The best books for 3 year olds are a wide variety of interesting books which will see your toddlers going back to read over and over again.
At the age of three it is such a wonderful time for reading books and getting involved with your children during story time.
The imagination of our kids at this age starts to develop in leaps and bounds.
After listening along to the books they may even want to “read” back the story themselves.
They can do this by simply looking at the illustrations on each page and using their memory of the story to create the storyline again.
It is definitely one of the most satisfying moments for us as parents to hear our kids’ imagination and language improve through reading some of the best books for 3 year olds.
Our favourite books here start to include more words and are a little longer as our not-so-little ones attention span also grows and they become engrossed in their books far more easily.
1. Superworm By Julia Donaldson
We could easily list most of the Julia Donaldson books here within this Best Books For 3 Year Olds article as we love them!
They are still going strong after recommending these books also in our Best Books For 2 Year Olds article previously.
Julia Donaldson’s books are always on rotation for our story times and our current favourite is Superworm.
I love the way the rhyming flows and my daughter and I are now able to sing the Superworm chant together
“Superworm is super strong, Superworm is super long…”
Our other two current faves are;
2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar By Eric Carle
A simply illustrated book that shows the life cycle of a caterpillar/ butterfly.
It is very interesting to see our children look at the magic of a beautifully coloured butterfly emerging from the cocoon.
We enjoy listing the names of all the food which the very hungry caterpillar eats along with practising our counting skills.
3. The Dinosaur That Pooped The Bed By Tom Fletcher & Dougie Poynter
My daughter chuckles away at this book each and every time we read it.
She is always ready and waiting to scream “POO” at the correct moments in the book which provides lots of amusement for everyone.
There are other The Dinosaur That Pooped books to be enjoyed such as;
….and many more which we have on our book wish list.
4. Elmer By David McKee
Elmer the elephant has actually been part of our reading collection for a good while now and we even started reading it earlier than three years old (we were drawn to the multi-coloured elephant when choosing in the book store).
However now is a great time for our 3 year olds to really start understanding and enjoying the story.
Without fail we always stop at the pages with all the patterned and multi-coloured elephants and choose our favourite that day.
5. The Pout-Pout Fish By Deborah Diesen
A fun book which sees a grumpy fish try to get cheered up by various sea animals.
This will have your kiddies giggling away as they see the pout-pout fish get his frown turned upside down.
Try to do your best grumpy/ pouting face with your children and it will be impossible to keep a straight face.
6. No Matter What By Debi Gliori
This heart-warming book teaches about unconditional love and we find it perfect to read at the end of the day before giving big hugs before bed.
As the title of the book says, Large fox shows how he will love Small fox no matter what the time, place and situation.
7. My First Bob Books: Pre-Reading Skills By Lynn Maslen Kertell
The Bob books are a good mixture of learning and entertainment, encouraging our children to start to read.
The books are small, short and captivating which are ideal for our three year olds who sometimes don’t want to sit down for too long.
There are 12 books within this collection to work through.
8. The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions By Anna Llenas
Emotions are extremely important to start to understand at this age and I think this MUST be in the collection of best books for 3 year olds.
As I’m sure many of you other mamma’s have already discovered, our toddlers have very strong emotions and can very easily go from one emotion to another within seconds.
The color monsters allow us to go through the different emotions and see what each one entails.
9. Grumpy Monkey By Suzanne Lang
Do you have a grumpy monkey in your house too somedays?
As we mentioned in our Best Books For 2 Year Olds article, this book is still an important book for emotions which we love to keep reading.
Grumpy monkey helps us to understand and learn some more about our emotions and feelings.
10. The Story Of The Little Mole Who Went In Search Of Whodunit By Werner Holzwarth & Wolf Erlbruch
Yes that’s right, another book talking about poo, this time even with sound effects (this is your job mummy)!
The mole gets an unlucky parcel drop on his head and he goes in search of the culprit.
Who knew that the silliness of making many different poo sounds would entertain our children so much but it has all the family laughing along too.
11. Winnie And Wilbur: Winnie The Witch By Valerie Thomas
Winnie the witch keeps tripping over her poor cat Wilbur as he is the same colour as the rest of the house- black.
Winnie tries to find a way using her magic to resolve this problem.
Whilst reading this book we can’t help but laugh at the misfortunes of Winnie and love seeing the magic bring colour to her house.
Some other Winnie And Wilbur books are as follows;
12. Bedtime Stories By Richard Scarry
It is almost a guarantee with Richard Scarry books.
This bedtime stories book is perfect for our best books for 3 year olds list as it has short, manageable stories to read just before putting our little ones to sleep.
The illustrations are full of detail and really capture the curiosity of our kids as we are reading along.
13. See You Later, Alligator By Sally Hopgood
This book was purchased as it is actually something my little girl and her grandparents say to each other as they are saying goodbye.
The tortoise who is going away finds lots of fun ways of saying bye to his animal friends…and we also have found more fun ways to say bye to the grandparents too!
A silly book which we love to read over and over again.
14. Curious George And The Pizza Party By Margaret & H.A. Rey
Curious George gets up to his usual mischief, this time involving pizza which is always a big hit with most toddlers.
The pizza party book is actually a genius idea to encourage our kiddies to join in with making homemade food or even just prepare dinner with us.
Mummy is more than happy for some extra help in the kitchen, even if it may be a little messier!
15. The Rainbow Fish By Marcus Pfister
A wonderful book to teach about kindness and giving.
The beautiful rainbow fish has glowing, shiny scales which they decide to give away one by one to other fish.
The rainbow fish firstly has to stop being so vain and eat up his pride.
One of the “classic” books that should be read to our children.
Do you have any other books which you love reading to your three year olds?
