Oliver's favourite books (2 years old)

Some of you have recently asked me what Oliver’s favourite books are, and as we have just updated his selection, today I’ll share with you the ones that were reading now that he’s two.

We don’t have a rule to pick our books, and we don’t buy exclusively Montessori friendly  books (below, I’ll mark with an asterisk the ones I found on Montessori blogs): we like board books that have big, clear images on a white background, but not all the ones we buy are like this.

All the books you’ll see here are in English: that’s because reading can then become an opportunity to speak English with Oliver (otherwise I speak to him only in Italian and Alex speaks to him in Finnish).

Last but not least, we never look at the recommended age, but we do choose by author: if we like a book we’re likely to buy all the books by that author. Some are easier, some are more complex, but if Oliver likes them and picks them from his book display, they’ll stay there until he gets bored of them (which usually takes a long time!).

This is our selection at the moment, to which I’d like to add Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers, which is the book we gave the Montessori school when Oliver celebrated his birthday.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle *

This is one of the authors we like: images are simple, but different, colours are vivid, and the stories are very creative. From the same series, Oliver loved The Very Hungry Caterpillar and I’m buying The Very Busy Spider next.

Charlie Chick by Nick Denchfield

This book is extremely short and simple, but Oliver loves it and always brings it us to read. I’ve always loved pop-up books, I always felt like they could take me into the story, and this is definitely a great first option.

My Big Animal Book (Priddy Bicknell Books) *

Oliver loves animals and this book is amazing. It only has images of animals and their names, but Oliver loves watching them and saying what they are in different languages. After “reading” this book with Alex, one day we saw a Hunsky dog and Oliver yelled excitedly “Susi” (wolf in Finnish).

Where's Spot by Eric Hill

This is another simple book that Oliver absolutely adores. And now that he knows it by heart, he loves to anticipate what animals he’s find under each flap! The series offers many titles, and our friend Sara gave Oliver Spot Goes On Holiday for his birthday.

Peep Inside the Zoo by Anna Milbourne

Oliver has learnt so much vocabulary by describing the images in this book (we read it in the three languages, depending on the mood). And after several months he’s still not bored of it. From the same collection, I’d like to buy Peep Inside Animal Homes to learn where animals live.

I'm a Big Brother by Ronne Randall

Great book to give to a child who’s about to become a big brother (our friends Noah and Magnus gave it to us for my Baby Shower).

Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats

We were going to give this book back—it’s too long, too complicated and somewhat artsy—but Oliver loves it! I think what he really loves is when we whistle while reading it to him ;-)

Montessori Map Work di Bobby George *

I love this series of Montessori books, that I’ve already showed you in other posts. So far Oliver has taken to only this one that shows animals for all over the world. We also have Letter Work, Number Work and Shape Work, that will be great in a few months.