Wonderful books for kids from birth to 3 years old

Here is a very good article :

How to get children interested in reading ?

In order to make a child love reading, the key is to find books that he/she loves.

I do not believe in making my kids sit still and listen to me before the age of 3. So I bought books that they can touch and play with.

My kids used to love this book very much : Kipper's Balloon by Mick Inkpen
Every day, they made me read it over and over again to them. I must have read it a few hundred times to them.

It has very simple words, and very cute pictures.

Most importantly, the book has wonderful pop-ups. Lift this flap:

and you see this !
My kids went crazy whenever they came to this page :
They love lollipops!

I do not expect children below the age of 3 to be interested in words. So nice pictures and amazing pop-ups play a very important part. I want my kids to think that books are equivalent to fun ! And Kipper's Balloon succeeded in making them think that way.

Sadly Kipper's Balloon cannot be found in local bookstores, or in www.amazon.com anymore, only used copies are available.

But there are many more interesting books out there that your child will love, try to look for them ! I have many other pop-up books for my kids.

Here's another series of books that my kids love :

The child can push or pull something on every page, very good for their itchy fingers.

I have often heard of mommies complaining that their young children cannot sit still to listen to a book, and that the kids keep trying to grab the book and turn the pages. It is perfectly normal for kids to behave this way. These books are designed for young kids to touch ! They can push and pull the flaps on every page.

These books use opposites to teach words, and the pushing and pulling of the flaps help the child to remember the words better.

This is an amazing pop up book : Picture Pops Dinosaur
A complete Stegasaurus popping up from the pages, and folds back neatly into the book. Every page of the book has a pop up dinosaur.

My boy used to love trucks and he loved this book:
Picture Pops Machines
My boy also likes these pop-up books very much :
Pop-up Jungle IQ
Pop-up Ocean IQ

My kids like the Poppy Cat series very much.
Every page has a different texture, and the baby is encouraged to touch. Like this page, the cats' paw prints are actually sticky. On other pages, the baby can touch the cat's furry tummy.

Here's another book they like.
They can turn the wheels to change the picture. Great for babies to develop their fine motor skills too.

My kids used to fight for this book : Wanda's Washing Machine

There is actually a pop up washing machine inside. The kids can take out the pieces of "clothes", throw into the washing machine and pretend to wash.

When my kids were babies, they knew that they had something to do on every page, and they were allowed to use their itchy fingers to touch the book. So they learned from a very young age to listen to me read every page, before they can touch it. They love some of the books so much, they made me read to them over and over again, sometimes up to 10 times in one night !

Some of the above books may not be available any more. But parents can look out for other books with similar features.