Books to buy for a 5 yrs old.

When I think of an improptu gift for my daughter , books are the only things that come to my mind. I bought my daughter her first book when she was 5 months old. Back then she liked the colorful pictures and she would especially drool on the books made out of fabric. Over the years I have realized that most of the books that we have bought for our daughter have been used over and over as the years passed by.

We had started with the fabric books and then went on to buy the hardbound small miniature books so that my daughter won’t tear it. Since these were miniature books, she could handle them on her own. These mini books mostly have one picture per page so they are to the point. We had bought the eight books sets, which came in their own box so it was very easy for me to store them and keep a track of them. These books also covered varied topics such as rhymes/colors / fruits / shapes / vegetables so they were helpful at the end of the day.

When she turned 2 we started buying her the “ pepper series and the Bruno series “ These were short stories from the life of a two year old teddy / puppy and were helpful as they dealt with real topics, in a fun way. My daughter loved these books (they were thin and cost Rs 35 per book –and she still reads them)

Between 3-4 yrs it was all about fairies and castles, rajas and raanis so we got a lot of fairy tale books for her. Another book that I really like is called “365 stories for little girls”, it was a fat book and as the name suggests had stories for each day of the year. I also started adding “ junior encyclopedias dealing with weather, our planet, solar system” and other informative books in her reading list .

Between 4 to 5 ½ yrs we started buying a lot of hindi books as well, I really like the panchtantra –“appu series” – these are small, thin books which have the text in both hindi and English and cost Rs 35 for a book. These books helped her understand difficult hindi words since the English version was right next to it.

Now 6, my daughter can read on her own and goes about reading all the books that have been bought for her over the years. She owns more than 200 books already; she shares and donates her clothes and toys but somehow never donates her books as she still reads almost all the books and perhaps gets a new angle to the same story yet one more time.

She can make great stories of her own now…. I am happy and she seems happy too.