This blog post entails children's book recommendations. These are the books I bought to develop the habit of reading in my daughter early on. This blog post has all the books that I highly recommend based on the content of the book, the storyline and of course the creativity. These books are my daughter's absolute favorite ones. Her actual collection at the moment is three times the size so I am only sharing the ones she loves the most.
For those who know me (even digitally), know how highly I regard READING.
I, myself make an effort to read very regularly. It's my goal to read 14 books this year. This month (April 2023), I've read 3 books already and I am on my 4th book now. I believe in modeling the right behavior so that my daughter watches and learns. Kids will always see what you do and emulate that. So, if my baby girl sees me and her Daddy read, she will pick up a book too. But for that, she needs to have books around, right?
When my daughter, Noor was born, my brother, her mama (uncle) asked me what was the most special thing he could get for her. After brainstorming for a few days, I thought what's more special than gifting his niece a library?
He was both ecstatic and elated with my idea so he bought her an abundance of books. This picture below is a telltale of that >
I've not and will not stop buying her books because I am a very strong advocate for reading.
So without further ado, here are the books I strongly recommend for children.
-> These Peppa books (below) don't have the most interesting content but the SIZE of these books came in very handy when Noor started sitting (at 5 months). Of all her books, she could only hold these properly and open and turn pages very comfortably. She had just started sitting without support and I would hand her these books. Noor would sit for 10-15 minutes and flip the pages, it was a fun new game for her. These Peppa Pig books helped with her gross motor skills.
I'd also keep these books at a distance when she had started crawling (at 8 months I believe) and seeing these books at a distance would encourage her to crawl faster. Now obviously at (nearly) two years of age, she doesn't love these books so much but for a starter set, these books ARE THE BEST!
-> That's not my ...
Series (below) is very popular among kids and makes for the best kind of books to give a child. It is very descriptive and has all kinds of textures that a child can touch and feel. It's a very interactive book and keeps children both excited and engaged. If you see the variety of this series online or any book store, you'd be in awe.
-> This has to be my favorite kind of books; LITTLE PEOPLE BIG DREAMS (below). Content is stellar and super inspiring. Also these hardcover books are for 0-4 years
and 4+ age has bigger paperback books with of course more content. I've bought both kinds for Noor but I can't give her the paperback books because she'd tear those pages.
A child MUST have these books in their collection. Also, these aren't easily available as of today but I wish you luck in finding these. The ones for older children are found in abundance in both Virgin Megastore & Kinokuniya (Dubai) but on Amazon... I have my doubts.
Regardless, you better hunt these down and get a massive set.
-> Inspired by LITTLE PEOPLE BIG DREAMS, these are BIG IDEAS FOR LITTLE PHILOSOPHERS book series (below) have super inspiring, thought provoking, mind opening and perspective shifting content.
I highly recommend these books. Highly, highly recommend.
-> Creativity at it's best. These PUSH PULL SLIDE books (below) are exceptionally inspiring and jaw dropping. You need to have a whole collection of these for your child. I truly am in awe with the way these books are made. So much stimulation, positivity and things to learn for your child. These can be used for a really long time provided you are creative enough to know how to play with it. Younger children can use motor skills to rummage through these books while older kids can create stories in their head or play seek the character. Endless possibilities! I've shared multiple pictures with close-up shots but you need to get these to know the kind of creativity I'm talking about.
-> These BABY TOUCH book series (below) are pretty awesome too, both content wise and creativity wise. It adds in lots of new words not just to your child's vocabulary but to yours as well. I strongly recommend these books. Any book which says 'touch' is great for introducing textures and making the reading experience quite interactive.
-> These books below I'd say were my least favorite but my daughter loved loved loved them. I am still not sure what was so fascinating about these but I am guessing the simplicity of content. Also, being foam and soft, they were quite easy to handle by my baby.
Beware, these books make for perfect teething material if your child is in that phase.
-> These following books don't belong to any series and are Noor's random favorites. Excellent content I must say and full of heartwarming lessons.
The Solar System book is something my Noor is supremely fascinated by. I don't think it's the colors but the way I've approached the book with her.
So, yes, HOW interactive, excited, happy and playful you are with the books will rub off on your child.
What you need to communicate to your child is,
reading = play
because it actually is.
-> These series (below) too are very simple hence why my daughter had a phase, a long phase where she only wanted these books and they served their purpose really really well.
-> These Seek & Find books below are Noor's absolute favorite ones. Again, I feel it has a lot to do with the way I am interacting with these books and her. I tend to make reading quite a wholesome experience for my child which has helped in cultivating her love & interest in books; so much so that every time she sees me, she either wants me to sing for her (rhymes) or read to her. She usually runs to her drawer to fetch a book 80% of the times she sees me. She associates mummy with books. It's OUR THING NOW ;-)
-> This book below was a gift from my friend and I didn't expect it to be loved by Noor so much that this book today is fully torn apart; you'd find pieces of it in different parts of the house. That's how much she's enjoyed this book. Noor not just recognizes every single animal from this but would get super excited at the sight of this book when it was still in one single piece. This has to be the best book Noor ever read because she learnt and grasped animals and aced the seek & find game in a way that left every single family member in SHOCKKK! If at all you can manage to find this book online (my friend bought it from a book store in Bombay), please do play the game of seek and find animals with your child. THIS BOOK HAS A TON OF POTENTIAL and can keep your child interested and engrossed for a minimum of 20 minutes, MINIMUM!
-> Another way to play with your child is through flashcards (below). It helps with motor skills and kids come up with unique ways to play with them. Initially, Noor would just enjoy holding the cards and arranging them in a straight line, sometimes parallel lines all around the bed (she invented that game) and then we started telling her what's what with actions & sounds. Slowly she started telling which flash card item was in which book (like a cat flash card would remind her of a cat in one of her books) so it helped with her being able to make correlations and patterns.
Thanks to the divinity cards, Noor obviously but every one in the family can tell the difference between Lord Vishnu & Lord Shiva, Goddess Laxmi & Goddess Durga, Karthik Ji & Lord Krishna... hehehehe.
Of course we know a lot about the Ascended Masters (Indian Gods as some people call it) but these cards were educational for us as well.
Feeling Cards are the latest addition to her collection. I bought them with the intent of introducing the feeling vocabulary for my daughter. Being a healer, I know the importance of emotions and the superpower of being able to recognize and navigate emotions.
Noor does have a book on feelings which I haven't mentioned here because it didn't do much for her. Perhaps she was too young to understand or the book wasn't the best in terms of explanation. Maybe after a few months she will be able to better use that book but as of now the cards are within her reach. Let's see how she gets on with these!
Hope this blog post helps.
Feel free to use this as a gifting guide if you know a friend/relative who's expecting a baby or has their child's birthday around the corner, what can be a better gift than a highly recommended book.
But don't forget to share this post with them so that they know about the potential each book carries!
Love & Light,
Sia
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