Maya Donevska’s Book List for Ages 0-4

Maya Donevska’s Book List for Ages 0-4

Maya Donevska is a mum who loves reading to her daughter.

I’d start with reading Reading Magic by Mem Fox which explains the importance of reading in children’s lives and how to guide them through reading and help them develop a love of books. It’s a short, easy to read book but I think it’s a a helpful read for anyone with kids.

There are so many great books for this age range and each family has their own favourites. The reason books like Where is the Green Sheep, Where’s My Teddy? and Peepo make the list is because they elicit pure joy in their repetition and little ones feel they are ‘reading’ with you because they know the words. I’ve listed The Gruffalo but all the Julia Donaldson books are much loved at our house – A Squash and a Squeeze, Tabby McTat, Zog, Tiddler, Superworm – all filled with stories that delight and surprise and help nurture creativity.

Also books about what’s happening in their lives are good for this age range and helpful – Sophie’s Big Bed about moving from a cot to the bed and Za-za’s Baby Brother about what happens when a sibling arrives – help children make send of what’s happening around them and give them comfort too.

Anything by Mem Fox is highly recommended – not only because they are lovely, rhyming books with a big heart but also because they are distinctly Australian and some, like Possum Magic, reflect indigenous storytelling.

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  1. Angelene says:

    My favourite picture books are Possum Magic by Mem Fox and Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French. Both are impossibly wonderful Aussie kids books not only from a storytelling point of view but also have fantastic illustrations. Possum Magic I grew up with. Diary of a Wombat I saw in the window of a book store as I went in with a gift voucher. When I asked the woman behind the counter if it was as cute as it looked she told me it’s was the staff’s favourite and go and read it. Which I did and thinking I couldn’t justify an amount in excess of the voucher value for a picture book I returned it to the shelf. A month or so later I was in another bookshop and seeing it on special I decided I had to by it for myself. I was 25. Great children’s writing transcends all age groups. Just think of the mixed queue demographic when the Harry Potter books came out. Everyone of them equally exited to read the next volume.