Our favourite books for toddlers

Having been bringing up children for the last 26 years we now have a very large collection of children's books.  It's amazing though how just a few seem to be most popular with each of our children.  We also have our favourites too - the ones we really enjoy reading again and again.  If we had to pick a top 5 books for toddlers they would be: 

• The Very Hungry Crocodile by Roald Dahl - All our children absolutely love the ending and although it's quite a long read for a bedtime story it's really well written.

           

• Five Minutes Peace by Jill Murphy - Lovely pictures and a funny ending
  
  

• The Baby's Catalogue by Janet and Alan Ahlberg - A day in the life of 5 families with really appealing pictures of just about everything your child might observe in a typical day.

      

• The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr - A real nonsense story that appeals to boys and girls.

• I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Suess - Really easy to read and quickly established as a catch phrase in our family!  Almost as popular is the Cat in the Hat.
  
  

If you would like more ideas on books for babies, toddlers and older children see Building a Children's Library on the Guardian website which is a fantastic resource.

If you are wondering how to store your books, have a look at our Tidy Books Bookcase which is designed so that children can easily see their books.  We wish these had been around years ago.