The BEST Read-Aloud Books for Little Ones!

If you’re searching for some new, engaging, fun books to give as Christmas gifts this year, this list of the BEST Read-Aloud Books for Little Ones is sure to help you!

There’s something special and memorable about sitting down with your kids at the end of the day and curling up on the couch to read to them. It calms and winds everyone down, which usually makes bedtime easier. 

Reading books with your children also develops their imagination and helps with their listening skills. There are SO many reasons to read to your children on a daily basis. Our children LOVE to read and be read to, which is why we give them new books {at least} every birthday and Christmas!  Since we have four kids, we’ve accumulated quite the collection of really great books, and I’d love to share our favorite read-aloud books for little ones with you! 

Here are some of the books that my kids bring to me over and over again….our all-time favorites:

1. The Golden Book Collections – these are great compilations of the old favorites. They’re super-affordable, too!! We’ve had these for YEARS, and my kids still bring them to me and barely move a muscle as I read these stories. 

*Links to these books:  Sleepytime Tales, Farm Tales, Animal Tales, Friendly Tales, & Eloise Wilkin Stories

2. Digger, Dozer, Dumper – for the little boy that loves construction vehicles, this is sure to be a favorite! Each page has a sing-song-y poem about a specific vehicle, and the illustrations are fabulous! My 4-year-old takes this one to bed! 🙂

3. The Elephant and Piggie books — these are HILARIOUS. They’re dramatic and just plain silly.  Adults, you will be laughing with your children as you are reading. The fun you and your kids will have reading these is something you must experience! We have several, and I often hear my kids reading these together and laughing hysterically. 🙂 

*Links to these books: We Are in a Book!, I Broke My Trunk!, There Is a Bird on Your Head!, I’m a Frog!, Today I Will Fly!, Pigs Make Me Sneeze!, Waiting Is Not Easy!

4. The Little Engine That Could — A favorite and a classic that encourages kids to try their best! This one takes me back! 😉 

5. The “If You Give….” series — kids love these! Every time my mom gets my kids another one of these, they have to read it immediately because they’re so intriguing! These books are “circular stories” – they all end the same way they started. I always let my kids finish the last sentence of the book. 🙂  So much fun!

*Links to these books: If You Give a Pig a Party, If You Give a Dog a Donut, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Mouse a Brownie

6. The Best Lowly Worm Book Ever — do you have little fans of Richard Scarry’s Busytown? This book features Lowly, and it teaches so much! Kids can sit and look at all of the illustrations in this book for a LONG time. There are also others in the Richard Scarry collection that you may enjoy!

*Links to these books: The Best Lowly Worm Book Ever, Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, Best Word Book Ever

7. The Fire Cat — this is an old book that was written for early readers, and it’s still such a kid-favorite today! It has over 60 pages and is broken down into little “chapters,” but I’ve never had any luck in getting my kids to let me stop partway through. 😛 

8. Ellis the Elephant Series — these books introduce adventures of American history in a really fun way! Your kids will learn about America’s greatest moments through these books.

*Links to these books: From Sea to Shining Sea, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Sweet Land of Liberty, Christmas in America, Land of the Pilgrims’ Pride, Hail to the Chief

9. Curious George — who doesn’t love Curious George?? There are plenty of these books to choose from!  I just may add another one (or two) of these to our collection this Christmas! 😉

*Links to these books: Curious George at the Baseball Game, Curious George in the Snow, Curious George and the Firefighters, Curious George Takes a Train, Curious George Goes Camping, Curious George and the Pizza Party, Curious George Makes Pancakes, Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise, Curious George Goes to the Zoo

10. Books by Dr. Seuss — these are wonderful classics that your kids will want to read over and over again! The great thing is that they can try to read some of the pages by themselves. I try to include all three of my readers by letting each of them alternate reading a page after I do.

*Links to these books: Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish Two Fish, The Cat in the Hat, There’s a Wocket in My Pocket, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Are You My Mother, Go Dog Go, Put Me in the Zoo, I Wish that I Had Duck Feet, Great Day for Up, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut, If I Ran the Zoo

These are our favorite and BEST Read-Aloud books for little ones, but we’d love to discover more! What are your favorites? We’d love for you to comment below!