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Children start learning from the day they’re born and take in their surroundings. It is great if parents read to their children from an early age as it can help a lot with your child’s vocabulary and understanding of the language. Naturally there are different books for different ages. Books for babies are different than for toddlers.
The reading level of a one year old will still be close to none but reading still keeps making them more familiar with the letters and words on the page. Maybe you’re trying to teach them letters of the alphabet or their name? At this stage children might start to point out things in books that they recognize.
In general, there will be more opportunities for interaction. We recommend books with very few sentences and lots of big pictures or even things like textures or sounds to explore in the book itself. Kids adore touch and feel books at this age!
There are different types of books for toddlers. If you want to read to your child while they are on your lap, a normal hardcover book is perfectly fine. If you want them to be able to read and interact with the book alone, you should consider board books because they have thick pages that are much more sturdy for playing with the book, or interactive books with easy to turn pages. For our 1 year old we preferred getting the board version if possible so that it is more sturdy and will last us longer!
Our Favorite Books For 1 Year Olds:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
This is one of the most popular children’s books by Eric Carle that we love. A board book with different sized pages, bright colors and some holes in it (for the caterpillar to go through).
It is a very engaging and interactive book for the little ones. The colorful pictures are also always liked by kids but we also enjoyed it as parents.
Around The Farm
This farm themed book with 30 sound buttons for the animals is a great way to get your toddler to interact with the book. They will learn not only animal names but also animal sounds.
You should know that this is a hardcover book and no board book, so pages are more fragile. But it’s soo fun!
Peak-A Who?
Behind pages with cut outs you’ll find different pictures/scenes – a zoo, a boo, and even a you!
It’s very cute, sweet book, especially for this age even if it might seem very simple. We were gifted this and found it really well done!
My First Library
Looking for a whole set of board books? With this small set of 10 books you can teach your child a variety of different things from fruits and animals to numbers and colors.
The books are small and don’t contain sentences but the words belonging to the pictures.
See, Touch And Feel: A First Sensory Book
We love sensory activities and touch and feel books for kids! This is a colorful book that incorporates touch, sight and even some sound with a “drum”, is a fun thing for small children.
An engaging book like this with different textures for their little fingers will keep children more amazed and busy with each page. I’m telling you – this is a must have!
The Wonderful Things You Will Be
A book with a beautiful story and meaning! Beautifully illustrated, this classic story is very sweet and a really great gift for one year old but also for a baby shower. It is about the love for the child and the exciting future. It’s many parent’s favorite book because of the beautiful story.
Good Night Moon
This is a board book perfect for bed time reading. Saying goodnight to the things in the room could become your thing with your toddler if they like the book.
It should be noted that some people that didn’t know this book beforehand were caught off guard by the fact that not all pages are in color but some are in black and white.
The pages become darker as the story progresses – perfect for turning off your lights, too.
I Love You To The Moon And Back
Another great book for a bedtime story. It centers around a wonderful day between a bear and a cup, showing the love between parent and child.
The beautiful illustrations are very sweet and so is the messaging of the story.
Little Blue Truck Leads the Way
This board book is the perfect book for little hands that love trucks. The blue truck goes into the busy city but stays calm in the crowd.
The illustrations make it more fun to read the story. In the little blue truck series are more books that are very suitable for a 1 year old, too.
Dear Zoo
This book is a lift the flap book with flaps on each page to reveal an animal. It’s a classic book and loved by many. You can talk about the animals and explain to your child why some animals are not suited to be pets.
If your child likes going to the zoo or just animals this can be an interactive way to read to them.
Keep in mind, however, that the illustrations are not on the whole page as some other books. Some children are fascinated by interactive features like flaps, others prefer big drawings.
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
It’s a fun book to read aloud and what we love even more is that it shows diversity with babies from all over the world! The counting book is great for 1 year olds with large and bright colorful pictures. And kids love counting their own fingers and toes along side.
Making Faces: A First Book Of Emotions
Children love reading this book as they also love seeing other children. You can help your child learn about different emotions early on.
Seeing how faces are different depending on the emotional state, is a great way to help your kid’s social skills later on.
I think it is also so great that they show diversity in the book.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
A very simple but great book. The wording doesn’t change much, which can be nice for kids to learn the phrases themselves after some time.
The images of the colorful animals are very big spreading over both sides. It’s perfect to add to your nursery bookshelf.
DITTY BIRD Baby Sound Books: Nursery Rhymes
This book has sound buttons that play fun rhymes like Old MacDonalds, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
This will keep your child entertained for a while and they might soon want to chime in.
You might need to show them how to make the sounds play as the buttons aren’t big chunky buttons.
Worried Your Kid Does Not Like Reading?
Not everyone has a child that likes reading or being read to all the time. It often helps if you start reading to them really early on and it becomes part of your family’s daily routine. This makes it simply part of the day, how it has always been.
It is also a great time for fun together and bonding between the reader and the child. Make it fun by having different voices for different characters. If there is an animal or object that makes a sound – like a dog, train, etc. – try imitating that sound. Your child might join in on making funny sounds and have extra fun!
Make sure that your child has at least a few options they can choose from to read. As you might know we recommend rotating toys but the same goes for books. Every week or so witch out the books in the child’s room or playroom. This gives your child the excitement to see what is available this week and switches things up.
Note if you notice your child really gravitating towards a specific book. Perhaps even ask them directly why they specifically like this book. If it is because it is about their favorite topic, it has patches to feel textures, or something else, look for similar books they might like.
We hope you found something for your baby’s library from our picks for books for 1 year olds! You might have seen our books for babies under 1 which are a bit easier and have a different focus. Many books that are great for the age of one are also great for age two but we made an extra list of our favorite books for 2 year olds as well. If your kids has found a love for books, later on they might also love kids cookbooks to help make meals!
