Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2 year olds

Navigating the Terrible Twos

Ah, the terrible twos! If you can capture your child's attention at this stage, you're doing great! This is a critical time for behavior modification and emotion regulation, including skills like sharing, anger management, and language development. While it can be overwhelming, books can be a fantastic aid, providing stories and visuals for almost any scenario.

 

Book Selection and Themes

For 2-year-olds, we focus on books about counting, the alphabet, shapes, colors, and simple stories. Recognizing the world around them becomes more important. Each monthly box contains 2-3 books, including board books and a picture book, designed to engage your child without being too complicated.

 

Importance of Reading Routine

Establishing a reading routine at this age is essential, whether it's before bed or during the day. It offers a chance to slow down, cuddle, and bond, fostering intellectual and emotional development. Soon enough, your toddler will eagerly bring you their favorite book and say, "Read this Book!"

 

Recommended Books and Blog

We've curated a list of popular books for 2-year-olds, featuring beloved authors like Karma Wilson and Doreen Cronin. These books, along with our blog post on early reading's benefits, can help build resilient and successful adults.

Sample Titles of the Best Books for 2 Year Old's

Here are some titles we love and have shipped to our subscribers for this age group:

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - 123 Count With Me

123 Count With Me by Tiger Tales

This unique, innovative trace-and-flip book offers an engaging new way for children to discover numbers 1 through 20 and learn to count! Young readers can trace each number by following the tracks with a finger to become familiar with its shape.

 

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - A B See

A B See by Elizabeth Doyle

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s in a single letter? Everything in A B See!

Because hidden in each graphic letter are tiny troves of ABC treasures waiting to be found by sharp-eyed readers. Can you find the apple, arrow, and armor in the letter A? Or the bear, banjo, and bike buried in the letter B? Read along in this unique alphabet board book that asks audiences to A B See beyond the ABCs.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Baby Loves the 5 Senses Taste

Baby Loves the Five Senses: Taste! by Ruth Spiro

Accurate enough for experts, yet simple enough for baby, this clever board book explores the science of taste. Beautiful, visually stimulating illustrations complement age-appropriate language to encourage baby's sense of wonder. Parents and caregivers may learn a thing or two as well.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Being Brave

Being Brave by CIndy Jin

Filled with loving and meaningful life lessons, this inspiring board book shows kids that being brave doesn’t have to be grand or heroic. Whether you’re feeling sad, nervous, unsure, or left out, taking control of how you feel and being brave starts with listening to your heart.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Diggersaurs

Diggersaurs by Michael Whaite

A dozen dinosaur trucks CRUNCH, SCRAPE, CHOMP, and RUMBLE through this book as they work on roads and construction sites. Young dinosaur fans will love the inventive names--SCOOPERSAURUS! DUMPERSAURUS!--and rip-roaring sound effects as they count each new, numbered Jurassic giant. Whether they are building or demolishing, these helpful Diggersaurs are the coolest things in town!

 

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Caps for Sale

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

Children will delight in following the peddler’s efforts to outwit the monkeys and will ask to read it again and again. Caps for Sale is an excellent easy-to-read book that includes repetition, patterns, and colors, perfect for early readers. This tale of a peddler and a band of mischievous monkeys is filled with warmth, humor, and simplicity and also teaches children about problem and resolution.

 

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Baking Day at Grandma's

Baking Day at Grandma's by Anika Denise

Three bouncing little bear siblings, wrapped tight in their winter clothes, can't wait to tromp through the snow for Baking Day at Grandma's! In a rhyming text that begs to be sung, the bears and their grandma pour and mix and stir--with breaks for hot cocoa and dancing--to create the perfect wintry treat. Then they wrap it up as gifts in ribbons to show that sweets are even better when they're shared.

 

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

A told B,

and B told C,

“I’ll meet you at the

top of the coconut tree”

In this lively alphabet rhyme, all the letters of the alphabet race each other up the coconut tree. Will there be enough room? Oh, no—Chicka Chicka Boom! Boom!

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Dooby Dooby Moo

Dooby Dooby Moo by Doreen Cronin

Duck and his friends are at it again. But this time they’re pooling their considerable resources to win a local talent show, because first prize is a trampoline!

The cows want to sing.
The sheep want to sing.
The pigs want to...dance. Dance?

And Duck? Duck just wants to win that trampoline. But first he’ll have to handle Farmer Brown.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Katy Duck Center Stage

Katy Duck, Center Stage by Alyssa Capucilli

Katy Duck dreams of dancing on a great stage with lights, costumes, and, of course, lots of applause. She practices and practices for her big recital, but when the curtain opens, Katy sees that there’s a great big audience. Suddenly, this dancing duck has a classic case of stage fright! Is it too late, or will Katy Duck realize she can shine center stage? This humorous story is just right for any duck or child anxious about having their moment in the spotlight.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - How To Surprise A Dad

How to Surprise a Dad by Jean Reagan

So you want to surprise your dad? You’re in luck! The pages of this book are full of tips on how to become a super dad surpriser, including tips for things you can make, do, or find—just for your dad.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Festival of Colors

Festival of Colors by Surishtha Sehgal

It’s time for the Indian festival of Holi, a celebration of the start of spring, of new beginnings, and of good over evil. Friends, families, and neighbors wear white clothing and toss handfuls of brightly colored powders at one another until they’re all completely covered from head to toe! Young readers will love following the young siblings gathering flowers to make the colorful powders for the big day until—poof!—it’s time for the fun to begin.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker

As the sun sets behind the big construction site, all the hardworking trucks get ready to say goodnight. One by one, Crane Truck, Cement Mixer, Dump Truck, Bulldozer, and Excavator finish their work and lie down to rest—so they'll be ready for another day of rough and tough construction play! This is a good book for 2 year olds!

 

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Duck! Rabbit!

Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld

From an award-winning team comes a clever take on the age-old optical illusion: is it a duck or a rabbit?

Depends on how you look at it! Readers will find more than just Amy Krouse Rosenthal's signature humor here; there's also a subtle lesson for kids who don't know when to let go of an argument.

 

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Little Owl Says Good Night

Little Owl Says Good Night by Emma Parrish

It's nighttime, and Little Owl wants to say goodnight to all her friends before she goes to sleep. She sees something fluffy peeking out from the bushes: Goodnight, Mommy Bunny! She sees stripy tails hanging from the trees. Goodnight, racoons! Children will love pushing out the sturdy sliders on each page of this board book until Little Owl has said goodnight to a bunch of different animals, and finally, her family!

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - I Am Courage

I Am Courage: A Book of Resilience by Susan Verde

I move ahead one breath at a time.
I act with bravery.
I am courage.

When we picture someone brave, we might think they’re fearless; but real courage comes from feeling scared and facing what challenges us anyway. When our minds tell us “I can’t,” we can look inside ourselves and find the strength to say, “Yes, I CAN!”

 

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Baby Astronaut

Baby Astronaut by Dr. Laura Gehl

Baby Astronaut explores the stars and planets in space. She wears her space suit and helmet and rides in a space craft. Can ants live in space? Can plants grow in space? Find out with Baby Astronaut! Author Dr. Laura Gehl holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Georgetown. She has nearly twenty years of experience teaching and writing about science for elementary, middle, and high school students.

 

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - The Going To Bed Book

The Going To Bed Book by Sandra Boynton

This classic bedtime story is just right for winding down the day as a joyful, silly group of animals scrub scrub scrub in the tub, brush and brush and brush their teeth, and finally rock and rock and rock to sleep.

The day is done.
They say good night,
and somebody
turns off the light.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Once Upon a World Cinderella

Once Upon a World: Cinderella by Chloe Perkins

The classic tale of Cinderella gets a fresh twist in this debut title of a brand-new board book series, Once Upon a World. With Mexico as the backdrop, and vibrant artwork from Mexican illustrator Sandra Equihua, Cinderella is still the same girl with a fairy godmother and a glass slipper—but she’s totally reimagined.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Mouse's First Summer

Mouse's First Summer by Lauren Thompson

Mouse and Minka invite you to celebrate summer with a picnic in the park. Roll down the hill on tickly green grass. Fly fluttery kites high in the sky. Enjoy some juicy watermelon! And before it’s time to go home, a summer surprise sparkles in the sky.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Surf's Up

Surf's Up by Kwame Alexander

Surf's up! Not yet, Dude! Books are boring! Not this one! Bro and Dude have very different ideas about how to spend the day at the beach. But as Bro continues to gasp and cheer as he reads his book (Moby Dick), Dude can't help but get curious. Before you can shout 'Surf's up!' both frogs are sharing the same adventure, that is, until they get to the beach.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Farmer's Market

We're Going to the Farmers' Market by Stefan Perkins

In this story, readers get to visit local farmers, fill baskets with fresh fruits and vegetables, and then head home to cook a feast, all with goodies from the farmers' market! Featuring Stefan Page's graphic art, this delightful board book is filled with bold splashes of color and unique patterns.

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Steve Jobs Little People Big Dreams

Steve Jobs Little People Big Dreams by Maria Vegara

Steve thought that computers were the future, and his big ideas would transform the world and the way people use technology. Babies and young children will love this entertaining board book telling how the young Jobs went from being a young adopted son of a machinist to one of the most influential inventors and businesspeople on the planet.

 

Books For Toddlers: Best Books for 2-3 year olds - Lottie Paris Lives Here

Lottie Paris Lives Here by Angela Johnson

Lottie Paris may be precocious, but she still knows how to act like a kid. She dresses up, plays on the slide, and prefers to eat cookies instead of vegetables. She has a great imagination and sees the possibilities in the simplest pleasures. Plus, she’s sassy, so there’s no chance of getting bored.

Join Lottie Paris in her world and you’ll never look at yours the same again!

 

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