Children's Books on our shelves these days

I would love to have a book stand where I could display our children's book collection in a front facing manner. Like he has in his school. That idea ain't materialising anytime soon, but I did reorganise the existing book shelf. I.e. remove all books that aren't age appropriate! He's 2.5 y.o. so it's time for board books to disappear into storage boxes. Gone are the days (almost) when I went crazy searching high and low for those treasures, shelled out a lot of money (which I def didn't mind) and stuffed the entire bookshelf with his bulky books (I've been exclusively buying my books on kindle anyway). Books for his current age are thinner, cheaper and easily available.

So here are a few collections we are reading these days:

 

Books by Katha

Katha books: I happened to find these treasures published by Katha, a non profit publication at a nearby art shop. I bought 10 books (all of em for ₹1000 only) including a few I'll read to him maybe a year later. The gorgeous paintings beautifully complement the touching storylines.

A Lion in Paris is really adorable, inspired by the Lion of Denfert-Rochereau square in Paris, about how he came to Paris, to the Gare De Lyon station, walked around cafés, patisseries, rivers, streets, climbed up the Eiffel Tower, visited the Monalisa, and finally found 'his' place where he could stay content and happy.

The Glass Tree is a translation of a Malayalam story, about how people replaced the old champaka tree with a beautiful glass tree, but the flowers had no smell, no child climbed its branches and no birds rested there.

The Bicycle is about a man who meets a little boy on his road trip, how he teaches him how to ride etc.

The others have been written by India's most famous poet Rabindranath Tagore. The Champa flower is about a little boy wants to be a Champa flower for a day. The Friday Fair describes a cart loaded with pots, kite flying, barter and haggling, colorful shawls, umbrellas, vegetables and mishti doi! The Little Big Man is about a little boy who wonders what it would be like if he were as big as his father.

Anna Milbourne books published by Usborne : are my absolute favorites! 

In The Castle takes you through how a squire becomes a knight, how knights protect the king and the castle from enemies, how knights joust and king and queens celebrate. 

The Dinosaur takes you through stegosauruses and diplodocuses and how some dinos are vegetarian and some eat other Dinos. 

The Snowy Day describes snowflakes, how animals fish birds protect themselves from the cold, how to make a snowman and how the sun melts the snow. 

In The Nest describes how birds care for their eggs and baby birds (unlike the overrated blue birds nest). 

On The Moon describes how to go to the moon and what's it like over there (it takes 4 days to go in a rocket, there's no air, no people, no trees etc..). They simply are a must have!

Tulika books: I happened to come across these online while searching for Hindi Language books to develop as his second language. Gajapati Kulapati is in English and cannot be not loved by kids! Funny tongue twister name+lots and lots of sneezing +sound effects.

Upside Down is ideal for beginners Hindi, with one line per page while Char Dost & Mujhe Sona Hai are too exhaustive to be read at this stage. Nice books though, will be neatly stashed away with in the 'future' collection! Have ordered some more (Ghungrali Jalebi, Where is Amma) which will be delivered soon.

     

Topsy and Tim series: His new favorite, I even quote from the books later on when he wants to do something that's not 'safe' like remember what that police man said to Topsy and Tim? Etc...

Barney and Noddy: he's very fond of both. The Clean Up Barney book is a toddler favourite, taking you through cleaning up toys, bakeries, pets, cars, gardens, construction site, you name it! He's fond of Noddy but The Rainbow book is the only one he reads from start to finish (the others he drifts way mid way). The grey clouds and rain wash away all colors from toy town, so Noddy flies to the rainbow, gathers color dust from it and sprinkles it over toy town to get the colors back!

Lady bird books: classic fairy tales, a must have

        

Misc: The Big Brown Pot is his new fave! Maybe cuz it's gotta do with cooking. The Brown Watson Stories for Boys has got beautiful full page illustrations and short stories on all 'boy' favourites: fire engine, dragons, space man, motor bike, race car, mail van, diggers, trains, so it will be irreplaceable for a while! The tooth Under The Pillow is about how the little boy finds out what the gnomes do with teeth. He loves monkeys but Super heroes haven't yet caught his fancy.

       

Monkey manners, let's be polite and let's be thankful are excellent books on manners.

I am a naturalist/ artists are unique books on how to solve everyday problems, what would you do in this situation? It is a good series but I picked up only two from Jakarta.

Bus driver is his only counting book now, where 1 bus driver picks up 2 chatty girls and so on (There was a time where he used to drive the book around as a toy bus before you could get him to read it!)

On their way out: I'll read the ladybird books one last time before shoving them away. And the trucks books will stay on till I find replacements!