Meredith and Kaytee have a special guest again this week to discuss our favorite picture books for the 2-5 year kiddos in your life!

You’ll hear a “bookish moment of the week” from each host: an author event, kid librarians, and a fantastic iTunes review.

Next, we discuss our current reads for the week. We are each talking about two recent reads and we’ve got a variety of new titles that we cannot wait to discuss this week.

For our deep dive, we are discussing our very favorite picture books for the 2-5 year old range. These kids are enraptured by great pictures, willing to sit for a great story, and ready to laugh at great jokes, so we’ve chosen some stand-out titles to share with you or the littles in your life. Abbey has a lot of great expertise in this area, so we are only too happy to have her input.

As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we’d like to press into every reader’s hands. We’ve got a childhood favorite, which may not be for kids, that has been read over and over again, a WWII novel told in a totally new way, and a reference book that belongs on every parent’s shelves.

As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you’d like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don’t scroll down!

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2:39 - City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

6:11 - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

7:07 - The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

8:43 - Recursion by Blake Crouch

11:29 - Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

13:45 - Pines (Wayward Pines Series) by Blake Crouch

14:55 - Parkland by Dave Cullen

15:01 - Columbine by Dave Cullen

16:40 - The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

19:08 - The River by Peter Heller

19:45 - Dog Stars by Peter Heller

24:14 - Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstack

24:26 - My Favorite Murder podcast

26:21 - The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

30:01 - The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

31:58 - Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey

33:37 - Other People’s Houses by Abbi Waxman

33:30 - The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman

34:17 - Beartown by Fredrik Backman

36:09 - A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

39:37 - Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

42:18 - Books, Inc Campbell - Abbey’s local bookstore

Abbey’s favorites from Henry and Isaac:

43:02 - Elephant and Piggie books - especially Can I Play Too? by Mo Willems

43:54 - Eat Pete by Michael Rex

43:56 - Julia’s House for Lost Creatures by Ben Hatke

44:01 - Warning: Do Not Open this Book by Adam Lehrhaupt & Matthew Forsythe

44:08 - The Book with No Pictures by BJ Novak

44:23 - Beyond the Pond by Joseph Kuefler

44:43 - We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins

44:52 - Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown

44:56 - The “Hat” Series by Jon Klassen, especially I Want My Hat Back

Kaytee’s Books she shoved down her kid’s throats:

45:55 - The Mitten by Jan Brett

45:58 - Do Not Open by Brinton Turkle

46:10- King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub by Audrey and Don Wood

46:14 - The Napping House by Audrey and Don Wood

46:20 - Papagayo, Coyote, and Raven by Gerald McDermott

46:31 - Blueberries for Sal and Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

46:36 - Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

Meredith’s Fun Read Alouds:

47:16 - A Mouse Told His Mother by Bethany Roberts

47:18 - Counting Crocodiles by Judy Sierra

47:26 - The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey and Don Wood

47:34 - Gilbert de la Frogponde by Jennifer Rae

47:45 - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

47:49 - Is Your Mama A Llama? by Deborah Guarino

48:07 - Where is the Green Sheep by Mem Fox

48:13 - Red Truck by Kersten Hamilton

Abbey’s Character Development Favorites:

48:45 - Pink is for Boys by Robb Pearlman & Eda Kaban

48:50 - Morris Micklewhite & the Tangerine Dress by Christine Bablacchino & Isabelle Malenfant

49:06 - When Sadness is at Your Door by Eva Eland

49:39 - Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller & Jen Hill

49:44 - The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld

Kaytee’s Sweet and Funny Favorites:

50:57 - When God Made You, When God Made Light, and When I Pray for You by Matthew Paul Turner

51:11- Skippyjohn Jones by Judy Schachner

51:15 - Where You Came From by Sarah O’Leary

51:37 - This is My Home, This is My School by Jonathan Bean

51:41 - Maybe God is Like That Too by Jennifer Grant

51:46 - Imaginary Fred by Eoin Colfer

Meredith’s Favorite Books in Series:

52:24 - Mrs. Piggle Wiggle Treasury by Betty MacDonald

52:54 - George and Martha Stories by James Marshall

53:00 - Berenstain Bears Books by Stan and Jan Berenstain

53:30 - Dinofours series by Steve Metzger

54:44 - The Night Before… books by Natasha Wing

55:02 - Richard Scarry books, especially Busy Town

55:30 - Roadwork by Sally Sutton

Abbey’s choices for Gorgeous Illustrators:

56:04 - Melissa Sweet

56:11 - The Boy Who Drew Birds by Jacqueline Davies

56:13 - The Right Word by Jen Bryant

56:14 - A Splash of Red by Jen Bryant

56:26 - Some Writer!

56:42 - Genvieve Godbout

56:50 - Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

56:53 - Goodnight, Anne by Kallie George

56:58 - When Santa Was a Baby by Linda Bailey

57:01 - The Pink Umbrella by Amelie Callot

57:06 - Emily Winfield Martin

57:08 - Dream Animals by Emily Winfield Martin

57:09 - Day Dreamers by Emily Winfield Martin

57:11 - The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin

57:14 - Teagan White

57:16 - Adventures with Barefoot Critters by Teagan White

57:18 - Counting with Barefoot Critters by Teagan White

57:19 - Bunny Roo, I Love You by Melissa Marr

57:26 - Wednesday Kirwan

57:35 - Henry’s Bright Idea by Lauren Bradshaw

57:36 - Magnolia’s Magnificent Map by Lauren Bradshaw

57: 40 - Jill Barklem

57:43 - The Brambly Hedge Series by Jill Barklem

57:56 - Kaya Doi

58:00 - Chirri & Chirra Series by Kaya Doi

Abbey’s Book Stack of the books she DIDN’T include!

Abbey’s Bookstack Photo of the books she wanted to talk about but didn’t have time! (insert wow emoji here. Ha!)

Other Favorites of my kids that I didn’t have time to mention because it was already the longest episode ever:

Drew Daywalt’s books - The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors, The Day the Crayons Quit, and The Day the Crayons Came Home

Usborne Pipkin books: How High is the Sky? How Big was a Dinosaur? How Deep is the Sea? How Big is a Million?

Herve Tullet books - Press Here and Mix It Up

Pete the Cat books - especially Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin

Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Dunsky Rinker

1:00:57 - Llama Llama books by Anna Dewdney

1:01:39 - Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

1:01:45 - I Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

1:03:08 - The Suitcases by Anne Hall Whitt

1:05:06 - Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

1:05:28 - Choose Your Own Adventure Books by R.A. Montgomery

1:06:02 - Case Histories (Jackson Brodie series) by Kate Atkinson

1:06:07 - A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

1:06:58 - The Artful Parent by Jean Van Thul

1:07:02 - The Artful Parent Blog

*Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!* 

Episode 45: Our Favorite Picture Books for Kids (age 2-5) + Special Guest Host Abbey Lile-Taylor