“Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” I see a shelf full of baby books looking at me!
Creating a baby’s library is one of the most enjoyable parts of preparing a nursery. Reading to your little one builds their vocabulary, enhances listening skills, and introduces new concepts—all while making for special bonding moments.
From classic favorites to modern gems, we’ve curated the ultimate list of baby books to fill your nursery shelves. These picks are perfect for storytime and make wonderful baby shower gifts too!
Without further ado, here are our top choices for your baby’s first library:
Timeless Classics
These classic baby books may have been published decades ago, but they have stood the test of time. They’ll help to fill your baby’s first year with the timeless stories you may have loved as a child.
1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is unforgettable interactive book for young children about a busy and hungry caterpillar who ultimately turns into a butterfly. It’s great for babies because they love to poke their fingers through the holes the caterpillar creates!
Buy “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” >>
2. Where The Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak)
The classic story “Where the Wild Things Are” follows young Max, who spends his time exploring in the forest and imagining wild animals. In one of his adventures, he gets transported to an island of many creatures who are not friendly at first, but later befriend him. This is a great book for teaching lessons about friendship, imagination, and creativity.
Buy “Where the Wild Things Are” >>
3. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see (Eric Carle)
One of the best books to keep in your nursery library is “Brown Bear, Brown Bear“. This rhyming board book helps babies and toddlers associate colors and meanings to objects. Its rhythmic pattern is catchy and unforgettable.
Buy “Brown Bear Brown Bear” >>
4. The Going To Bed Book (Sandra Boynton)
Little kids will love watching an ark full of animals preparing for bed. It’s a great way to transition your little ones into bedtime.
Buy “The Going to Bed Book” >>
5. Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown)
This sweet book takes your child on a journey through one special room as everyone inside it gets ready for the nighttime. It’s the perfect book to read at the end of the day, snuggled up together.
6. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Bill Martin Jr.)
All of the letters of the alphabet race each other up the coconut tree in the lively book “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom“. The bright colors make it an instant favorite for little ones.
Buy “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” >>
7. Little Blue Truck (Alice Schertle)
Filled with truck sounds and animal noises, Little Blue Truck is a rollicking homage to the power of friendship and the rewards of helping others.
A muddy country road is no match for this little pick-up—that is, until he gets stuck while pushing a dump truck out of the muck.
Luckily, Blue has made a pack of farm animal friends along his route. And they’re willing to whatever it takes to get their pal back on the road.
Little Blue Truck is a joyful cacophony of animal and truck sounds that will have youngsters beeping and quacking.
Along the way, readers see that it pays to be kind to our animal friends. If we show a friendly respect to others, we’re more likely to get help.
Buy “Little Blue Truck” >>
8. Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams)
“Once you are real, you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
In this classic story, there is one question the “Velveteen Rabbit” doesn’t ask the skin horse that seems ever-present in the human consciousness: How do we know when we have become real?
You have become real when you realize that you are enough.
9. A Bear Called Paddington (Michael Bond)
Paddington Bear had traveled all the way from Peru when the Browns first met him in Paddington Station. Since then, their lives have never been quite the same. Ordinary things become extraordinary when Paddington is involved!
10. Winnie The Pooh (A.A. Milne)
Winnie the Pooh has enchanted readers of all ages for nearly one hundred years with its relatable, heartwarming adventures that follow the famously friendly and lovable teddy bear.
In this classic collection, Winnie navigates the Hundred Acre Wood with Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Piglet, Owl, and Rabbit, learning the true meaning of friendship and the value of accepting everyone exactly as they are.
11. Tale of Peter Rabbit (Beatrix Potter)
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is the original classic by Beatrix Potter. It tells the story of a very mischievous rabbit and the trouble he encounters in Mr McGregor’s vegetable garden!
Buy “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” >>
12. Guess How Much I Love You (Sam McBratney)
This is a sweet and simple story about the infinite love a parent and child have for each other. The rabbit and her little bunny go back and forth describing how much they love each other, all the way to the moon and back. It’s a classic bedtime story.
13. The Original Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright)
Every baby nursery needs this classic collection of Mother Goose rhymes like “Three Blind Mice,” “Humpty Dumpty,” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
14. Madeline (Ludwig Bemelmans)
Madeline is a young girl with a free spirit living in Paris. (To the tiger in the zoo, Madeline just says “Pooh Pooh.”) The book takes you an Madeline’s unexpected adventure to the hospital.
15. Five Little Monkeys (Juliet Appleby)
A classic story about five little monkeys that didn’t heed their mother’s advice about jumping on the bed!
16. The Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss)
This memorable Dr. Seuss classic revolves around a tall cat who wears his signature red and white-white-striped top hat and a red bow tie.
17. Corduroy (Don Freeman)
Curduroy the teddy bear goes looking for his missing button one night in the department store where he lives in an attempt to get purchased by a sweet little girl.
18. Eloise (Kay Thompson)
Kids will love getting to know capricious and irreverent Eloise who lives at The Plaza Hotel in New York City (not bad for a six year old!).
19. The Lorax (Dr. Seuss)
This timeless classic about the majestic truffula tree is the perfect book for teaching kids about sustainability and being a steward of their natural environment.
20. The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats)
Follow Peter in this simple story about a young boy who explores his neighborhood after the season’s first snowfall.
21. Make Way For Ducklings (Robert McClosky)
First published in 1941 with beautiful illustrations, this story book book tells the story of a pair of mallards who raise their brood of ducklings in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden.
Buy “Make Way For Ducklings” >>
22. The Story of Ferdinand (Munro Leaf)
Originally published in 1936, this story is about a bull who would rather smell flowers than fight in bull fights.
Buy “The Story of Ferdinand” >>
23. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day (Judith Violist)
Kids will empathize with the main character Alexander as everything goes wrong in his day, starting with waking up with gum in his hair.
Buy “Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day” >>
24. Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel (Virginia Lee Burton)
This classic tale was first published in 1939 in the wake of the Great Depression. Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel Mary Anne find themselves in a new world that doesn’t need steam shovels as much as before, so they look for work in a small town building a new town hall.
Buy “Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel” >>
25. Love You Forever (Robert Munsch)
You’ll definitely want this book in your library, about a mother who sings a sweet lullaby to her son at each stage of his life.
26. Tikki Tikki Tembo (Arlene Mosel)
This 1968 book tells the story of a Chinese boy with a long name who falls into a well. It’s a folk tale about why Chinese names are short today.
27. The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse)
This beautiful story is about a red balloon with a life of its own who follows a little boy around the streets of Paris.
28. A Sick Day for Amos McGee (Philip C. Stead)
This lovely story is about an older man who visits his animal friends in the Zoo regularly. When he falls ill one day, his animal friends come to take care of him.
Buy “A Sick Day for Amos McGee” >>
29. The Little Engine That Could (Watty Piper)
The little engine is small but mighty, and this 1939 classic teaches core values like hard work and optimism.
Buy “The Little Engine That Could” >>
30. Harry the Dirty Dog (Gene Zion)
This fun book is about a mischevious dog named Harry who gets so dirty that his family doesn’t even recognize him anymore!
31. Grimm’s Fairy Tales (The Brothers Grimm)
Classic stories like Rapunzel, hansel, and Grete, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty are all found in Grimm’s Fairy Tales. But beware! The versions in this original edition don’t always end as happily as our fairy tales today. It’s an especially good choice for older kids who are ready for a new kind of fairy tale.
32. Everyone Poops (Taro Gomi)
This book helps teach kids about the many ways that living creatures remove waste from their body, including humans!
33. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (Laura Numeroff)
This silly story helps illustrate the concept of a slippery slope. It’s a “circular tale” that ends up right where it began.
34. Green Eggs & Ham (Dr. Seuss)
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore.
Green Eggs & Ham is a classic bestseller because of its catchy rhymes and whimsical illustrations by the late Dr. Seuss.
35. The Runaway Bunny (Margaret Wise Brown)
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore.
This Margaret Wise Brown classic is a bout a little bunny who wants to run away but his mother tells him she’ll run after him. It’s about a child’s need for both independence and unconditional love.
36. Clifford the Big Red Dog (Blaise Hemingway)
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore.
The lovable Clifford is much too enormous for the world he’s living in, but sometimes it comes in handy.
37. Oh The Places You’ll Go (Dr. Seuss)
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore.
Often given as gift at baby showers and high school graduatios, this book is about the journey of life, and all of the challenges and joys that come along with it.
38. Curious George (H.A. Rey & Margaret Rey)
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore.
Everyone’s favorite monkey gets into all kinds of trouble in this classic book series.
39. I am a Bunny (Richard Scarry)
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore.
Follow this sweet little bunny as he hops from season to season, soaking up the best that each one has to offer.
40. The Giving Tree (Shel Silverstein)
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore.
The Giving Tree is about the relationship between a young boy and his favorite apple tree. He asks more and more of the tree as he moves through the different stages of life. This unforgettable story will leave you wondering about its lessons.
41. Good Night, Gorilla (Peggy Rathmann)
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore.
It’s time to go to sleep, but this mischievous gorilla isn’t ready. Instead, he follow she zookeeper on his rounds and lets all the animals out of their cages.
42. Pat The Bunny (Dorothy Kunhardt)
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore.
Pat the Bunny, published in 1940, is the original “touch and feel” book for babies and small children. It’s a perennial best-seller for good reason. Your baby’s little hands will cherish it.
43. Look, Look! (Peter Linenthal)
Buy it on
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Published in 1961, this classic story describes the actions of a group of dogs complete all kinds of human actions. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. All the classic children’ poetry you would want is in this anthology of 200 poems published din 1969. It includes Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Christmas Bells,” Lewis Carroll’s “The Melancholy Pig,” and Eugene Fields’ “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” along with proverbs, limericks, nursery rhymes, and folk songs. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This sweet tale is perhaps the most classic of all the Little Golden Books , originally published in 1952. It’s about the red caboose who wants to be as popular as the big steam engine at the front of the train, but ultimately realizes his importance. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Aesop, a former Greek slave, is famous for the simple and meaningful lessons he taught through short stores featuring animals and insects. This edition includes stories like “The Hare and the Tortoise” and “The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”. This classic edition is brought to life with illustrations by New York Times #1 Bestselling illustrator Charles Santore. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This cozy book has soothing repetitive language and conveys safety and warm affection, helping secure a strong parent-child bond. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Harold, is a curious four-year-old boy who has the power to create his own works with his purple crayon just by drawing it. It will inspire the youngest children to take initiative and create their own worlds. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. The original flap book will be an instant favorite for your baby, who will love discovering the animals in the zoo with their own little fingers. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Olivia is a Caldecott Honor Book that captures the essence of a strong-minded and confident child (who happens to be a pig). Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Your kids will fall in love Mo Willem’s fiesty pigeon who gets into all kind of trouble. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This interactive book encourages kids to push on the dots, shake the book, and blow on the book in order to manipulate the illustrations. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Duncan wants to color, but his crayons have quit. He’ll need to find a way to appease each of their concerns so he can get back to drawing! Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. A wombat is a slow, cuddly Australian animal who loves to eat and sleep. This picture book has only brief text and funny illustrations and it will make your child fall in love with wombats. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This #1 New York Time Bestseller is a modern classic. CJ wonders why his family doesn’t own a car like his friend Colby. His grandma helps him see the beauty and fun in their own routine. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This vibrant books celebrates cute, dipply knees of all shades and colors. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Comedian Jimmy Fallon shows us the behind the scenes strategies of dads who are lobbying for their child’s first word to be “Dada”. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Baby Llama has a knack for drama at bedtime. It might resemble your own home! Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. The construction site is powering down and saying goodnight in this interactive book. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book gets to the heart of the joy a parent feels when their child is born. “The moon stayed up til morning. The polar bears danced.” It celebrates the love a family has for their child. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Gerald the Giraffe doesn’t think he can dance like the other animals in the jungle, but he discovers he just needs to listen to the sound of his own music. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book is an ode to self-confidence and the love between fathers and daughters. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. There is something about belly buttons that all kids love.This bestselling lift-the-flap board book will have your child asking to read it again and again. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This tender board book for babies and toddlers celebrates the potential of every child. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book highlights how all families are different, and yet share many similarities. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This hilarious cautionary tale follows Trixie, Daddy, and Knuffle Bunny on a trip to the neighborhood Laundromat. You’ll see what goes wrong when Daddy’s in charge. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Have fun discovering just how many kisses a tired baby needs before bedtime in this interactive lift-the-flap book. Count and kiss together! Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Babies are born every day, everywhere, and they’re completely loved and adored by their families. This book celebrates all the things babies do best with rhyming text and engaging illustrations. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Every baby nursery needs a peek-a-boo book, and this is one of the best. It has colorful pictures and simple rhyming text that will keep kids exciting about guessing who is peeking through the windows. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Everyone has kisses for the baby in the book, from Mami and Papi to perro and gato. The book has bold illustrations, simple Spanish words, and plenty of besos. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This will be especially popular with older toddlers and young children. There are no pictures, as the title implies, but author B.J. Novak picks on the adult reading the book and makes them do and say silly things to keep their kids laughing. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book is a poem about growing up and it explores all the wonderful things your child can choose to be. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Seven-year-old Lena learns that brown comes in many different shades. This book celebrates the differences and similarities that connect us all. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book celebrates the wonder of the world we live in, focusing on the joy, love and beauty in the every day. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This is an inspirational book for kids of endless good wishes that will bring positivity to all who read it. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Mr. Fish has a permanent pout, spreading the “dreary wearies” all around him. Can his friends help him turn it around? Young kids will love the bright ocean colors and playful rhymes in this fun book. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Sweet kitten mistakes the moon for a big bowl of milk, and goes on all kids of misadventures to get it. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This classic unicorn storybook is a story about friendship, sliding down rainbows, and the power of believing, Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book is about the unbreakable connections between loved ones, and can even help ease separation anxiety, loss, and grief. This contemporary classic reassures us that we are all connected by an invisible string of love. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book celebrates all the feelings, big and small, and explores the min with whimsical illustration and lyrical language. An animal book for a new generation, this simple and colorful book teaches kids about animals with emojis. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Meet all the people from different cultures in Carmelita’s neighborhood. Learn to say hello in Spanish, English, French, Japanese, and many other languages. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Read the classics, adapted for little ones. Simple words, sturdy pages, needle-felted scenes, and beloved stories make this collection a surefire hit. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book is about loving every part of your sweet child, even when they cry or act naughty. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book will help develop baby’s speech by learning the words for 100 common, everyday items with bright pictures and labels. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Gossie is a small yellow gosling who loves to wear bright red boots every day. But one day, she can’t find them! Buy it on
Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book will help kids imagine what they would see if they were a fuzzy caterpillar crawling through the tall, tall grass on a sunny afternoon. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. In this expanded version of the favorite nursery rhyme, the reader is taken on a journey across the night sky. It’s a new spin on a favorite classic. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. It’s time for a bedtime story in a galaxy far, far away. See how Darth Vader’s parenting skills are tested when his rambunctious twins, Luke and Leia—are not ready to sleep and insist on a story. This is a great way to introduce your child to Star Wars from a young age. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This classic picture book is a joyful twist on “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes) and will bring plenty of giggles at bedtime. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. It’s a good idea to have plenty of touch and feel books in your baby’s nursery, and these are the gold standard. Filled with different textures and pages your child can turn themselves, this will definitely be a favorite. This one from the series is filled with different animals your child will love exploring. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book explores the emotions that are a part of baby’s every day lift in a fun, comical way. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This quirky farmyard tale is about a group of literate cows that turns Farmer Brown’s far upside down. It’s sure to be one f your child’s favorite books. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. In this calming book, a little girl and her father go owling late one winter night. The trees are still as statues and the world is silent as a dream. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This special book stands out among the others with shiny foil stamping and glitter. But the best part is the memorable story about a fish who makes friends by sharing his most prized possessions. It’s the perfect story to teach kids about sharing. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This book affirms the importance of all things great and small in our world, from the tiniest shell on the beach, to the family we love. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. This sweet, humorous book is an instruction guide for kids living on Planet Earth. It’s a great read that the author created especially for his own child, but that we can all enjoy. Buy it on Amazon or your favorite independent bookstore. Shel Silverstein’s classic collection of children’s poems and drawings ignites the imagination and makes young readers of all ages laugh. It belongs in every nursery and child’s library, but older children will especially grow to adore this book. We hope you have loved this list of the best children’s books as much as we loved creating it. Those early years of reading together are special and magical, and we wish you hours of sweet bedtime snuggles. Related Posts: 100 Best Books for Your 1 Year Old
44. Go Dog Go (P.D. Eastman)
45. A Child’s Book of Poems (Gyo Fujikawa)
46. The Little Red Caboose (Marian Potter)
47. Aesop’s Fables
48. Time For Bed (Mem Fox)
49. Harold and the Purple Crayon (Crockett Johnson)
50. Dear Zoo (Rod Campbell)
Modern Classics
51. Olivia (Ian Falconer)
52. Don’t let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (Mo Willems)
53. Press Here (Herve Tullet)
54. The Day The Crayons Quit (Drew Daywalt)
55. Diary of a Wombat (Jacky French)
56. Last Stop on Market Street (Matt de la Peña & Christian Robinson)
57. Whose Knees Are These? (Jabari Asim)
58. Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada (Jimmy Fallon)
59. Llama Llama Red Pajama (Anna Dewdney)
60. Good night Good night Construction Site (Sherri Duskey Rinker)
61. On the Night You Were born (Nancy Tillman)
62. Giraffes Can’t Dance (Giles Andreae)
63. Hair Love (Matthew A. Cherry)
64. Where is Baby’s Belly Button? (Karen Katz)
65. Little You (Richard Van Camp)
66. We Are Family (Patricia Hegarty)
67. Knuffle Bunny (Mo Willems)
68. Counting Kisses (Karen Katz)
69. Everywhere Babies (Susan Meyers)
70. Peek-A-Who? (Karen Katz)
71. Besos for Baby (Jen Arena)
72. The Book With No Pictures (B.J. Novak)
73. The Wonderful Things You Will Be (Emily Winfield Martin)
74. The Colors of Us (Karen Katz)
75. If I Had a Little Dream (Nina Laden)
76. I Wish You More (Amy Krouse Rosenthal)
77. The Pout Pout Fish (Deborah Diesen)
78. Kitten’s First Full moon (Kevin Henkes)
79. Uni the Unicorn (Amy Krouse Rosenthal)
80. The Invisible String (Patrice Karst)
81. In My Heart (Jo Witek)
82. My First Emoji Animals (Weldon Owen, Inc.)
83. Say Hello (Rachel Isidora)
84. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Cozy Classics Series)
85. I Love You through and through (Carolyn Jayne)
86. First 100 Words (Roger Priddy)
87. Gossie (Olivier Dunrea)
88. Read to Your Baby Every Day: 30 classic nursery rhymes to read aloud
89. In the Tall Tall Grass (Denise Fleming)
90. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Iza Trapani, Jane Taylor)
91. Good Night, Darth Vader (Jeffrey Brown)
92. Ten Tiny Toes (Carolyne Jayne Church)
93. Baby Touch & Feel
94. Baby Happy, Baby Sad
95. Click Clack Moo Cows That Type
96. Owl Moon
97. The Rainbow Fish (Marcus Pfister)
98. All The World
99. Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth
100. Where the Sidewalk Ends
Calie Herbst, Editor-in-Chief of Milwaukee With Kids, has spent over a decade combining her experiences as a parent of three to create a hub for Milwaukee’s family adventures.
Her decade-long teaching career in Milwaukee Public Schools and academic background, including a Master’s in Teaching from Marquette University and dual B.A.s in Sociology and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, fuel her passion for inclusive and engaging family content.
Calie is also a recognized voice in local media, contributing to WISN Channel 12 News, WTMJ Wisconsin Morning News, Fox 6’s Real Milwaukee, and B93.3.
Discover more about Calie’s journey and editorial approach on her About Page and Editorial Policy Page.
