Board Books My 18 Month Old Loves
A couple months ago I posted about board books my son loved as a 16 month old, and now here I am with an 18 month old! Let’s talk about some board books for 18 month olds! Most of the board books in the 16 month old board books post are still big hits around here, so if you’re looking for book recommendations for a little one around this age, you might want to check out that post as well.
My 18 month old loves books in general, but these are the books he asks me to read most often. As was the case with the 16 month list, there are several classics on this list. There’s a reason some books stand the test of time and don’t go out of print!
Goodnight, Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
“In the great green room, there was a telephone and a red balloon…” I’ve always thought this classic was a bit quirky, but we love reading it. A well-written bedtime book is a soothing read-aloud, and that’s definitely the case with Goodnight Moon. My son loves pointing at all the items in the pictures for me to name.
Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton
This book has been a favorite with my little guy for a long time, but I’m seeing him engage with it in new ways lately. We sing the words to this book (Here’s the tune if you don’t know it.), and my son will be busy walking all over the place, but he always manages to get back to me in time for all the kisses that are written in. I love seeing how well he knows what’s coming next in the book even when he’s not speaking the words on his own yet! Another one of his favorite things to do with this book is to point to each of the tiny hearts on the front cover so I’ll tell him the colors.
Brush, Brush, Brush by Alicia Padron (Scholastic)
I grabbed this book from Thrift Books several months ago when my son wasn’t being cooperative with brushing his teeth, and I wanted a book to help get him more comfortable with it. I wouldn’t say it’s been the magic answer to getting him to brush his teeth, but he does love reading it! The words in the book are meant to be sung to the tune of “Do Your Ears Hang Low?”, and he really enjoys books we can sing. He typically asks for me to read him this one three or four times in a row, and we often sing the song while brushing his teeth to offer him a little distraction.
The Ants Go Marching by Priscilla Burris
Since we’ve gotten so much enjoyment out of singing other books, I knew we needed to grab this one when we saw it at our library! It’s a shortened version of the song, only counting up to five ants rather than ten and combining some of the verses to make it even shorter. As the one reading the book, I loved that. Once we checked out an Old MacDonald book from the library, and it had more verses than any version of “Old MacDonald” I’ve ever heard. I found myself skipping at least half the pages each time I read it so it didn’t feel like I was singing “99 Bottles of Pop on the Wall”… After that experience, I was delighted to see how short and endurable this board book version of “The Ants Go Marching” was!
Noisy Farm (Tiger Tales)
We received this book secondhand from some sweet church friends when my son was maybe ten months old, and it was an immediate favorite. He has loved it more and more ever since! We have also collected two other books from this series: Noisy Animals and Noisy Baby Animals. They are a combination of touch & feel books and sound books, so when you pet the animals and press the button, you hear the sound the animal makes. I love that there are actual photographs of the animals rather than illustrations, and I think it’s great that my toddler is getting some exposure to nonfiction!
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins
We sometimes call our son our little baby percussionist because he’s rarely more delighted than when he’s playing with a musical instrument or even shaking something that’s not meant to be an instrument to hear the sound it makes. This book about drumming monkeys has a fun rhythm, and he loves to read it over and over again!
Go, Dog. Go! by P. D. Eastman
Does this board book even need an introduction from me?? I’m sure you know it. We love the dogs. We love the things that go. Go, Dog. Go! is just a fun little classic that never seems to go out of style.
I hope this post has given you some board books to add to your library or bookstore list! What are some board books your toddler loves?