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Here are our favorite library books this month! These are the books we have checked out and loved reading with our toddler and preschooler in March! Fun children’s book recommendations for independent reading and family read alouds.
At the beginning of this year, I shared my personal goals and one of them was to spend more time reading.
I’ve also been working hard to incorporate more read aloud time into our daily routine at home. We LOVE regularly finding new books at the library to read together.
I started taking our oldest to the library when he was just a baby and since then, library story time has been a regular part of our weekly rhythms. We’ve had seasons where we would be at the library up to three times a week (and had up to 75 books checked out at a time).
Because I love reading others’ reading lists, I thought it would be fun to create a new monthly series on the blog of our favorite library books.
These are not ALL the books we’ve checked out by any means, but they are the ones that we have been enjoying the most this month.
Our Favorite Library Books for Preschoolers, Toddlers, and Read Alouds in March
*For reference, we have a newborn, a 2 year old, and a 4.5 year old that is a strong independent reader. But we all enjoy these books! (Well, we assume the newborn likes them…)
Board Books
This month, we actually checked out a few books that we’ve checked out before. We just love them so much.
Hello Knights! by Joan Holub – This was a new one to us and it is so much fun! It’s a silly story about knights and dragons that is full of rhyming words and a few surprises. It is a lot of fun to read aloud and the illustrations are so bright and fun.
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Emma Garcia – We’ve checked this one out a couple of times from our library and we have one of the other books in this series – Tap Tap Bang Bang. We love the colorful pictures, the repetitive sounds as the train rolls down the track, and seeing the different places the train goes.
We also enjoy counting those noisy birds that make their way into the train cars! We’ve enjoyed all the books in this series.
You’re Here for a Reason by Nancy Tillman – My personal favorite from this group. I love all the books by Nancy Tilman. They are so special and sweet and frankly, just a joy to read. You’re Here for a Reason is a book that reminds us that we are loved and valued while encouraging even simple acts of kindness.
The illustrations are full of children interacting with animals and are beautiful. To be honest, it’s taken a lot for me not to just buy up all of her books for my boys because I like reading them so much.
Picture Books
These children’s picture books are the ones we grab most often. Both boys enjoy flipping through them independently and I enjoy reading them aloud. We picked these for this month’s favorites because the illustrations are excellent, the stories are good, and they are just plain fun to read.
Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson – This is a fun interactive book that takes readers through all four seasons with an apple tree. Starting out as just a bare tree, each page adds new layers as children press, pat, shake, tap, and even blow kisses.
A few leaves here, blossoms there, apples (!) and even snowflakes until the tree goes back bare. It’s a fun book and a subtle way to talk about the seasons. I need to add it to our favorite apple books; we had such a fun time reading it. (Our oldest even used it to lead his own story time with us here at home!)
The Goose Egg by Liz Wong – I flipped through this book quickly at the library and took it home because I thought it looked cute and figured the boys would enjoy it. The Goose Egg is a story about an Elephant, Henrietta, who lives a quiet, calm life. Until she bumps her head during a swim and ends up with a REAL goose egg.
Only, Henrietta doesn’t realize it until the egg hatches and she is left trying to care for a baby goose whose flock has left the nest by the time she returns.
It’s a sweet and really heart warming story as Henrietta works to raise this baby goose. (Full disclosure – I cried a little bit when we read this one out loud. It’s that sweet.)
The Listening Walk by Paul Showers – We actually grabbed this book when we were learning about our five senses. It tells the story of a girl who, with her dad and dog enjoy taking walks. But, these aren’t just any walks. They are listening walks.
Hear all there is to hear around the neighborhood. After reading it, you can also take your own listening walks!
All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon – All the world is one of my absolute favorites for reading aloud this month. It’s a Caldecott Honor Story and for good reason. Reads very much like poetry and shows how all the world – the big and small things are interconnected by following family and friends through the course of a day.
The illustrations are beautiful and the words are, too. This is on my wish list to keep.
If I Was the Sunshine by Julie Fogliano – Another really sweet picture book about relationships and connections. The first page reads:
“if i was the sunshine
and you were the day
i’d call you hello!
you’d call me stay”
Such a fun one to read aloud. Like all the world, the verses in this book have such great rhythm and a sweet message for readers. A good one to snuggle up and read together!
Bird, Balloon, Bear by Il Sung Na – These last two are both by the same author, Il Sung Na. I stumbled on these by accident because one of them was featured on display on top of the library shelf. But they are so good. Bird, Balloon, Bear is a story about friendship.
Bird is looking for a friend, and thinks she’s might find on in Bear. But when she gathers up the courage to talk to Bear, it seems like Bear already has a friend. Bird wonders if it will be too late to find a friend. A really sweet story that we have read over and over!
Welcome Home Bear: A Book of Animal Habitats by Il Sung Na – I love this one so much. And it’s perfect since we’ve been spending so much time at home lately. It’s a story about home, exploration, and contentment.
Bear grows tired of his own home – the same old thing everyday. So he sets out to make home in new places, only to learn that home is just right. The perfect place for him.
Chapter Books
Our oldest recently started reading beginner chapter books so I picked up one of these on a whim. When I saw how quickly he breezed through it and how much he enjoyed it, we picked up the whole series. And here we are.
Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo – All about a pig named Mercy Watson and her many adventures around town. There are six books to this series and our oldest has flown through each of them. We’ve also had lots of fun reading them together. Our 2 year old loves to flip through on his own to point out the characters in the story. Our favorite of course, is Mercy Pig!
What are your favorite children’s books these days?
Fortunately for us, we’ll be holding on to these for a while until the library opens back up. But I’d love to know what your favorite children’s books are theses days! Let me know what you’re kids are reading!
WELCOME TO THE WEDNESDAY LINK PARTY! MEET YOUR HOSTS:
Jaclyn from Coffee, Pancakes, and Dreams
Brittany from Dreams and Coffee
Mary Leigh from Live Well Play Together
Tiffany from Lake Life State of Mind
Lindsay from Lindsay’s Sweet World
Keri from Cultivate an Intentional Life
Holly from Bee Simply Organized
There are a lot of new ones you shared that my girls haven’t read yet! Definitely going to add these to our reading list!
This is great! I will be using this list when we go back to the library! Thank you!
I love reading other’s book lists too. Yours is really intriguing to me because many of them I’ve never heard of which is kind of rare since I taught at the elementary level for years and years. I get excited to see new titles! Do I dare say I love children/adolescent fiction better than adult fiction at times! Lol!