It’s Story Time – Our Favorite Toddler Tales

This giveaway is no longer accepting giveaways, but read on for my top 10 Toddler Tales!

Disclosure: Affiliate links are included throughout this post. Regardless, all opinions are my own. Each of these items were purchased with my own money. I share with you what I love! 

Four Little Fishies Swimming in the Sea and My Mama Adventure are teaming up to celebrate Book Month! We love to read and we love to read to our kids! We want to spread the reading love by sharing some of our favorite children’s books and give two of you fabulous readers a chance to win a book of your choice from one of our lists! Awesome, right? So, take a look at our lists for some inspiration for your next Toddler Tale, and enter the giveaway for your chance to win!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am really excited to be joining Shannon from Four Little Fishies Swimming in the Sea for this celebration of books and giveaway! I love, Love, LOVE to read! I read a lot as a child, teenager, and still as an adult. As a child, my parents were constantly having to tell me to stop reading and go to bed. I would then turn off my lights, crawl under my covers and pull out my flashlight to continue reading. I have a problem, when I read a good book, I cannot put it down!

I hope to instill this love of reading on M. I read out loud to him while he was baking in the womb and long before he could understand books, I was reading to him. We have more books than I can count. We have a bookshelf in our living room that houses most of his books. This bookshelf is so overrun by books that I’ve had to resort to putting some in one of the drawers of the bookshelf. We have many books back in his room as well. The books back in his room are the ones he can choose from when we are reading before nap time and bedtime. I rotate the books in his room often so he doesn’t get bored…well, more or less, so I don’t get annoyed with reading the same books over and over again. There are some of his books that he loves that I cannot stand!

The list I’ve included for all of you is a list of both M’s and my favorite books. These are books that I don’t mind reading over and over again, though, if I’m being entirely honest, number 10 is one that I could see myself getting annoyed with reading! M loves it though and so I just make sure that I switch it out often enough that I don’t feel the need to hide it from him. This list is in no particular order though, so enjoy!

1. Ferdinand – a terrific little story about a bull that is not like his brothers, he likes to sit quietly and smell the flowers while his brothers like to do typical bull stuff. It’s a sweet story about being who you are, no matter what, a great story with a great moral.
2. The Cat, The Mouse, The Runaway Train – I bought M this book for his 2nd birthday. He loved it right away! He loves anything with trains, cars, trucks, etc. so I figured he’d like this book. It’s a really cute book about a cat, a mouse, and a runaway train. The cat and mouse don’t get along but then the mouse ends up saving the cat and they become great friends. Another really sweet story about overcoming differences and being willing to help others.
3. How do Dinosaurs Count to Ten? – M is also a huge fan of dinosaurs, but this book was actually bought for him before he was even born. Hubs was a big dinosaur fan as a kid so my parents bought M some dino stuff on a cross country trip, this book was included. It’s kind of a ridiculous book about dinosaurs doing mundane human things, but it’s teaching numbers and counting at the same time. I do have this one memorized! It’s a nice book, a simple book, and great for the itty bitties when they still want to tear books apart because it’s a board book. This one is a long time favorite of M’s and I suspect it will be for awhile!
4. Goodnight Gorilla – A very simple and basic nighttime book. There are actually very few words in this book and a few pages have no words at all. This means that I do my own narrative, which M loves. It’s simply a story about a zookeeper (whose name is Joe by the way!) who goes around saying goodnight to all the zoo animals. The gorilla takes his keys and lets all the animals out of their cages. They manage to make their way into the zookeeper’s house where they try to hunker down for sleep. It’s a really cute book, it is also a board book and great for itty bitties!
5. On the Night You Were Born – This is a book that M received as a parting gift from one of his in-home night nurses. It’s a really sweet rhyming story that can make any little one feel amazingly special! I love this book, it’s one of those books that you want your child to love because it has such a sweet and loving message. Fortunately, M loves it too!
6. The Little Red Caboose – Remember how I mentioned before that M loves trains? Well, this is another train book. This one is from The Little Golden Books series. It is actually one of their classic books. It’s a story of a caboose that is feeling very left out because he gets ignored by all the people who stop to watch the train. But then he is needed to keep the train from falling down a big mountain and in the end he realizes that he’s a vital part of the train, and the people start to give him huge waves when the train comes through. It’s a cute book, but the illustrations are definitely old! A great book though and one that I don’t mind reading over and over again!
7. Goodnight Moon – This book is kind of a children’s classic. I’m not sure if there is any family that does not own this book. If you don’t own it, get it! M did not love this book at first, in fact, he hated it! I think it was because I really pushed it as a nighttime story and if I pulled it out it meant I was going to make him go to bed. Mistake. I laid off on the book for awhile and then he decided to look into it again on his own. I now have this book memorized and M loves to read it, even before bed! There is a really random page in this one where the book says “goodnight nobody.” It’s a blank page and it just seems random, otherwise, it’s a great book and is perfect for settling down for a snooze.
8. Busiest Firefighters Ever – This is another Little Golden Book, but it’s also Richard Scarry, so you really can’t go wrong with this book! It’s about four firefighters that go around town and help save the other townsfolk. The best part is a character named Pig Won’t, he gets himself into a couple pickles that the firefighters have to help him resolve. It’s a cute story and not painful to read as a parent!
9. The Little Engine That Could – This was one of my FAVORITE books as a kid! I think because it’s a little train that can make it up the mountain. I like that the train that “shouldn’t” have been able to make it, was the only train willing to help and get the cars over the mountain. It teaches kindness, a willingness to help others, and to try your hardest.
10. I’m a Truck – Another Little Golden Book and my personal least favorite of the bunch. But it is M’s favorite of the bunch. It has cars, trucks, a few more cars, and a lot more trucks so he loves this book. It’s all about a big rig truck and his travels. He talks about his other truck friends, including construction trucks, tow trucks, etc. He say’s “How-Dee!” and M really enjoys saying “Howdy!” at the end of the book when Big Blue Bill (the big rig) says his goodbyes. This little bit makes it worth reading over and over (and over, and over, and over) again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for the giveaway!!

One lucky Four Little Fishies Swimming in the Sea reader AND one lucky My Mama Adventure reader will win three of the books we’ve listed! Yep! That’s right! Two Winners! The books up for grabs are:

On the Night You Were Born

Berenstain Bears Go to School

The Little Red Caboose

To enter this giveaway, use the Rafflecopter Form below:

This giveaway runs 3/17/14 – 3/31/14 

and is open to U.S. residents ONLY

(must be 18 years of age or older to win)

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NO LONGER ACCEPTING ENTRIES

Disclosure: This is a self-sponsored giveaway, Four Little Fishies Swimming in the Sea and My Mama Adventure have not received any products for free for posting this giveaway. We are responsible for prize fulfillment.