Children's books for little ones to read. Best Children's Books: For Toddlers and Preschoolers

A child's interest in reading is not instilled in school, and not even in preschool age. It is being instilled now, when your baby is still very small and has not even learned to walk on his own! In my article "" I already wrote about how important it is to carefully select literature so that it is as interesting and useful as possible to your child, as well as what illustrations should be in books. In the same article, I want to offer you a selection of books that, in my opinion, fully meet the needs of a child aged 0 to 1 year. All these books I carefully selected for our library.

So, books for the smallest (up to 1 year old):

1. Poems

Although the baby still says almost nothing, this does not mean at all that he does not remember anything. His brain is now actively memorizing new information and gradually putting it on the shelves to use when the time comes. For memory training, short rhythmic poems are the best fit.

  • A. Barto "Toys" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

Barto is an all-time classic that needs no comment. More than one generation has grown up on Barto's poems, and this is no coincidence, because her poems are understandable to any kid, they are easy to hear and quickly remembered. This is definitely a must have in every children's library.

  • E. Karganova "Both loudly and in your ear" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

Ekaterina Karganova is another wonderful Soviet children's poetess. In my opinion, her works (at least in this collection) are somewhat reminiscent of Barto.

This kind, bright collection contains the simplest, most "baby" rhymes. And the illustrations are pleasant, unobtrusive.




  • A. Orlova “Apples-heels. Poems for the little ones» (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

This collection contains nursery rhymes for the little ones, and short poems on the most topical topics of the baby - about the first steps, about fingers and heels, about ghouls, about snow and about puddles. The only thing is that in this edition, in my opinion, the drawings have slightly let us down. Because of them, for a long time I doubted whether it was worth buying the book. But still I bought it and did not regret it, my daughter, oddly enough, likes the illustrations.

  • "" or similar collections of poems about the very first concepts and objects (face, body, toys, food, etc.)(Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

Here you will also find a lot of simple rhymes, nursery rhymes. All of them are grouped by topic: face and body, toys, food, animals, etc., i.e. there are all the most basic things that will be useful for a child to learn at this age. The book says age from 6 months, my daughter became interested in the collection a little later (at 9 months). To be honest, the poems from this book attracted Taya much less than the same Barto and Orlova. But she always liked the drawings here, because there are so many different kids here! Pictures, by the way, are very good, drawn, not computer generated.

  • Other simple poems

Children are very fond of simple and rhythmic poems, especially about animals. Therefore, you can choose a variety of books with poems to your taste. For example, we also read the following: M. Druzhinina, N. Ivanova "About mothers and babies", O. Ivanova "Bear clubfoot", L. Zhukova "The World of Animals".

2. The earliest fairy tales

This category includes the simplest fairy tales based on repeated repetition. Repetitions help the baby to better learn the material, remember all the characters and the sequence of their appearance. As books for reading up to 1 year old, these well-known fairy tales are the best fit. Tasya and I have been reading them since the age of 3 months.

  • "" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

  • "" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

Here is a photo of the spread of the fairy tale "Teremok" from the wonderful series "Forward, baby!" (Publishing house "Eksmo"). There are very beautiful "plasticine" illustrations in this series.

  • "" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

  • "Kolobok" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

3. Tales

When the child has a more noticeable interest in reading, and he is able to listen to a little more than two lines in one book spread, fairy tales with a more complex plot can be introduced. But just don’t overdo it too much, it’s too early to read The Tin Soldier. Here are the books we read:

  • "" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

  • "" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

  • "" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)


4. K. Chukovsky "Tales" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

Chukovsky is simply a brilliant children's writer. I read Chukovsky to my nephews, I read it to my daughter and every time I am amazed at how harmonious his poems are, it seems in a different way, it was simply impossible to write, his lines are so easy to hear. Children love to listen to his poetic tales, despite the fact that they are not at all short. In my opinion, among the first works it is better to read "Telephone", "Aybolit", "Moydodyr", "Cockroach". We began to read Chukovsky closer to the year (at 10-11 months), of course, at first we did not listen to the end, but very soon we got used to it. And when the daughter began to speak her first words, she began to amaze us with her excellent knowledge of poetry, finishing the lines we started.

I really like Chukovsky's edition shown in the photo (illustrated by Suteev and Konashevich). The pictures here are from childhood, very lively, with interesting details.

I already wrote about what a book about a baby is and how to make it. So I won't repeat myself.

6. Zhukov "The baby's first textbook" (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop)

Such a textbook will help the child to replenish his passive vocabulary, here you will find pictures depicting clothes, toys, dishes, household items, as well as simple actions (sitting, running, crying, laughing, etc.), various necessary concepts, for example, “wet-dry”, “dirty-clean”, etc. The stated age of the audience of readers is from 6 months, in our experience the book becomes interesting after 9 months. Previously, picture cards or books with the image of one or two objects on the whole page are more suitable - so it is easier for the baby to concentrate on one thing.

There is one small drawback. In my opinion, the book is not very well built by age. For example, on one page there are drawings with objects that the baby learns quite early, such as soap and toothpaste, and on the next the baby is already asked to find the differences between the two pictures - a task that he most likely will not be able to complete before the age of two. Nevertheless, this does not spoil the impression of the book too much; for now, you can simply ignore such tasks. The textbook is very useful, the children watch it with pleasure!

Here is another very similar in essence tutorial − «» (Ozone, labyrinth, My shop) .

7. "School of the Seven Dwarfs". From birth to year (Ozone, My shop, read)

You can buy the entire series, or you can choose only some copies. In my opinion, the most useful books in this series are:

  • «» (Ozone, My shop, read)

Pictures from this book are suitable for the very first viewing (from birth). Here, no more than two contrasting colors are used in each image, which helps the child to distinguish the figures. At first, you can work with a book like this: next to the baby's bed, one picture is hung out at a distance of 25-30 cm from the eyes, every 2-3 days the picture changes. But the book can be used later, at 6-9 months old, children really like to look at simple bright images, just leafing through the book with their mother.

  • « My favorite toys» (Ozone, My shop, read)

The manual is ideal for the first acquaintance with books. Only one picture is shown on each page, nothing distracts the baby from studying the subject.

How to choose the most worthy publications from a huge number of children's books? Those that will not just stand on the shelf, but be re-read and carefully stored in the children's library. You can trust your own intuition or the opinion of friends, or you can see what other parents write about a particular book.

On the site of the online store "Labyrinth" buyers leave reviews for purchased and read books, discuss a variety of aspects, from the author's intention to typographic execution. The more interesting the publication, the more reviews it has.

We've selected the books with the most reader reviews, divided into three groups: toddlers, preschoolers, and books for 7-10 year olds, to explain why these titles are the most loved by parents and children.

What do the little ones read?

Toddlers do not yet know how to read and do not perceive large and complex texts. At the age of 4 years, parents focus on the development of the child, trusting the authors-teachers and books with a teaching focus. Such books develop figurative and spatial thinking, vocabulary, tells the child about the world around. "My first book. The most beloved", released by the "White City", has become a real "lifesaver" for those who have children of 3-6 years old. The book was loved by many for the availability of presentation and conciseness. Parents call the publication useful. "A child at the age of one and a half years knows geometric figures, distinguishes a fire truck from a truck, a crane from an excavator, knows and distinguishes fruits, vegetables and berries," writes one of the mothers.

No less popular with parents are the books of the "School of the Seven Dwarfs" series by the "Mosaic-Synthesis" publishing house and "Smart Books" for children 2-3 years old by the "Makhaon" publishing house. With these books, they are the first to recognize letters and words, determine the time, and introduce the basics of logic and mathematics. Teaching children in an accessible and playful manner is the main principle of developing books for kids, and the availability of the material presented is, first of all, appreciated by parents.

Toy books that combine literary, educational, and game functions are bought by all kids. For example, the rattle book "My First Words, Mom and Kids" can be shaken and even bitten. The main requirements that parents place on toy books are the quality, safety and durability of materials.

Some publishers offer new and conceptual approaches development of creative abilities - the book of the French artist Herve Tulle is just one of these. The reaction is mixed: some are delighted, others are skeptical. The book offers a completely new and, at the same time, long-forgotten interactive format without the use of any digital devices and other technical means. The main tool is the child's imagination.

Parents not only teach kids letters and words, but also read poems and fairy tales to them.

Books by modern authors are not inferior to the usual classics. The tale of Elena Rakitina with drawings by Victoria Kirdy "Serezhyk" about the adventures of a little hedgehog is liked by parents no less than by children. Julia Donaldson's rhymed stories are as popular as Anne Hogard's Muffin's donkey stories. Poetry or prose form - it does not matter, the main thing is that these books teach good.

Domestic children's classics are also in demand by parents. High-quality reprints of old Soviet books are especially popular. On the one hand, this is a greeting from my own bygone childhood, on the other hand, it is a really worthy example of good text and illustrations under one cover.

Books for preschoolers

Books on the shelf are becoming more diverse: more fairy tales, folk and author's, foreign and domestic, more stories for children and children's poems, children's encyclopedias and books from the "Children's Leisure" genre.

Books for children of primary school age

At the age of 7-10 years, children themselves begin to actively read, although reading by adults to children remains as family tradition. The range of selected fiction and educational literature is becoming wider. The same publications can compete with each other in terms of the quality of illustrations, printing, retellings and translations. Which "Alice in Wonderland" is better? With illustrations by Robert Ingpen translated by Nina Demurova or illustrations by Viktor Chizhikov retelling by Boris Zakhoder?

Some parents are guided only by their own taste, others offer to make a choice for the child, others collect a collection from a wide variety of Lewis Carroll publications.

Preschoolers enjoy reading about Pinocchio or Pinocchio, Carlson, Dunno and other classic childhood heroes. It is at the age of 7-10 years that parents try to introduce the child to the "golden" fund of children's literature, books that are remembered for a lifetime, constitute a certain layer of culture and are even re-read by adults.

The course of many children's publishing houses for the release of translated children's books is sympathetic to most parents. After all, some books that have long become classics abroad are only now appearing in Russian. Today, the little reader has a chance to get acquainted with all the diversity of the world fiction: Jan-Olaf Ekholm, Kate DiCamillo, Gudrun Mebs, Rotraut Susanna Berner and many, many others.

Younger students are included in active social processes, they need to find mutual language with peers, older children, adults, teachers and parents, the circle of children's interests expands. Now they need not only the surrounding objective world, but also science, human relations, their own psychology and physiology. Cognitive encyclopedias answer a variety of children's questions. Colorful illustrations, interesting texts, maximum information content - the child needs not only to be interested, but also to keep his attention.

On the ideal bookshelf in the nursery there is a place for a variety of books: modern authors and classical works, moreover, the latter are a priority for parents, after all, the classics are time-tested. Many parents like to be creative with their children: sculpt, draw, design, etc., so books dedicated to children's creativity, choose and buy no less than fairy tales. Reading is not just entertainment or education. Thus, good book unites children and parents and becomes a real family heirloom.

Top 40 for kids aged 7-10 with the most reviews

  • Ekholm J.-O. "Tutta Karlsson the First and Only, Ludwig the Fourteenth and others" - 135 reviews
  • Schmidt A. "Sasha and Masha. Stories for children" - 131 reviews
  • Carroll L. "Alice in Wonderland" - 93 reviews
  • DiCamillo C. The Amazing Journey of Edward Rabbit - 89 reviews
  • Ballod I., Rumyantseva I. "About the Little Plyukh" — 84 reviews
  • Lindgren A. "Kid and Carlson, who lives on the roof" - 81 reviews
  • Levin V. "Stupid horse" - 76 reviews
  • Oren R "Secrets of Plasticine. Dinosaurs" — 71 reviews
  • Sabitova D. "Mouse Glyceria. Colored and striped days" - 63 reviews
  • Andersen H. " The Snow Queen"- 59 reviews
  • Kozlov S. "Hedgehog's Joy" — 53 reviews
  • Gracheva M. "Learn, draw, invent: a coloring book for dreamers and mischievous people" - 52 reviews
  • Zoshchenko M. "Lelya and Minka" — 51 reviews
  • Simon F., Bue M.-L. City Life — 49 reviews
  • Barto A. "I grow up. Poems" — 48 reviews
  • Nosov N. "Dreamers" — 46 reviews
  • Leschermeyer F. "Princesses" - 44 reviews
  • King-Smith D. "Lady Daisy" - 42 reviews
  • Yakhnin L. "Square of cardboard clocks" — 41 reviews
  • Raud E. "Clutch, Polbootka and Mossbeard: A Fairy Tale" - 41 reviews
  • Mebs G. ""Grandma!" Frieder shouts" - 40 reviews
  • Collodi K. "The Adventures of Pinocchio" — 38 reviews
  • Sapgir G. "Poems" — 37 reviews
  • Snegirev A., Snegireva N. "Keshka in the spotlight" — 36 reviews
  • "Big Children's Encyclopedia" - 36 reviews
  • Tolstoy A. "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio"
  • Lobe M. "Grandma on the apple tree" - 34 reviews
  • Hawking S. "George and the Mysteries of the Universe" - 34 reviews
  • Nosov N. "The Adventures of Dunno and His Friends" — 34 reviews
  • Baranovsky M. "I bring up dad" - 33 reviews
  • Raskatov M. "The Missing Letter" — 33 reviews
  • Novichkova E., Belyaeva E. "Battle on the Ice" - 33 reviews
  • Pushkin A. "Pushkin's Tales" — 33 reviews
  • Usachev A. "Rules of the road for future drivers and their parents" - 33 reviews
  • DiCamillo K. "How the Elephant Fell from the Sky" - 32 reviews
  • Gribachev N. "Hare Koska and his friends" — 32 reviews
  • Usachev A. "Tales and stories about animals" - 31 reviews
  • Nilsson-Brenstrom M. "Tzatziki goes to school" - 30 reviews
  • Lavrova S. "Entertaining chemistry for children" — 30 reviews
  • Dragunsky V. "Deniska's stories" — 30 reviews

I'm just obsessed with books, even before the appearance of my first son, I bought children's books in series and read them to my belly-maker. By now, there has been a lot of big collection and already occupies 3 racks, but I do not stop there. We love reading as a family. My husband reads a lot on a tablet, but you can often see him with a book, especially on vacation, it’s so nice to lie on a sun lounger with a book in your hand.


My reference books now are collections of early development children and baby care books.

The smallest children, I think, need various books - cardboard, with opening windows, with moving elements, musical, with tactile inserts, lullabies, with rhymes (Barto, Marshak, Chukovsky), with fairy tales (Turnip, Kolobok, Teremok, etc.) , panorama books, books for swimming in the bathroom, books with magnets, stickers, puzzles, eyes and much more.

So, our selection for the smallest (from 0 to 1 year):
1. "Montessori Home School" (look in the Labyrinth: http://www.labirint.ru/books/122593/?p=9551 ) is a manual for young mothers to work with a child according to the method of the Italian teacher Maria Montessori

2. "Forms" - a book with opening windows, very exciting for a child.

3. "On the farm" - a book with tactile tabs from various materials, helps the development of fingers.

4. "In the sea" - a book with very hard large puzzles that are assembled in a chain, introduces the baby to the inhabitants of the sea (dolphin, octopus, fish and others), a book with poems and a fun game

5. "Woof! Woof" - a panorama book about a cheerful puppy who woke up all the animals on the farm, helps to get to know the animals and who says what

6. Agniya Barto. Poems - children's classics, there are a lot of collections and these are the most favorite poems for both of my sons

7. Educational games for kids look in My-shop.ru > - also a collection for mom

8. "Bayushki, bayu" - a collection of lullabies (and we have a lot of them) View in the Labyrinth: www.labirint.ru/books/32208/?p=9551

9. Songs from cartoons, a very good collection with the lyrics of the most favorite songs. I really like to sing children's songs and the eldest son is already singing along, but the youngest is still listening. Look in the Labyrinth www.labirint.ru/books/109353/?p=9551

10. "My first knowledge" - a book with the heroes of a loved one winnie the pooh with a music block, teaches shapes, colors, counting, etc.

11. "School of the Seven Dwarfs" series from 0 to a year. A very good manual, for each year of life there are 12 albums, the system is up to 7 years. For the little ones, these are albums with very large pictures, poems, with small tasks, there are pages for parents - how, what to do with a child, there are massage lessons and more. Mothers who are familiar with this technique note the good abilities of their children. View in the Labyrinth.

I thought for a very long time and chose books for the little ones, we are now 7.5 months old and I left all possible development / reading methods for later. Although after reading about their benefits, she acquired two expensive boxes of Doman-Manichenko cards, a box of “7 Dwarfs” books and came to the conclusion that the child was not interested, pictures of this kind did not attract her, she had to be seated and forcibly shown the cards for classes. So what's the use of this?

And then, with pleasure, I began to search for books, reading reviews about publishers, the benefits of certain books, and now I brag to you about my acquisitions and gifts for my baby by March 8!

Here I share my findings. And what books do you read to your babies from 6 months and up to 3 years old? I would very much like to see photos, pictures and hear comments, reviews about my findings) I will be very grateful!

1. Books without words, with pictures for viewing. There are a great many such books, but after reading reviews, the best are considered a set of seasons: Summer book, Autumn, Winter, Spring and night. For starters, I bought the Summer Book, just in time for the summer we will be 11 months old, so we will begin to study and consider what the characters in the book do in the summer, comparing everything that happens with real events. Large format and canyon pages are a huge advantage.


2. On the same principle, I wanted to buy another publishing house with pictures about the village, but it was not available and I bought an equally bright book “in the circus”.


3. Then I focused on the encyclopedia for kids, this is a Soviet-made book, but it is reprinted every year, I bought the 2013 edition. A very useful, simple, interesting and accessible book for kids. Of the minuses, paper pages, you can’t leave a book unattended in the hands of an 8-month-old baby.


4. A collection of the most beloved children's works. There are a lot of them, but I found exactly the one in which there are pictures from my childhood!

5. Incredible illustrations, cardboard books published by Rosmen. The most juicy, bright, superbly executed illustrations. It was quite difficult to find them, the order waited 20 days, but these books are worth it!


6. Separately, I want to say about riddle books. Where kids can open additional pictures. My daughter is absolutely delighted with them!


7. These 4 little books I really liked the illustrations. They are made of a very dense pattern, you can safely give to kids and leave unattended.

8. Books with inserts delight even me.


9. And finally, a few books that I liked. I can’t say anything about them, since I didn’t study the reviews from the books below, and I chose a landmark to study to my taste.