the same problem.

      

      What problem is that? Pesky insects that seem to find the boy and torment him all his life and growing years. How does Roy the little boy react to this? Well there are two ways to handle this. And the two sides of the book tell a different tale to its readers. My son found it fascinating that I could begin reading this book from either of the sides – the yellow side and green side as he calls it.

      I got this book from a real book store *heart eyes* but you can also buy it online on Amazon – The Insect Boy.

       

   6. My Granny a Peppa Pig series

      No I am not ashamed to put a cartoon series here. And that’s because he picked this book himself from the airport book store when we went on our holiday a few weeks ago.

      

      And I am doubly proud that a cartoon series he started to watch only a couple of weeks ago was enough for him to recognise the character and differentiate that it is a book about Peppa’s grandma (as opposed to her mother. I can never tell the difference.)

      So I shall gloat. The book itself contains a few lines about what makes Granny special. Fans can collect the entire series of Peppa’s family.

      Peppa Pig books are available in most stores which stock books for children. Or you can buy them online.

   7. Folk Tales from the Soviet Union

      This is a book which used to mesmerize me as a child. More than the stories, it was the illustrations which had me enchanted. My parents had got me this book from a fair which aimed at enhancing Indo-Russian alliances in the 90s. And this is one of the few books remaining from my childhood.

      My son found this in a corner in my parents’ house and insisted he be read a story from it. To be honest, the stories are pages and pages long with complex twists of the plot and characters. However I do read him stories from here, changing the tale to suit his level of understanding. He loves the book too and especially the images on it.

      I was even more delighted to find these books on Amazon and I may just satisfy my inner child if I get the rest of the books in this series.

Here are our favourites kids books for this month. Did you find any titles interesting enough to go read to your child? What have you been reading this month?

This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you make a purchase from one of these links, which I hope you will, I will earn a commission from Amazon. You pay nothing extra for this.