The following is a compact list of books chosen for three to four year olds. They are all well illustrated, but the stories offer a wide variety of styles and story-types. For a complete list of top recommendations please see Recommended and Highly Recommended Preschool books.
We'd be interested in any books you think ought to be added to this list. Please enter your comments below.
Stories - General
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The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown |
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Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson |
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Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak (has a counting book, an alphabet book, a poem, and a story book) |
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Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak |
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Floss by Kim Lewis |
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Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton |
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The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegard Swift and Lynd Ward |
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Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey |
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Curious George by H. A. Rey |
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All the Way to Lhasa by Barbara Helen Berger |
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Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel |
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Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson |
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The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, illustrated by Beatrix Potter |
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The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter, illustrated by Beatrix Potter |
Alphabet Books
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A Was Once An Apple Pie by Edward Lear |
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Animalia by Graeme Base |
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Curious George Learns the Alphabet by H. A. Rey |
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The ABC Bunny by Wanda Gag |
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Alphabears: An ABC Book by Kathleen Hague, illustrated by Michael Hague |
Counting Books
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Ten Little Rabbits by Virginia Grossman, illus by Sylvia Long |
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Curious George Learns to Count from 1 to 100 by H. A. Rey |
Books about Color
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Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Maurice Sendak |
Books about Time (telling time, seasons, day / night, etc.)
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Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Helen Berger |
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Around the Year by Elsa Beskow |
Books about Etiquette
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What Do You Say, Dear? by Sesyle Joslin, illustrated by Maurice Sendak |
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What Do You Do Dear? by Sesyle Joslin, illustrated by Maurice Sendak |
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Manners Can Be Fun by Munro Leaf |
Rhymes
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Mother Goose: A Classic Collection of Nursery Rhymes by Michael Hague |
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The Rooster Crows by Maud and Miska Petersham |
Poetry
The Hutchinson Treasury of Children's Poetry, edited by Alison Sage
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Give Yourself to the Rain: Poems for the Very Young by Margaret Wise Brown |
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A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Tasha Tudor |
The Golden Book Family Treasury of Poetry, edited by Louis Untermeyer, illustrated by Joan Walsh Anglund
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