1,000 Books Before Kindergarten is a nationwide initiative to encourage reading to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. To learn more about how to start the program, visit the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten page on our website. It can be daunting to try to find books that your child will love. The following book recommendations are meant to highlight newer, seasonal, and books you might have missed in the collection that are high interest and appropriate for different developmental ages. For more book recommendations, check out RPL’s Bookologist service and our Storytime at Home blog series.

Babies (0-18 months)

Peek-a-who? by Elsa Mroziewicz

Uniquely shaped as a triangle, Peek-a-who includes lift-the-flaps that reveal a variety of animals. Babies and toddlers will delight in the colorful images of each animal. This is an excellent book for reinforcing animal sounds.

Your Farm by Jon Klassen

This simple board book by Jon Klassen names many objects that can be found on a farm: a tree, barn, horse, truck, etc. It also describes an object’s location compared to others which introduces simple prepositions: “This is your barn. It can go next to the tree.”

Toddlers (18 months-3 years)

Big Gorilla: A Book of Opposites by Anthony Browne

Big Gorilla uses a variety of primates to illustrate opposite words: old and young, sad and happy, heavy and light, etc. Toddlers will appreciate the large illustrations and short sentences.

Hello, Sun! by Lala Watkins

All books published by Seuss Studios are inspired by original sketches by Dr Seuss and interpreted by modern authors into a new story. In Hello, Sun!, the sun, worm, and other springtime friends play hide and seen, blow bubbles, twirl, and more.

Here are the Seeds by JaNay Brown-Wood

Here are the Seeds is a simple introduction to the basic needs of a garden: soil, sun, and water. Pair this book with a gardening activity this spring.

Peek-a-Boo Bunny by Holly Surplice

Bunny tries to play hide and seek with his forest friends but is too excited that he runs past all of the animals! Can your toddler help point out who bunny is missing?

Preschoolers (3-5)

Chick, Chick, Chick, Chick, Chicken! by Vivian French

Julie and Rob visit their grandpa and get to explore his chicken coop. This book is a great introduction for basic needs of chickens and includes chicken facts throughout the story. There is even an index at the end!

Downpour: Splish! Splash! Ker-splash! by Yuko Ohnari

A young child plays in the rain and imitates the sounds he hears. Full of onomatopoeia, this story will delight young children and inspire them to play in the next rain storm they find themselves in.

Stop that Mop! by Jonathan Fenske

Stop that Mop! is a funny and thrilling romp into rhyming for early readers. Mop is tired of cleaning up “slop” and “glop” so it takes off! The pig, horse, bunny and fish all attempt to “Stop that mop!” With a story similar to the Gingerbread Man, this story will capture the attention of a preschool aged child and introduce rhyming concepts.