The Johnson Crew!

Hi there. If you have a baby or toddler at home and you're looking to fill up their bookshelf with wonderful books that you know they're going to love and you're going to love as well, then stick around for my top 10 favorite books from all four of our kids from when they were babies and toddlers. Hi, welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Sarah and I'm a homeschooling mama to four and I still have one that's in the toddler stage.

And so the books that I'm sharing with you today are the ones that they would reach for time and time again and the ones that I really enjoyed reading to them. And I'll list all the titles below and add some Amazon links down there. Thank you in advance if you do use those links to purchase the books, then as an affiliate I do earn from those purchases.

So thank you for supporting my channel in that way. So the first book I want to show you and you're going to see just how loved these truly are because this one's like actually missing the cover of the book. Um but this one is called Peek-A-Who by Nina Laden. This is a very simple book for babies and toddlers. It starts with peek-a and it has a cutout on every other page.

Babies love that kind of thing. Peek-a-moo. Peek-a- boo. And I won't read you this whole book, but the very last page which we're actually missing has a mirror on it and it says peek-a- you and they get to look at their little face in that mirror and they love it. So this is a fun book. The next book I want to show you is the Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton.

And this is just a very simple sweet book. Says, "The sun has set not long ago. Now everybody goes below to take a bath in one big tub with soap all over. Scrub, scrub, scrub." And it kind of goes through their bedtime routine which is perfect for reading this at bedtime. And then it slows down at the end here. The moon is high, the sea is deep, they rock and rock and rock to sleep.

Love this book. Next, a classic which is also very well loved. It's missing its cover. Good Night Moon. If you read this as a child, you probably love it, too. Um if you don't already have this in your home, oh this is this is a classic. It's a must. Um I'm a sucker for books that rhyme and they're actually really good to read to babies and toddlers as they're learning new words, learning language.

And then this book has all these bright primary colors throughout. So it starts, "In the great green room, there was a telephone and a red balloon and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon." Um and just goes through all the different things they can point out in this room and then they say good night to all of those things which all that repetition hopefully will put your child to sleep.

Um and then ends with "Good night noises everywhere." So sweet. Love this book. Another classic, Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. This has a very practical application. If you're not familiar with this book, I'm sure most of you are, but if you're not familiar with this book, it has this character Sam-I-Am who's pretty obnoxious and he's trying to get this grumpy character to try green eggs and ham.

And he's says, "I do not like green eggs and ham." and goes through and asks him, "Well, would you like them in a house? Would you like them with a mouse?" and asks him all these questions and he keeps saying, "No, no, no." So grumpy. "I won't eat them anywhere." And then he says, "You do not like them, so you say. Try them, try them and you may.

Try them and you may, I say." I quote this multiple times a week to my children. You know, if you have a picky eater and you put something in front of them that they've never even had before and they're like, "Oh, I don't like that." And you're like, "Dude, you've never even tried it before." So this is a good one. Try it. You can be silly with it instead of being fussy with them.

"Try them and you may, I say." Which usually gets them in a little bit better mood if they're being stubborn about it because they know what the ending of the story is which spoiler alert if you don't know already. He finally tries the green eggs and ham and says, "Say, I like green eggs and ham." And then he goes on and on and repeats all the things from earlier in the book.

He did like them. And my kids usually like the things once they're in a better mood about it. There you go. Mealtime application as well. This book actually found at the Target dollar spot, Sesame Street book called Nighty Night. "When it's time to go to sleep and rest your head, do you sometimes need your favorite toy to snuggle with in bed?" Yes. "And Elmo needs his bunny and Big Bird needs his bear.

Bert snuggles with his blanky and Cookie Monster snuggles with cookies." Yeah. Good choice, Cookie Monster. Good bedtime book. I love board books for babies and toddlers. If you do not have a baby or toddler yet, you'll soon discover that they rip pages. So board books are awesome. A lot of books make a condensed version of the book into a board book which is great. It's a lot less for you to read as well which is nice.

Okay, so this one from Dr. Seuss is called Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? So it goes through a lot of fun sounds which is great cuz that's one of the first things we're teaching our little ones. "All the wonderful sounds Mr. Brown can do. He can sound like a cow. He can go moo, moo." Okay, it goes through a bunch of different fun sounds. They're not all animal sounds.

They're silly. Some of them are silly. This one's fun when they get to the point where they're like interactive with the book and they actually knock on the book. Oh, so cute. This is a great book. Another Dr. Seuss book, shocker. Another board book, ABC, an amazing alphabet book. "Big A, little A, what begins with A? Aunt Annie's alligator. A A A." It goes through a bunch of silly things that start with these different letters.

It goes all the way from A to Z. This is definitely one of my favorite books, Little Blue Truck. This is very beloved by my children. See, it's been ripped. That means they love it. When they destroy it, means they love it. I don't know. This is by Alice Schertle. I might be pronouncing that wrong. I apologize. And I love how beautiful the illustrations are in this book.

"Horn went beep, engine purred, friendliest sounds you ever heard." And then he goes and sees his animal friends and so another chance to practice your animal sounds. This has a really great moral to it, the story. Then honk, a big rude dump truck comes through and says, "I haven't got time to pass the day with every duck along the way." And then that dump truck gets stuck in the mud and he's honking and none of the animals are budging.

They're like, "Oh, sorry, buddy. You were rude." And who comes to save the day but the Little Blue Truck. Oh, so nice. But then he gets stuck, too. So he's beeping his little horn for all of his animal friends to come and help and they do and teamwork saves the day and they push both the dump truck and Little Blue Truck free. And the dump truck has a change of heart and he says, "Thanks, little brother." said the dump to blue.

"You helped me and they helped you. Now I see a lot depends on a helping hand from a few good friends." Oh, how true is that in life? Great book. This is a favorite, too, really. It has these little toy trains they can actually touch and feel. "All aboard, train leaves at 8. Hurry now, we can't be late. Engine number five leaving the station. What's this? Two mice on vacation?" And on each page they've got these mice that you kind of have to search for.

They're a little bit hidden in the page which of course babies aren't finding, but as they get older that's a really fun thing for them to search for. They go through a couple of different scenes. Goes through the circus. Goes to the farm. Another chance to practice your animal sounds. And then they get back home. And he says, "Engine number five, good night to you, too. Chugga chugga, choo choo choo." It's just sweet.

And the last book I want to share with you today is a Curious George book. There are a ton of different Curious George books. From the ones that we own, this is probably their favorite when they're really little. It's called Feeds the Animals. So this is where Curious George goes to the zoo and goes and he he's feeding all the animals which is a no-no. You know, Curious George, he always gets into trouble, right?

But then everything turns out all right. This is just a fun story because you know, little ones love monkeys and they're just fun. So. Okay, that's all I have for you today. There are a ton more amazing books out there, so I'll have to do another video and share even more books that we love, but here's a good 10 to get you started on your child's library or some excellent gifts to give others.

Definitely leave in the comments below your little one's favorite book or books. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up and don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss another video. Thanks for joining me today. See you next time.