Having just recently graduated from sturdy and semi-indestructible board books, our family is eager to discover some new titles to add to our shelves of favorites. This past year we've enjoyed exploring some of Apartment Therapy's featured titles, such as This is Not My Hat, Along a Long Road, and Press Here.
Two of my own family's recent discoveries are both delightful picture books. The first is the title, When I was Born by Isabel Minhós Martins and Madalena Matoso. Originally published in Portuguese, the illustrations are brightly colored and bold, but the story is full of discovery for exploring all the worldly things you learned shortly after you were born. The second title is definitely my son's most requested bedtime read, Stuck by Oliver Jeffers. This book is so silly and wonderfully imaginative, it is a giggle-fest throughout.
Please share: Which books get your children excited to curl up in your lap and read together out loud?
(Image: Lindsay Tella / Sarah & Matt's Expertly Styled Home)
Must-See Small Cool Homes: Week Two
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Shaw's Original Fir...
How to Cook Moist & Tender Chicken Breasts Every Time
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
My almost-four year old requests Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner and Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne every day lately. Skippyjon is a hilarious picture book, and Now We Are Six is classic children's poetry which often features Christopher Robin, it makes me feel like a great mother when he requests that!
My son, now age five, started getting into fairy tales and folk tales when he was two and a half, and he still loves having us read them to him. He went through a giants phase, a trickster tale phase, a monster phase...now, we're enjoying some of the Chelm stories (Jewish folktales about a town of fools.) There's a reason so many of these stories have stood the test of time--they are so engrossing, with iconic characters, structural patterns, and the symbolic connections to our deepest emotional states and developmental stages (see Joseph Campbell, et al)--really, I think if I had to pick a desert island book, it would be a comprehensive collection of folk and fairy tales from around the world.
Now that our second is leaving toddlerhood behind, Mouse Soup has been enjoying a new popularity. It's four mini-stories in one book too, so you can cut if short if you need to.
My 3 year old loves anything featuring things that move as well as the movie Cars. Right now, he likes Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site, two Cars Look and Finds, and we still like Little Blue Truck. We always like Goodnight Moon - that's been our final story for 3 years now.