I have two preschoolers (boy/girl twins) who will turn 5 in July so I know a bit about good books for preschoolers. Good books for preschoolers, in my opinion, have one or more of the following attributes:
Silliness
Preschoolers love silliness!
Beautiful Illustrations
They trigger your little one’s curiosity.
A thoughtful story about unconditional love OR about bedtime routine
Please, my little preschoolers, just go to bed already!
Also, make it less than 15 pages because you are going to read it over and over and over :-).
The following five good books for preschoolers are books both my children and I seem to grab first and most often from our own collection.
They also happen to have one or more of the attributes above.
Because I am the Mommy Dealtor, I will also share the retail price and the “Buy It Now” price. A buy it now price is generally the lowest price I’ve seen on an item and when you see that price, I recommend you buy a few!
Keep one for yourself and a few others as gifts. I do this myself and know I save a lot of money vs. running out for last-minute gifts.
There are so many wonderful books for preschoolers; it’s hard to narrow it down to just five, but here we go:
This book is full of bedtime antics and also delivers a message about unconditional love. As he is being put to bed, a young child asks his mother if she will still love him even if he turns into various smelly and dirty creatures. “But Mama, but Mama, what if I were a super smelly skunk, and I smelled so bad that my name was Stinky Face?” To which his mother responds “Then I would give you a bath and sprinkle you with sweet-smelling powder. And if you still smelled bad, I wouldn’t mind, and I would hug you tight and whisper in your ear, ‘I love you, Stinky Face’”.
It’s creatively written and beautifully illustrated. Although it’s about scary, stinky things, it’s so cute, it’s sure to not scare your little one.
This preschool book is great for getting the sillies out. Kids enjoy singing along and scolding the naughty monkeys for jumping on the bed. “Five little monkeys jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. The mama called the doctor. The doctor said, ”No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"
I suppose you could say it teaches counting or math as each monkey disappears once he falls off the bed. I guess you could also say it teaches little ones that jumping on the bed can cause a bump on the head, but at it’s core, it’s just a fun read for all.
While this book is definitely geared toward little truck lovers, my non-truck loving child (and myself) enjoy this book as well. Each page has a nicely written, somewhat rhyming tale of a particular construction truck and how they are wrapping up their day.
Your little one gets to say goodnight to each tired truck as it goes to bed for the night. Little ones relate to being tired, too, after a long day of play and I think moms and dad will relate to the tired messages too. “Shh…goodnight, Crane Truck, goodnight.”
This clever little book makes me smile with its twist on the universal dilemma of getting children to settle down for bed. Little Hoot just wants to go to bed, but his Mama and Papa say he has to stay up late. It’s just not fair because he wants to go to bed at a reasonable hour like all of his non owl friends. While he asks for permission from his mom and dad to go to bed, they insist he must stay up one more hour to play.
Little Hoot declares “When I grow up, I’m going to let my kids go to bed as early as they want.” Little Hoot is such a cute little character and the story, with it’s simple twist, is silly and children get the joke.
I love this book! I have loved it for five years and buy this one for all new moms. While definitely geared toward younger ones, preschoolers still love this cute and quick read about how they are loved from head to toe, whether happy or grumpy, etc.
It’s a quick read (check!), delivers a message of unconditional love (check) and is adorably illustrated (check!).
I hope you enjoy reading these books to your children as much as I do with mine.
Nicole Kitzman is the founder of the MommyDealtor.com blog.
