Our Top 10 Children’s Picture Books for 12-18 Months Old

We’ve really enjoyed making time for a daily routine of reading. It’s also a lot of fun creating a whole new book collection! We started reading to our baby boy very early on and it’s now a much loved daily activity. Afternoons are our favourite time to read or whenever we need to slow down a little and have a break from all the tower building and car pushing! There are lots of book recommendations to suit the various baby and toddler ages but I think it’s also down to personal choice and what your baby most responds to. We’ve managed to read several picture books to him as well as the typical board books that are suggested for his age.

So I’ve created a list of books that our son now chooses to read and thoroughly enjoys, just to help give you some ideas or gift inspiration. Just for reference, our son was 16 months old at the time of writing this post.

This blog post is not an ad and doesn’t include any affiliate links.

 

Acorn Woods collection

Type: lift-the-flap board book series with rhyming text

My favourite series by far and a high recommendation. There’s always a simple but entertaining storyline with a consistent group of animal characters. I think Julia Donaldson is a very witty and humorous writer and Axel Scheffler’s colourful illustrations are full of personality and details.

So far our favourites probably include: Fox’s Socks, Cat’s Cookbook, and Postman Bear. (But I recommend the whole collection!)

 

AXEL SCHEFFLER COLLECTION

Type: a push, pull & slide board book series with rhyming text

Our baby has really enjoyed these as each page has a different mechanism and as usual with Axel Scheffler, the illustrations are full of personality and hidden creatures and details. Axel Scheffler also wrote the text himself. I don’t think the story is as engaging as the Acorn Woods series written by Julia Donaldson but there are still lots of good rhyming verses and things to learn about.

Our favourites include: On The Farm or Freddy the Frog.

 

spot the dog

Type: lift-the-flap board books with some including a sound panel

Our son is addicted to the old Spot the Dog TV series. I put it on YouTube when he was 8 months or so as it was nostalgic for me (being a millennial who favoured the more retro children shows) and fifty hours later, it’s still his all-time favourite. In fact, singing the theme tune is one of the only ways to calm him down or get him to sleep.

Anyway! The stories are basic but Spot is usually the ideal child puppy setting a very good example. Lift-the-flap books are always fun and a good way to introduce the different animals. We also have one with a sound panel which is also good fun.

 

What The Ladybird Heard

Type: children’s picture book or a push, pull & slide board book

So this isn’t the classic simple baby book but our son often picks this one out (even at just 16 months old). It’s set on the farm so that’s a winner for any child who loves tractors and farm animals like our son does. It’s a brilliant story by Julia Donaldson again. The rhyming text is written in a singsong manner and contains lots of farmyard animal calls. The illustrations by Lydia Monks are very original, unique and have an eye-catching colour palette perfect for a baby.

We have the children’s picture book version of this but I’ve just researched and seen you can get a push, pull & slide board book version. I’m not sure whether this includes less text, though.

 

Peter rabbit little stories collection

Type: mini board book collection

This is a collection of four books based on colours, words, numbers and shapes. It’s a good one to keep until school age for learning reference. As they’re mini board books, our son loves to look through the pages whilst he’s having his nappy change (it’s very funny to see). They’re also great for travel and car journeys. It’s also a fun process for babies this age to simply take the books out of the box and put them back in again!

 

little bear’s spring and little goose’s autumn

Type: children’s picture book with rhyming text

This is another pre-school book recommendation but our baby still thoroughly enjoys them. These are my personal favourites as well. Elli Woollard is a very talented writer - the text rhymes which makes it more appealing to infants and toddlers. They are two separate books both with lovely storylines and beautifully chosen words. Briony May Smith’s illustrations are also beautifully done with breathtaking colour palettes, cute animal characters and a great depiction of the two seasons.

At the moment our son just loves to point out the different animal characters he can see but he will happily sit through the entire book.

 

usborne farmyard tales Poppy & Sam

Type: peep-through board book

We only have Poppy and Sam’s Easter Egg Hunt but I’m planning to buy more. They definitely seem like a good series to collect with a range of peep-through, lift-the-flaps and sound books. They have very basic storylines but are still a good interactive read with the detailed illustrations and story mission. These are the books where you can also try and find the little duckling on every page.

 

we’re going on a bear hunt

Type: children’s picture book with sound panel or board book

We have the children’s picture book version with the sound panel which I think is probably a better idea than the board book alone. As you know, it’s quite a repetitive read, so the sounds work well to add a bit of variety and an extra element. We read this with actions and now try and get our son to press the correct sound for each page.

It’s a great story by Michael Rosen with clever illustrations by Helen Oxenbury. You often see the baby character in the illustrations is the only one who is hesitant and trying to convince everyone to return home during the search; it’s done in a clever but subtle way. I love the illustration style too with a mixture of black and white charcoal drawings and then loose but intentional watercolours.

 

dear zoo and oh, dear

Type: lift-the-flap board books

These are often requested by our boy and good fun to read through. There’s a very simple storyline with a single mission of either trying to find the eggs on the farm or receive the perfect pet from the zoo. Both reads entail making lots of animal noises and actions so it’s a very enjoyable read for an infant. He has recently been imitating these animal noises and now pre-empts them. Although slightly retro, these are an essential for your baby book collection!

 

tickle, tickle peter rabbit or ‘That’s not my…’ collection

Type: touch & feel board books

These are perhaps the most obvious recommendations for a baby of this age compared with the toddler and pre-school books I’ve mentioned above.

Tickle Tickle Peter Rabbit was a gift and one that we’ve been reading with our son for a while. It was quite good during the ‘tummy time’ phase (although I’d probably recommend mostly black and white board books with mirrors and crinkly textures for that period). It’s still quite a nice simple book to look through at bedtime but it does have a “shelf life” (pardon the pun!) which is probably about to expire for our 16 month old. However, the illustrations are really beautiful and in keeping with the Beatrix Potter books.

I’ve included a separate book series here, ‘That’s not my…’ book collection, as it’s very similar in style with the touchy-feely elements. We have a few of these, and again, they’re enjoyed mostly at bedtime when you don’t want anything too taxing on the brain. Having different textures to touch and feel is all part of the learning experience. So although these books aren’t as entertaining for the adults, they’re another essential on the baby bookshelf.

 

baby book buying guide summary

There are so many great books that I’ve not been able to list because I wanted to keep it to just 10 but are still big favourites in our house like: Room on the Broom, A Squash and a Squeeze, the Teddy Collection (from the 90’s), Dr Seuss, Elma, and so on.

To summarise:

  • Board books are always a good idea as babies will try and bend, stand on or rip the pages;

  • Anything by Julia Donaldson is a winner;

  • Rhyming books work really well to make the story engaging - I’ve found these much more successful to suit the attention span of a baby;

  • Lift-the-flap books have been a huge success in making stories interactive and fun;

  • Axel Scheffler’s illustrations are perfect for babies and toddlers;

  • Touch & feel are a good variation to have;

  • Books with sounds are fun and interactive;

  • Based on our experience, things that babies mostly love to see in a book include: animals, other babies and anything with wheels. I guess babies mostly like to recognise things in books that they’ve come across in real life. Fantasy and made-up creatures comes later on when children have more of an imagination and understanding.

 

I hope that was useful for any new parent or friend / family member looking to buy a book for their baby! I think it’s really important to make reading part of a daily routine early on and to make it an enjoyable experience. Let’s face it, kids are faced with far too many pressures at school, so if reading is a treasured activity and an ingrained habit then that’s got to make their learning experience more enjoyable and fulfilling.

Hannah Nicholls