Reading is one of the world’s simplest pleasures , and one of the best ways to spend your time. As well as this, it can also be incredibly beneficial for bolstering your imagination and creativity. The only trouble is, not every book can easily be recommended to everyone.
There is perhaps no better time to be introduced to the glory of reading than in the early years of life. Learning to read in the early years can help to breed a great appreciation for reading, and create avid readers for life.
But what books are appropriate for children in their early years? In fact, what are the best books that 4 year olds will totally love?
Searching for the best book for your child or someone you know? Then look no further than this list, because we’ve spent hours researching to find the 10 absolute best books for children at that age!
1. The Book With No Pictures
Though the idea of a book without any pictures at all may sound counterintuitive when trying to appeal to children, this book balances the lack of pictures with some of the most pitch-perfect humor that will easily get four year olds involved in the reading process!
The concept behind the book is that anyone reading it has to read every word aloud! This means that even the strangest words like “Bluurf” or “Blaggity” need to be read out loud!
These hilarious sounding nonsense words are so funny, and will easily have 4 year olds in bouts of laughter.
Best of all, it’s also totally fun for the adults to read along too, meaning you won’t find yourself bored out of your mind as you read it to your children!
The ‘read aloud’ concept behind this book helps not only to make the book more fun to read, but also helps your child to develop their oral motor skills, and their ability to speak!
2. The Day The Crayons Quit
Does your child love drawing with crayons? Help them to celebrate that fantastic book which details the story of Duncan, a young boy who suddenly discovers that his crayons have quit, and that they have walked out of his crayon box!
Each crayon color has left behind a letter explaining their absence, and Duncan must find a way to attract the crayons back! This book is fantastic because it will help your child to better understand color and how to codify it, but does so in a very creative way that is visually brilliant.
Best of all, the creativity displayed in this book also means you will enjoy reading it too!
3. How Rocket Learned To Read
Rocket, the adorable dog protagonist of this book is joined by his little bird friend, as the two attempt to teach Rocket how to read!
This book is perfect for 4 year olds, because it helps them to externalize their own story of learning how to read, which in turn helps them to learn much more easily.
This book will help your child not only how to read to an accomplished degree, but will also help them to learn how to read words out loud, and internalize the alphabet!
We totally loved how adorable and enjoyable this book proved to be, and also how effective it proved to be as an educational tool!
4. Grumpy Monkey
Even as full-grown adults, understanding and recognizing our emotions can be incredibly difficult, but this is even more so for children of around 4 years of age. This book, Grumpy Monkey, is perfect for teaching children to recognize and understand their own emotions.
This book can prove totally invaluable in improving the emotional intelligence of your child not only so that they can recognize their own feelings and learn to embrace them for better mental health, but they can also learn to empathize with the feelings of others, to recognize when friends or family may be feeling sad or upset.
We could not recommend this enough. It is incredibly entertaining, and has a very important lesson to teach!
5. What Do People Do All Day?
This book has become a total classic in the world of children’s books.
Multiple generations of children, since the book was first released, have been raised reading this book which helps to teach children about all of the many different types of people and types of jobs out there in the wider world.
To make the deal even sweeter, this book is also filled with adorable anthropomorphised animals that your child can identify.
This book is full of hidden details and plenty of character, which makes it perfect for 4 year old children to pour over and read again and again, spotting new characters hiding in the background!
6. The Book Of Moomin, Mymble, And Little My
The Moomin franchise has been around for many generations since author Tove Jansson first brought the characters to life, and since then the character has gained international recognition and fame.
You can easily introduce your 4 year old to the wonderful world of Moomin through this fantastic book, which is fully illustrated in eye-popping colors, and has plenty of stories and activities for your children to get stuck into.
The characters that populate Moominvalley are totally adorable and so charming, so we don’t doubt that your children will totally love reading along with this book. You’ll soon have a big Moomin fan in the family!
7. Frog And The Wide World
The world around your child can often seem incredibly frightening and scary, and this can be a difficult thing for young children of 4 years to process and come to terms with.
This book will help young children to recognize their own anxieties around the world, and also help them to be brave in times where they may be separated from you or others they know, such as when they go to kindergarten!
This book has been in publication since 1998, and has become a children’s classic ever since it first released!
8. The Story Of Babar, The Little Elephant
Babar is a little elephant living in the human world who engages in all kinds of every-day activities, and the way that he is drawn engaging in these activities is something to behold. We love how totally adorable Babar looks in every situation he ends up in.
As well as boasting some incredible illustrations, this book also features some beautiful color that really helps to make the story pop. The colors have a watercolor look to them, making them subtle and easy on the eye, and yet still draw the eye and keep little minds engaged.
The story itself is also very simple, and helps to keep children entertained. They’ll be imagining Babar in all kinds of interesting and silly situations from their own daily lives!
9. Harold And The Purple Crayon
This book has been delighting children for more than 60 years since it was first released! Thus, we have no doubt that your children will also totally get a kick out of it.
The story is very simple, and follows the delightfully-drawn Harold and his magical purple crayon, as they try to find a way for Harold to get back to his bed after he finds himself in a strange new world.
This book is full of creativity, and will help to bolster your child’s imagination, to allow them to come up with wonderful ideas of their own, and become more creative than ever before.
There is a reason that this book is a long-held classic in the children’s genre, and we can guarantee that even 60 years later, this book will still delight children of the modern age!
10. The Little House
It would be almost impossible to talk about the best books for 4 year olds without mentioning the stone-cold classic that is The Little House. This book has been around for so long that there is even an early Walt Disney animated short film that adapts it!
The story of this book is totally delightful, as the adorable and spirited ‘Little House’ tries his best to survive in an ever changing world, as the once quaint countryside that once surrounded him begins to morph into a loud and bustling city!
This book will help your children to recognize that places where they feel most comfortable can be called ‘Home’, and also has a great environmental message that can teach children the importance of caring for the planet!
To Finish Up
Across the generations, numerous children’s books have gone on to become absolute favorites, but perhaps none stand the test of time better than these 10 books.
We hope that this list has inspired you, as we have made sure to show you some of the best books from across multiple generations to give you plenty to choose from!
I have been reading books for as long as I can remember, and have fallen deeply in love with more books than I can count!
With this site, I hope that you can find a novel to get you out of a reading slump, or to get you hooked on a series. So, pick up one of our recommendations today. I promise you that you won’t regret it!
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