You may have tangible wealth untold; caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be. I had a mother who read to me. —Strickland Gillian

We love books. In my experience, toddlers love being read to. They don’t want to read all the words, they just like to talk about the pictures. The simpler, the better. We start reading to them as soon as they show interest. After three kids, I’ve narrowed down the types of books that toddlers are interested in. Here are 10 books that all three have loved. They are great for building vocabulary, learning animals sounds and the names of objects.

We have several variations of the Brown Bear book and they love them all.

This book has bugs and texture. It’s a win.

Love this book! It’s a great little rhyming book about body parts. Elle loves it too.

We got this book after Fleet was born because we called him baby cakes. It has several cute little actions to do with your baby like “tickle little baby cakes on the toes.”

Our friends had this book made for Elle for her first birthday. It’s a sweet, simple little bedtime book. She loves it.

Llama Llama books are great for babies and beginning readers. Elle loves these and the boys love that they can read them. They’re simple, repetitive and about regular toddler activities.

This book is just pictures of animals. This has been my kids favorite type of book from ages 1.5-2ish. Keep it simple!

Elle already has some of the rhythm of the alphabet song! She loves to look through this book and point at the pictures. I say them to her but she is getting close to being able to say them to me.

Toddlers LOVE “lift the flap” style books. This one about trucks is “slide the flap” and she loves it.

This is a great series of books. All the pages have texture and you can find one for just about any interest. We also have “That’s Not My Monster.”

You can probably tell from the pictures these books are well loved.

What are your top favorite toddler books? Comment below or on facebook @embracingtheessentials or instagram @laurenjcorbett – links are also on right hand side bar.