Anonymous wrote:My 4 year old loves:
Elephant and Piggie or anything by Mo Willems
George and Martha by James Marshall
Little Critter books
Books by Ezra Jack Keats (snowy day, Peters chair, whistle for willie)
All the world by Liz Garton Scanlon is still a favorite after many years
Unfortunately she also loves berenstain bears books (I can’t stand them! Haha)

Super similar over here, but instead of Berenstein Bears it's the Busytown books. She always wants us to read all the labels of all the things in Busytown. It can take 30 minutes to read one of them. Sigh. But at least she loves books!

Four was when my kid started getting into story anthology books (Frog & Toad, Winnie the Pooh). These are nice because it's a bit of an introduction to chapter books -- you can read a few stories from the book at bedtime and they have the same characters and play in the same world. But they don't have the stakes of a chapter book and everything is resolved in one sitting.

This was also when my kid started really liking Level One and Level Two readers. You have to be very choosy about this because so many of them are junky -- they just convert tv shows into books and slap a reading level on them. But we'd buy books related to her interests (ballet, animal care, I think we had one about gardening) and she loved them because they are designed to appeal to early readers with simple sentences, rhyming words, and easy-to-recognize starter sounds (so they'll say "active" instead of "physical" since a child who is just starting to read likely doesn't understand the "ph" sound yet). My kid wasn't quite reading at 4 but was interested in it and knew her letters and sounds, so I think these were a great intro.

And then just lots and lots of picture books. Favorites from that age included some books by Carson Ellis (Home and I think the other one is called something like Tu is dak?), The Day the Crayons Quit, the Busytown books, Grumpy Monkey, They Say Blue, Shine... I can't remember them all, there were lots. We'd go to the library twice a month and get a big stack, and if anything really resonated we'd try to pick it up from the used bookstore or buy it new for a holiday or birthday. It was a good way to build out a library for her so when she did start reading, she had lots of beloved books in there all ready.

I second the 5 Minute Story books. Mine also really liked the Mr. Men and Little Miss books at that age.

We just picked up It Fell From the Sky which is a big hit (and I love it too). The 5-Minute Story books are great too.

From Head to Toes by Eric Carle
Alfie books by Shirley Hughes

4 yo DD loves this book called The Princess and the Pony. It's pretty hilarious and DH loves reading it with her. They both end up laughing like loons.

Berenstain Bears are another favorite around here. And the Hello Virginia/Goodnight Virginia books too, since she likes seeing places we've been around the state! I know the series also covers DC, not sure about Maryland but probably.

We love The Knight Who Wouldn’t Fight and The Snatchabook, both by Helen Docherty.

My 4 year old loves:
Elephant and Piggie or anything by Mo Willems
George and Martha by James Marshall
Little Critter books
Books by Ezra Jack Keats (snowy day, Peters chair, whistle for willie)
All the world by Liz Garton Scanlon is still a favorite after many years
Unfortunately she also loves berenstain bears books (I can’t stand them! Haha)

Not Quite Narwhal is a lovely book about discovering your identity and your friends accepting you for it.

Claude books.

We love dragons love tacos, anything Pete the cat. Spoon is also a very cute (and short!) book our four year old likes a lot.

I need some inspiration - does anyone have suggestions? TIA