Our favorite picture books of 2024
Dragons, dinosaurs, animals, and interactive stories captured my three-year-old's imagination.
I recently shared my top ten favorite books of 2024, but considering I spent vastly more of my reading time with picture books last year, it seems only right to share the books we read on repeat with our three-year-old. Sharing books with my sons (I have two of them now! Still feels wild!) is my favorite part of parenting. I have high hopes for establishing a lifelong love of reading and learning in our home, which means we almost always say yes to reading another book, we visit the library at least once a week, and we keep books in every room. So far, it seems to be working.
My oldest loves books—if you visit us, chances are pretty high he will bring you a book to read once he warms up to you and feels comfortable. Over the last year his reading taste has emerged with specific interests; dragons and dinosaurs top the list, but he also loves animals and interactive books that involve physical activities. (Plus one random Spiderman book he picked up at the library and fell in love with despite never seeing the show. We just roll with those off-the-beaten-path picks!)
In 2025, I intend to keep a better record of the books we read together, but for now, I did my best to collect this list of ten books we checked out from the library many times or read at home to the point of memorization.
Individual links listed below go to my Bookshop.org storefront, but if you’d like to see them all in one place, click here.
Dragons & Dinosaurs
The Bakery Dragon by Devin Ellen Kurtz
100 Mighty Dragons All Named Broccoli by David Larochelle & Lian Cho
Not Your Typical Dragon by Dan Bar-El & Tim Bowers
Attack of the Underwear Dragon by Scott Rothman & Pete Oswald
Penny & Pip by Candace Fleming & Eric Rohmann
We Will Rock Our Classmates: A Penelope Rex Book by Ryan T. Higgins
Animals
Find Out About Animal Tools by Martin Jenkins & Jane McGuinness
Interactive Stories
Go and Get with Rex by David Larochelle & Mike Wohnoutka
Hey, Bruce! by Ryan T. Higgins
Misc.
Spidey Saves the Day by Disney Books
In 2025, we'll lean into Theo’s interests with more nonfiction books to learn about animals, lots of stories about dragons and dinosaurs, and alphabet books, which aren't listed here but he did love quite a few different ones from the library and frequently asks "what does this start with?"
I’m working on a newsletter to update my notes on raising a reader, so let me know if you have any questions for me to include.
Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links. If you shop these links, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my work in this way.
My son's favorite alphabet book at that age was Z if for Moose by Kelly Bingham. Everyone is lining up for the alphabet show and Moose is impatient for when it's going to be his turn, they end up going with Mouse when it finally is M and Moose goes beserk! 😂 It all comes back around for a cute ending. Lots of opportunities to flail your arms and use funny voices!