Children’s books

What to look for

While the books below are some we can recommend, we know you will want to choose books for yourself. So we have also made a list of the sort of books to look for, based on the abilities of children at different stages of development.

You can find these guidelines on the back of our printed tip sheets. If you don’t have access to these you can download PDFs of the guidelines here.

Babies from birth to 12 months

Asquith, Ros
Babies! and others
Dorman, Helen (The Children’s project)
Baby shapes
Gant, Trish — photographer (Walker books)
Bedtime
Gentieu, Penny
Wow! Babies!
Hoban, Tania
Black on white
Red, blue, yellow shoe
White on black
Who are they?
Ladybird
First cot book
Lousanda, Sandra (Campbell)
Baby Faces
Miller, Margaret
Baby faces
Baby food
Baby pets
Get ready, baby
Peekaboo, baby
and others
Ormerod, Jan
Peek-A-Boo!
Oxenbury, Helen
I see
I touch
Tickle tickle
Tom Tracy
Show me!

12–18 months

Asquith, Ros (Random house)
Baby’s shoe
Campbell, Rod (Campbell books/Macmillan)
Stroke Henry — tactile book
Dorling, Kindersley (and earlier)
Baby love
Toys that go
Hutchins, Pat
Rosie’s Walk
Nilsen, Anna & Nick Sharratt (Orchard books)
Jungle Peepers
Oxenbury, Helen
I can
Clap hands
Scholastic Australia
Cuddly Puppies (tactile)

1½–2½ years

Argent, Kerry (Omnibus)
Animal capers
Campbell, Rod
ABC Zoo
Baby animals
Busters Park
Busters Day (lift the flap)
Dear Zoo
Farm animals
Farm babies
Farm chase
My presents
Noisy farm (lift the flap)
Zoo animals
Other titles
Carle, Eric
Mister seahorse
My first book of colours
Slowly, slowly, said the sloth
Cousins, Lucy
Hooray for fish
Is this Maisy’s house?
It’s more fun with Maisy
Maisy’s rainbow dream
Maisy’s treasure hunt
Maisy loves you
(other titles)
Cowley, Joy
Mrs Wishy Washy
Mrs Wishy-washy’s farm
Dorling, Kindersley
My first body board book
Garland, Sarah
Doing the garden
Going shopping
Ellie’s breakfast
(other titles)
MacKinnon Debbie & Anthea Sieveking (Frances Lincoln)
Find my spade (a first lift the flap book, one of a series)
Martin, Bill
Brown bear, Brown bear, what do you see?
Panda bear, Panda bear, what do you see?
Polar Bear, Polar bear, what do you hear?
Miller, Virginia
On your potty!
Ten red apples
Where is little black kitten?
Pienkowski Jan
ABC
Rowe, Jeanette
My Dad
My Grandad
My Grandma
My Mum
Whose teeth?
Whose nose, feet, ears?
Yoyo’s day
Watanabe, Shigeo
How do I put it on

2½–3½ years

Allen, Pamela
Inside Mary Elizabeth’s house
Who sank the boat?
(other titles)
Ahlberg, Allen & Janet
Each Peach, Pear, Plum
Peepo
Burningham, John
My first book of colours
Andreae, Giles
Commotion in the ocean
K is for kissing a cool kangaroo
Rumble in the jungle
Clark, Emma Chicester
I love you, Blue Kangaroo
Just for you, Blue Kangaroo
Dodd, Lynley
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy
(and other titles)
Fox, Mem; illus Jane Dyer (Omnibus)
Time for bed
Hill, Rod
Where’s Spot?
(and other titles including lift the flap books)
Hughes, Shirley
Colours
Hutchins, Pat (Puffin)
Happy birthday Sam
McBratney, Sam
Guess how much I love you
Pienkowski, Jan
1-2-3
Turner, Gwenda
1-2-3
Let’s make mud!
(and other titles)
Waddell, Martin
Good job, little bear
Room for a little one
Sleep tight little bear
West, Colin
Buzz…Buzz…buzz went bumblebee
‘I don’t care,’ said the bear
(and other titles)

3–5 years

Alborough, Jez
Watch out! Big Bro’s coming!
Allen, Pamela
Cuthbert’s babies
The pear in the pear tree
Andreae, Giles
Pants
Berenstein Bears series
Bears in the night
Blake, Quentin (Jonathon Cape)
Quentin Blake’s ABC
Browne, Anthony
My Dad
Burningham, John
Mr Gumpy’s outing
Mr Gumpy’s motorcar
Carle, Eric (Hamish Hamilton)
The very Hungry caterpillar
Donaldson, Julia
Chocolate mousse for greedy goose
The Gruffalo
The smartest giant in town
Emmett, Jonathan
No place like home
Someone bigger
Fox, Mem
Possum Magic
Where is the green sheep?
and others
(many versions)
The Gingerbread Man
Fearnley, Jan
Max
Mr Wolf’s Pancakes
French, Jackie
Too many pears
Graham, Bob
Queenie, the bantam
Grindley, Sally
Shhh!
Hughes, Shirley
Dogger
Inkpen, Mick
The Great Pet Sale
Jones, Ursula
The Witch’s children and the Queen
Kelly, Mij
Where’s my darling daughter?
Krosoczka, Jarrett
Bubble bath pirates
Langley Jonathon, Mark Sperring
The Fairytale Cake
Long, Melinda
Hi, I became a pirate
Mahy, Margaret
A lion in the meadow
A summery Saturday morning
Puttock, Simon
Squeaky clean
Roddie, Shen
You’re too small
Rosen, Michael
We’re going on a bear hunt
Sendak, Maurice
Where the wild things are
Sutton, Eve & others
My cat likes to hide in boxes
(many versions)
There was an old lady who swallowed a fly
Tolstoy, Alexi
The great big enormous turnip
Vrombaut, An
Clarabella’s teeth
Waddell, Martin
Farmer Duck
Wells, Rosemary
Bunny cakes
Bunny money
Wild, Margaret
Seven more sleeps

Wordless books

Ormerod, Jan
Sunshine
Moonlight
Magbala books
Australian Babies

Recommendations from others

Jim Trelease
Treasury of Read-alouds
Christopher Cheng, Author, National Literacy and Numeracy week champion 2005
Choosing Great books for 0–5s
Cousins, Lucy
Za Za and Maisy books
French, Simon & Rawlins Donna
Guess the baby
Gleeson, Libby & Vivas, Julie
Cuddle Time
Rowe, Jeanette
Whose Nose/ Feet? Ears?
Yo Yo goes to playgroup
Waddell, Martin & Firth, Barbara
Can’t you sleep little bear?
Wild, Margaret & Rawlins, Donna
Seven more sleeps
Wild, Margaret & James, Anne
The midnight Gang
The midnight feast
Wise Brown, Margaret & Hurt, Clement
Shutting the chooks in
Machin, Sue & Vivas, Julie
I went walking