Little Hands Bookshelf

Stunning, breathtaking art work, page after page. Story of a cute baby dragon who learns to breath fire and sets out to steal gold from helpless people, but meets a baker who teaches him that baking and sharing “golden” bread is better than looting coins. The dragon friends who’ve been gold coin looters by trade discover this new type of “golden” agree and good taste wins :) The art work is by far the most incredible of all children’s books read so far. Sometimes at story time, I used narrate to him the story of Bilbo Baggins and Smaug the Dragon. The artwork from this book also made that (unrelated) story come alive!

This is a very heavy coffee table book with over 1000 colorful pictures of India. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that one of the authors of the book is Abraham Eraly, a well-regarded historian known for “The Peacock Throne”, “The Age of Wrath” and other history books that I have physical copies of and thoroughly enjoyed reading. Our favorite sections from this book: Elephants, of course! Fabrics and foods, the toy train in Darjeeling, photographs of dancers and famous buildings. Not a bad way to introduce him to his own roots. I bought this book at a used book store for less than $10.

Whenever there’s a rainy day, “I have a trick!”, and the trick is to pull out this book. He always loses his mind when the sole voice of reason “fish” is tossed up and aside and when cat comes back into the house with the big box and unveils “Thing one” and “Thing two”. The rhyming words are so joyful that the child is able to have so much fun auto-completing lines. This one’s our favorite:

I know it’s wet, and the sun.
is not sunny,
but we can have
Lots of good fun that is Funny.

Dead pan humor was learnt here. It’s present on every page of this book. Apple tree, cat, house, sam, dave and their dog. classic plot development and characters. Incredible repeat value, we must have read this book at least 50 times over several months. On one occasion while plucking weeds in the backyard, he said, “Dada you are Sam, I am Dave”.

A sleepy (but endearing) bear character with attractive illustrations. The reader is asked to “interact” by shaking the book, pressing imaginary buttons that cause the bear to be tortured excessively (there’s large couches and pianos thrown on this sleeping bear, and at one point to “bathe him”, they unleash a river causing everything to drown, but he escapes each time). Hey Bruce! Attractive with great repeat value due to the interactive illustrations.

Fun pictures: Tiger train, monkey mopeds, cow cars, pairing up animals with vehicles make for a delightful story time.

This book has dazzlingly beautiful colors and large illustrations. My son learnt colors and so many new words associated with those colors thanks to this book. I later learn this book got several awards, I can see why!

What’s not to love :) Ji-young and her guitar never fails to disappoint! Hi Tamir!

Mellow, calming beautiful book about the love between a baby and their mother. Nature, umbrella, butterflies, rain coat and adventure. Rhyming text and makes for introducing some new words. Beautiful great illustrations, and creating bonding b/w the parent and child flipping through pages.

Funny adventure story about a dog that escapes bath time, roams the city and comes back dirty when his owners mistake him for some other dog until they give him a bath. This book has HUGE repeat value!

I later learnt that this has been around for 50 years and stood the test of time - I can see why!

Contains real colorful pictures of seeds and plants and pumpkins. For some reason, he just loves this board book, and asks for it to be read multiple times over - the thrill of starting from seed, seeing it sprout and bear flower and a small fruit and landing on the last page with a large pumpkin. Often, when we open the book on the first page, he asks “Where is the large pumpkin!”. It’s rhetorical question - he knows it’s coming at the end, and wants to gradually flip to that page for the expected but satisfying result, and himselfs answers “There!”.

About a baby brown girl that goes to the park and interacts with all the familiar park related features - trees, swing, slide, bench, squirrel, and rides and asks questions on each page. It’s a relatable book - nearly all parks would have a similar setup so this is a nice conversation starter about the child’s past visit to the park.

This is an amazing book! Large board book with text, and full of pictures about planes, rockets, balloons and spacecraft. Enjoyed many times over! There’s a fair bit of science, and parts like wings, cockpit, engine, etc.

Something about yellow school buses sparks a child’s imagination. This is a book about a child that’s looking out the window and spots various large vehicles vroom passing by until a school bus passes by and brings his sister. Hugely attractive to young boys.

Fun little book about animals, snow and a playful bear that steals a red sled. No words, whimsical. Baby likens the red sled to his red chair :)

I can see why this book is popular - it’s hilariously ambitious and abstract for a toddler so one would think that it wouldn’t work, but it works for a few reasons - It stands out from all the other books due to the subject, it’s fun for the adult to read it and to my surprise, my son found the jumping balls and their names funny (the balls being protons, neutrons and electrons), and how the falling yellow electron ball has “no energy”. He ultimately asked for the book to be read multiple times :)

Cookie Monster boardbook, switches from eating cookies to fruits (pears, and apples and grapes), that’s why this book is brought out at meal time :)

Sesame Street board book with Flaps and all other familiar characters pretending to be funny animals? What’s not to like!

There is a reason Sesame Street is so timeless. This board book instantly delivers to an 18-20 month old - new words - Guitar, Singing, Hair clip, Grandma (Abuela), Hola (Hello), and several others.

Wonderful book about people, parents, community, struggle of pursuit and adventure that delivers again and again at bed time :)

Board book with large pictures of animals and friendship, danger and most importantly, kindness.

Boardbook with a lyrical sleep inducing story line (“cow jumping over the moon, red balloon, three bears, sitting on chairs, hush and a bowl full of mush”) and various interesting objects. Delivers every time at bed time.

“Trip trap, trip trap, who’s there?!” Billy Goats’ bridge crossing adventure with Gruff Monster who falls into the water. Very engrossing for an 20 month old.

Makes impressive (loud) sounds, enjoyed countless times. Personal favs - Big Rig and Fire Truck!

Shows a little boy who has a Trash truck as a friend. Relatable to any boy that’s approx 20 months of age. Always delivers. There are other variants of this book, but the art / story in this is somehow better liked.

Boy wakes up bored and wants to go fishing, everyone is busy except his Grandma who is more than happy to take him out fishing. Lots of new concepts like earthworm, fishing shop, poles, boats and driving with grandma. A story of adventure, small setbacks and a fun ending.

The first little critter book, instilled the joy and frustrations of gardening and plants in my 18 month old. From buying seeds, to removing weeds to planting seeds and watering the seeds. Always delivers!