Good Books for 3 Yr Old

A few good authors my 1, 2, and 4 year old love:
Janet Stevens
C. Rylant (Henry and Mudge series)
Sandra Boynton
Kevin Henkes (Kitten's First Full Moon, Old Bear, etc.)
Arnold Lobel (I started reading my 2 and 4 year olds the Frog and Toad books today and they sat still and loved them- they laughed and I had them act some of the parts out as I read)
Mem Fox (Koala Lou, Time for Bed...)
Eric Carle
They LOVE hearing poems for children from jack Prelutsky's "Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young

One of the best things a friend got me when I was pregnant was Honey for a Child's Heart. It's a fantastic guide to reading!!!!

You've gotten some great advice. I also would say -- library, library, library. Let your son help in picking books out. If he doesn't like them when you get home, no biggie. I love our library since I can do a lot of things online as well. I'll find and author or a subject that my son is really really into and can reservet the books online when he's asleep at night and I have some time to focus.

1/2 price books is also great. We will occaisionally buy our books there, but frankly, we use the library more than any other resource.

75% off books! This is a store in the mall with Garden Ridge in Plano. And the books are brand new and literally 75% off retail price. So all those books you get for 3.95 at the book fair at school, you can get for $.96. And they have a TON of children's books. Series, younger children books, picture books, christian books, popular character books, and adult books. i.e. cooking, hobbies, romance, etc... I love this store for gifts too.

A good idea at your kids ages is to get books with their favorite characters in them.

We check out books regularly at the library. Plan to attend weekly storytime, then exchange your books each week.

We also purchase lots of books, most of which have come from Garage Sales and Library book sales. Most libraries have a book sale 2-3 times a year. Check your local library for details. We've got a list with links to many of the libraries in our area at: http://familyeguide.com/Libraries-and-Bookstores.html (see left hand column).

A couple of upcoming ones that I know of are:
Carrollton: Sept 17-19
Flower Mound: Oct 23 - 25

There are a couple of "community sales" coming up, too:
Carrollton: 9/26
Grapevine: 9/26

And don't forget about kids consignment sales - a great place to get books, toys, clothes, etc.
Bye-Buy Consign Lewisville 10/8 - 10/10

Details for all of these events can be found on our Community Calendar: http://www.familyeguide.com/navigation.php?id=3

Good Luck!
www.familyeguide.com Free guide to affordable family activities in Lewisville, Flower Mound, Highland Village, and the surrounding communities.

My kids have always liked the Eric Carle books (Very Hungry Caterpillar is their favorite!) and Dr. Seuss books. The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss has always been a favorite. It has 4 stories in it, and it's the last one - What Was I Scared Of? that they always wanted to hear again and again. The Little Critter books are really cute too. They also love "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a ____." I know there is the traditional one where she swallows a fly, but one author (can't think of the name) wrote them that are holiday related. We have a Halloween one, a Christmas one, and an Easter one. Clifford books and Curious George are always hits too.

Another place to find cheap books is the Scholastic outlet. It's in Arlington near 360 & I20. I haven't been there, but I hear it's really good. Amazon has good book deals too. I've ordered from there and they almost always have a buy 3 books, get one free, and there is no shipping or tax on books on amazon.com. Kohls always has the Kohls Cares deal too where you can get a hard back book for $5 and even the stuffed animal that goes with it for only $5. They go through themes. Not sure what it is now, but they've done Clifford, Curious George, Dr. Seuss in the past.

We get a ton of GREAT books at garage sales. Most people sell them for a quarter or less...you can't beat that deal. We also visit our public library frequently. Favorites in our house right now are There's an Alligator in my Closet and The Hungry Little Puppies and anything Curious George. The Napping House is a great bedtime story. Arthur books, especially if the story involves D.W.are always a big hit here too.

This is what your public libraries were made for!!! :) Ask the children's librarian for suggestions (they live for this stuff).

We have read all of the suggested books from the previous responses and they are great! Wanted to add "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" ( and all of the "Pigeon" books) by Mo Willems

Hi,
Check out: http://plano.gov/Departments/Libraries/Kids/Kids%20Readin...
Look on the column on the right for more book lists. There is one for 2 and 3 yr olds.
M.

My 4 year old is big into Skippyjon Jones, Epossumondas and Big Chickens.

http://www.skippyjonjones.com/
http://www.coleensalley.com/books/epossumondas.htm
http://www.helakoskibooks.com/books.htm

We usually get a bunch of books from the library and the ones that he really enjoys we'll purchase through school, Half Price, Amazon or some other bookstore.

My sister also made him a photo book that tells the story of my son and his vacuum (an obsession of his) adventures. He really loves this because the story is about him and it's filled with pictures of him and his vacuums. We've used Picaboo.com and Blurb.com for our photo books and been very happy with both.

My husband just ordered a load of Dr. Suess books off eBay for a very cheap price. We have already received them and they are in great condition. I would highly recommend Dr. Suess or The Berenstein Bears.

1/2 Price Books is a great place to start. You might go in and ask them what are good books for that age. You also might try the scholastic book website. They are the ones that do the book fairs for schools & preschools.

We go to the library a lot which is free. Also, you can get books a kids consignement shop like Kid to Kid. Our 2 1/2 year-old is into story books like Dr. Seuss, "Knuffle Bunny" by Mo Williems. Also, any of the Golden Books are also age appropriate. My daughter likes some of those; however, each child is different so you may have to try some through the library first. That is what we did. If our daughter really liked a book from the library, we ended up buying it!

Definitely start at the library. Check out a few books and see what he enjoys. My daughter and I started going to the library every week or every two weeks to get a new set of books. It's fun for her to pick out books and I can see what she enjoys most without spending money first. If you're in Dallas, they have a great online reservation and renewal service on their Website. You just log in with your library card number and password.

One set of books she consistently enjoyed was the Mrs. Shepherd series by Lynn Plourde. The books include "Pajama Day" and "Science Fair Day". They are about a group of kids in elementary school and focus on one child in each book. I think there are 5. We checked them out a lot at the library and when I saw one of them on clearance at Walgreens, I bought it!

Good luck.

S.

I'm sure you will get lots of good advice about books and websites, but I wanted to say that while books for 3 year olds are great, there should be a range of levels of books for your son to choose from. Keep the baby books that he really enjoys and get some books for 4 and 5 year olds, so he can move up to those when he is ready. Try to include different genres, too-fiction, nonfiction, poems, comics, etc. Give him as much exposure to as many types of reading materials as possible. My 2 and 5 year olds get Highlights(for little kids), National Geographic(my 2 year old gets one level and my 5 year old another) through the mail each month and they LOVE them!

The children's librarian at your local library should be a good source for book recommendations. Also story times at your library and the story time at the Barnes and Noble near Northpark Mall are great places to hear books read that your child might like. That's also a great free outing. My kids loved the classics by PD Eastman and Dr. Seuss. Have fund reading to your child!

I 2nd 1/2 Price Books. My kids LOVE the Poor Puppy and Bad Kitty Books. They also like the Disney themed books, which there are a lot out there, both Golden Books and others which you can get at 1/2 Price. My boys love to go the 1/2 Price and brose and find their own books (along with the ones I pick out). It makes a great after-school or afternoon activity!

Here are some books my almost 2 year old loves:
1. Llama Llama Mad at Momma – this one is about shopping and llama gets bored. Very cute.
2. Llama Llama Red Pajama – llama goes to bed and gets scared.
4. Silly Sally (My husband thinks it is a weird book but my daughter loves it. Sally walks to town backwards and upside down. Along the way she meets a pig, dog, loon, a sheep. I make a pig noise when she meets the pig, etc.)
5. The skippyjohn books. Someone else recommended those.
6. The dr. sues books. We are currently into Horten hatches an egg.

You 3 year old would probably like the books that have sounds. My daughter likes the dora one that she has.

The library would be great because you could check some out and then see which ones they like. Then you can buy just their favorites. I usually buy our books from Scholastic. We get that through our Kindermusik teacher. I usually buy the dollar books (that was how we got our first skippyjohn book). And if I buy anything else I go on Amazon and search for the book first and read reviews on it. I have also got some books from half price books that were inexpensive.
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After I responded to this I found a book that someone had given me when my daughter was born - it is called "The read-aloud handbook" by Jim Trelease. The front part is all about why you should read to your kids. Then the back has a little over 100 pages that lists different books by type with age suggestions and summaries. I probably wouldn't buy it - but it might be a good book for you to check out of the library to see if you can find some books that might be of interest to your kids.