Brilliant Books for Under 5’s
With the online world offering more increasingly interactive and entertaining games and apps, getting your child to sit down and enjoy a physical book is becoming more challenging for parents of young children - myself included!
Don’t get me wrong - I love an educational app or website and Milly (my daughter) has learned a lot from excellent apps and online materials through platforms such as Reading Eggs and Twinkl Go.
As we have two young children at home (2 and 4 years old), here are a few of our favourite books at the moment. The great thing is that all of these books can be enjoyed by much older children as well, so unlike the chunky board books or flap books, these books will remain with us with many more years to come. There are no affiliate links or ads in the selection below, these are just books we love. Here we go, in no particular order…
#1. Ella Bella Ballerina & Swan Lake - James Mayhew
Ella Bella Ballerina & Swan Lake (with a real swan)
Exploring the story of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, James Mayhew sets the magical story at Madame Rosa’s ballet lesson, that Ella Bella attends. The illustrations are beautiful and my son, Max, was most impressed when he spotted a boy ballet dancer in the picture too, loving his ballet lessons as well, he pointed out that it was indeed him in the picture.
The story tells the famous story of the Swan Princess, Odette, and as Ella Bella is magically transported into the ballet, we learn about the story through Ella Bella’s eyes.
The story captivated our daughter so much that the book has been on a trip to see a real swan (I kid you not - it’s a wonder she didn’t end up in the lake with it), to her ballet lesson to show her teacher and has led to Milly choosing to dress up as Odette, The Swan Princess, for World Book Day this year. It’ll be a challenge sitting down in a tiny tutu and white probably isn’t the best choice of colour for nursery, but after becoming so inspired, we couldn’t say no.
We’re very pleased that Ella Bella’s adventures continue in a series of books as she experiences: ‘Cinderella’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘The Nutcracker’ to name a few.
#2. The Story Orchestra - Jessica Courtney-Tickle
The Story Orchestra
Continuing along the same theme, and a very well-chosen Christmas present by a close friend, The Story Orchestra books have been a big hit in our house. We have ‘The Nutcracker’ and ‘Carnival of the Animals’, both are wonderful.
‘The Nutcracker’, another Tchaikovsky triumph, tells the famous story with beautiful illustrations. At key moments in the story, there’s a ‘note button’ to press, which then plays Tchaikovsky’s music whilst you’re reading the story. A fully immersive story-telling experience - great for bedtimes! The children love pressing the buttons and when they’re not looking at the illustrations and listening to the story, they’re pressing the buttons and dancing around the book, as if it were a handbag on a nightclub floor. What more could you need?
Other books in the series include: ‘The Planets’, ‘The Magic Flute’ and ‘Peter and The Wolf’.
#3. One Springy Day - Nick Butterworth
One Springy Day
The story follows Percy the Park Keeper and his animal friends playing a game of hide-and-seek and is beautifully illustrated by Nick Butterworth. There’s so much going on in one picture that we seem to see something new, everytime we read the book. If you’ve got a boisterous 2-year-old at home, then the character ‘Fox’ will seem very familiar!
My children particularly enjoyed the way in which one of the pages can be unfolded to create a huge poster, so wonderful that it could be framed and put on the wall. A great addition to the story and really adds to the build-up of finding beloved Fox. Best read with a cup of tea and a slice of treacle tart!
#4. There’s a Monster in Your Book - Tom Fletcher
There’s a Monster in your Book!
Seeing young children’s faces as you tell them that there is a monster living in their book before opening the front cover is quite a picture! It’s the only book that we need to shake, tickle and tilt to follow the story and it’s a delightful read!
We’ve read this book so many times that we know what’s coming next but that makes it all the more fun to read. I’m surprised the book has managed to remain in one piece after it’s been thrown around the room and shook multiple times.
If your children love stories that encourage involvement and action (and shouting), then this is for you. The kids loved it, the neighbours may not have been so keen!
#5. Search & Find Books - Top That Publishing
Search & Find
If you are a ‘Where’s Wally?’ fan, then you’ll love these. On a much easier searching level than Wally, each page has a handy margin at either side, listing all of the different themed objects to find.
Great for teaching patience (if there is such a thing in a 2-year-old) but also colours, counting and vocabulary along different themes.
There’s lots of different items to find and it’s a race to find them all with two eager children wanting to have a turn. The book is thicker than it looks, with a surprising 25 different scenes in the ‘Vehicles’ edition - everything from cars, trains, boats and lorries to hot-air balloons, aeroplanes and futuristic hover buses. We loved finding them all!
#6. Quentin the Squirrel - David Anderson aka ‘Pep the Poet’
We were first introduced to ‘Quentin the Squirrel’ and his collection of poems in 2020, pre-ordering the book after enjoying Pep’s first poetry collection ‘Peter Pants’ (yep, you read that right!).
Very handy if you’re looking for a few quick poems to read, rather than a whole story, and a great way to introduce poetry to the younger reader - what’s not to love a poem about a ‘trumping seagull’?
Beautifully illustrated by Sue Dooley, our children find these poems hilarious. The great thing is, as our children grow up they’ll be able to read these poems for themselves and we’ll be in for quite a performance!
Some of the poems are best recited in various accents - quite funny for anyone else listening from another room at your failing attempts to rap in a New York accent, whilst your youngster looks at you with a very puzzled face - at least you’re trying though, right?
We particularly enjoy reading the poem about Quentin the Squirrel, it’s the first one in the book and although our Yorkshire accent won’t win us a part on Emmerdale, at least now we know the reason why Quentin swims on his back and the reason makes us laugh every time. Genius!
#7. Look & Say What You See in the Countryside - Sebastien Braun
Gifted to us by our friends, who take the National Trust’s ‘30 days wild’ challenge every year and complete it with utter brilliance, this book really reflects a love for the outdoors.
It’s similar to #5 Search & Find, only with this book, there’s a narrative throughout and questions aimed at younger readers. Our children particularly enjoy looking at the different habitats and finding the animals and insects that live there. The book includes animals that live underground, in the trees and even noctural animals, each in their own beautifully illustrated scene.
Great for vocabulary and a top pick for us!
The National Trust also have brilliant board books such as ‘The Big Outdoors for Little Explorers’ range that looks at different animals in varying habitats - Snow, River & Seaside. These are great for little ones who enjoy sensory books with moving parts.
https://shop.nationaltrust.org.uk/ & https://nosycrow.com/
#8. Twinkl Originals - Twinkl
I’m already a huge fan of Twinkl’s online educational resources and interactive games but did you know that they also write original stories?
The books are included in our Ultimate Subscription (£107.88 per year) and we receive a new book every half term through their Book Club. There’s also lots of educational materials to go with the stories for example: story sequencing, colouring pages and themed activity booklets.
A feature, which is a really great idea, is a QR code that is inside each book - scan it and you can listen to your story being read aloud. Just turn the page when you hear the ‘twinkle’ sound. Fab!
As we have two young children, we opt for the picture books aimed at children aged 3-7 years old but there’s another option for longer stories aimed at KS2 students (7-11 years). There’s no extra cost for the longer stories and we’ll certainly be moving to those when our children are old enough.
#9. Demolition, Construction and Roadworks - Sally Sutton & Brian Lovelock
We love this series by Sally Sutton, we have a very energetic two-year-old who loves books with repetition and rhyme and these are fantastic. They’re the kinds of rhymes that get stuck in your head and before you know it, you’re chanting ‘load the trucks. Load the trucks…’ while you’re washing up!
They’re another great series of books to introduce rhyming words to young children, along with detailed illustrations of all elements in a demolition yard, construction site or working at the side of the road.
As a bonus at the back of each book, there are machine facts with detailed drawings of the machinery used in the books. They’re a great addition once you’ve enjoyed the book and introduced me to machinery I’d never heard of. I now know my ‘front-end loader’ from my ‘excavator’ and who knew I’d get that information from an entertaining book designed for young children!
#10. Biff, Chip & Kipper - First Stories Series
Chances are, if you’re reading this and have children of school age already, you’ll probably be familiar with Biff, Chip and Kipper.
Now, we don’t have all of the books and I know that Oxford start their series at Stage 1 with phonics books, but just to highlight that Oxford have done a wonderful job with these stories and all of the resources that come with them.
We particularly like the questions at the end of the books to encourage talking about what you’ve read when you’ve finished the story. The first stories collection (like the ones pictured) are great for everyday words and situations whereas the phonics books are more aimed at decoding the sounds in words.
However you approach these books, getting your child familiar with these popular characters is no bad thing and the stories are excellent.