Somehow on the phone today with my assistant and friend, Mandy, we got on the topic of kids’ books. Mandy has a 2 year old boy, and I could hear him asking to read in the background when Mommy finished talking to “miss Wogan.”
I love that little bitty boy stage, and as I pondered it for a minute, out of nowhere I started rattling off a few of my favorite children’s books for boys faster than Mandy could even write them down.
We might have a book problem in our house. We buy books, are sent books, ask for books for birthdays and holidays. The old ones have become familiar friends, and these days a fair amount of the new books we get in the mail are written by my actual friends. One of these days I’ll do a round-up of friends’ books for you, but today, this post was inspired by Mandy and her little man.
I have a 5 year old and a nine year old. Both boys who are as they say, “all boy.” We’ve had our fair share of dump trucks and dinosaurs around here and as my 4th grader has become an avid reader himself, we are digging deeper into chapter books these days. Anyhow…from ages 2-10, I think that you’ll find books in this list that will make everyone smile. (And you should also note that with little kids’ books…I only recommend the ones that don’t make me want to scratch out my eyeballs to read on repeat night after night. Because for real…we all have a list of those little kid books too…mercy!)
For the younger crowd…here are some favorites (I’ll do another post with favorites from my 9 year old, but for now, these are ones that we all still enjoy):
All three books across the top row are illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. He is my favorite. He and Drew Daywalt teamed up for the two Crayon books (The Day the Crayons Quit is a go-to gift book for me, and The Day the Crayons Came Home just released a few weeks ago and is equally as entertaining.) These books are hysterically clever. I love books with cleverness. I don’t get sick of these. This Moose Belongs to Me is pretty funny too and I just adore the pictures which remind me of our adventures to Canada and Montana.
Next row has Smash Crash which I read once to my 3 year old nephew this summer since it was always one of my boys’ favorites and apparently he has become fully obsessed with it. It is super cute and just screams BOY with plenty of trucks and mess making. It has some fun large fold out pages too which are always a bit of a delight.
Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site is a great book for kids who are into construction vehicles and is a nice one to wind down for bed as all of the vehicles are tucking in for the night as well. The author Sherri Rinker also wrote another one that is similar in style called Steam Train Dream Train which also makes the regular rotation around here. You’ve gotta love a book with great pictures, stuff kids like, and also make them consider that NOW is a good time to go to sleep as well. Yes indeed….NOW is a great time for bed!
The last book pictured in the second row is called Are You a Horse and it is pretty clever. It helps kids learn by way of elimination and follows a pretty ridiculous cowboy named Roy as he searches for a horse to test out a new saddle. This one makes my kids chuckle EVERY SINGLE TIME when it gets to the end. Roy is funny…but as an adult I think that Roy could have used a more stout dose of common sense. You’ll like this one.
Little Blue Truck is another good one. This book illustrates really well the importance of paying attention to everyone and treating others with kindness…but it’s not a blatant “be nice” sort of storyline. I also like that it encourages kindness even to those who have mistreated you. There are several other Little Blue Truck books now, but this original does remain my favorite. It comes in a board book, but the story is such that my 5 year old still likes to read it.
Curious George. It almost seems silly to even have to mention this famous primate, but he has always remained a favorite around here. I bought a couple of the collections which are wonderful to have for trips since each book contains maybe 8 stories. Plus, as you know…I sort of have a soft spot for curiosity.
And to round out today’s list I’m including one that I got from my grandmother. The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy is a sweet book about a little puppy who wants to be adopted by a boy so much but never can seem to find one meant for him. Spoiler alert…he turns up eventually at a boys home and ends up with 50 boys who adopt him. I cry every single time we read this and every single time my boys start looking at me a few pages before the end to see if the waterworks have started. I’m so predictable. We have the old version from the 1950’s and I love the simple old sketches, but your kids might like the new version with more colorful illustrations too.
Anyhow…those are some of our favorites. We own every single one of them and of that list I’ll break out my inner packrat and hang on to them all for grandkids one day. Yes…these are those kind of books.
I’ll have to do this again…it has been fun sharing some of our favorites! Try them out at the library first if you want to be sure, but I promise…these are books that your family will treasure for years to come!
Now go grab a kiddo and snuggle down to read!
**PS. I haven’t been paid or anything to recommend a single one of these books, but the links are via my amazon affiliate link which hopefully works correctly since this is my first time trying it out.
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