For Toddlers

Anytime is book time. 

When my children wake up, if they see a book on the bedside table, they want me to read it to them. So Little Mermaid finds her Prince early in the morning. After lunch, Veer goes looking for his stolen tomatoes. In the evening, the Lion sees his own reflection and jumps in the well. Sometimes, in Marathi, a crow sees an earthenware pot and comes up with a neat trick to quench his thirst. At bed time, Dr. Seuss’s bug starts off a series of yawns or in Hindi, Shivani’s Musarani escapes from the cat. I have put together a list of books that I read to my children, anytime during the day.

1.      Peepo, by Jane and Allan Ahlberg [ Amazon ] [ Flipkart ]

This was the first book I read aloud to my four year old son, when he was two months old. Peepo was gift from a friend. The board book was sturdy and my son later started trying to tear it but it lasted, till my daughter came along and both of them together managed to rip it a little bit. Though mangled, it still remains a favourite. Peepo is all about a baby watching the day go by, as his family goes about their business. Mother makes breakfast, Granny hangs clothes, birds fly in the sky and a dog walks by. Baby’s siblings play in the park and baby has a lot of fun! My children are fascinated by the circular window in the pages where they can look at what the baby sees. The drawings are clear with gentle colours and details of everyday household activities, which the children delight in. I think it’s one the best books for babies!

1.       Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown [ Amazon ] [Flipkart]

When I bought this book for my babies, I thought it was too short. But as I started reading it and my babies started wanting me to repeat certain pages, it became too long! The bunny wishes good night to the moon, the stars and everything in the room. A tiny mouse runs through all the pages, gazing up at the moon or thinking his own thoughts. I started singing it out loud to them in a low voice and my daughter would croon with me. It never really put them to sleep but as the lights in the book grew dimmer, the children became quieter and dozed off eventually. As toddlers, they started identifying the objects and the colours and it became quite exciting to them. We read it in the afternoons, we read it during long car journeys, we carried it everywhere. It sparked off questions about the Sun and the Moon and where the stars were hidden during daytime. And what happened to the Old Lady? Where did she go?