The best books for 3 year olds?

When my journey as a dad started, my reading came to an end.

No more drifting off with Julian Barnes, relaxing Sundays with Alain de Botton, or bathroom appointments with the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Baby books were no substitute – if I have to read another Maisy Shops Online or That’s Not My Bloody Badger book I'll pen my own obituary.

But now baby has become toddler, amazingly, books are back!  They are different to adult novels: shorter, simpler, and illustrated.  Pictures are particularly important - it only dawned on me recently that whilst I look at the words, my daughter focuses exclusively on the illustrations - and at best these don’t just reflect the text, but add to or contrast with it.

Here are the top 10 gems I’ve discovered so far:

10. I Love You Little Monster:  Giles Andreae may be better known for Giraffe’s Can’t Dance, and this one verges on smoltz, but still gets me every time. “So when you get knocked down, my sweetheart / Look up at the sky without fear / For sometimes we need to be flat on our backs / Before starlight begins to appear.” Can any parent read this to their toddler and remain unmoved?

9. Billy’s Bucket:  this simple, imaginative story from Kes Gray / Garry Parsons has both father and daughter chortling, whilst gently reminding us that adults rarely know best.

8. The Hill And The Rock:  David McKee is famous for Elmer the elephant, but I find the stories rarely match the quality of the pictures.   This, on the other hand, couples his trademark comic-book style with a brilliantly quirky moral tale of making the best of what we have.

7. Hairy Maclary:  Lynley Dodd creates simple and amusing tales and illustrations for cats like Slinkly Malinky and dogs like Schnitzel von Krumm.  She is also rare as a children’s author who can actually rhyme and scan, making these great read-out-loud favourites.

6. The Incredible Book-Eating Boy:  Oliver Jeffers’ Lost And Found is a classic, but the brilliant illustration and the cracking ending for this make it my favourite from his impressive output.

5. Kicking a Ball!:  Janet & Alan Ahlberg hog much of our shelf space:  Peepo! and The Baby Catalogue were early favourites, and Eat Peach Pear Plum should replace all nursery rhymes, which to me range from the merely inappropriate to the deeply unpleasant.  But as I’m trying to indoctrinate my daughter to love the beautiful game, I’ll just keep saying "Kicking a ball, kicking a ball, that's surely the purpose of life, after all".

4. Princess Smartypants:  funny, brightly-illustrated, and with a punchy message for my strong, independent daughter - Babette Cole will be missed.

3. A Bit Lost:  few words and a simple ‘are you my mummy?’ story, but Chris Haughton’s cracking and distinctive design makes this a pleasure to read over and over.

2. Paper Dolls:  Julia Donaldson is popular for a reason – she is wonderful.  I could include any number of her superbly-told, uplifting tales – Toddle Waddle was the first book my daughter could quote; Charlie Cook and Tyrannosaurus Drip are recent favourites.  This is no exception, with her faultless rhyme and scan, here with a particular deftness and a lovely ending.

1. Journey:  here’s a find.  No words at all, just super illustrations and a cracking story.  If you haven’t discovered it yet, get it!

Of course, there are bags of badly-rhyming, poorly-scanning rubbish, written in the mistaken belief that having the language skills of a 3 year old is a qualification to be a children’s author.  Writing for kids is different, but – as with music, theatre or films – it’s every bit as hard to do well.

But I’m happy to say there are plenty of great books for toddlers.  I’m not happy to leave out classics like Where The Wild Things Are or The Train Ride, or more recent favourites like Shark In The Park, Supertato, or How To Hide A Lion.  

And with lovely friends and family lending and giving us books, bargains a-plenty in local charity shops, and our criminally-underrated public libraries, I hope and expect to fully revise this list by the time I’m reading to my baby son.