Spring has arrived! Hopefully you’ve been able to get out of the house a bit more, shake off the winter blues, and find a bit of blossoming joy with your family. Spring weather can be some of the best of the year. Then again, they don’t call them “April Showers” for nothing.

Whether you’re outside or in, it’s always a nice time to crack open a new children’s book with your young ones. We’ve consulted our budding book guru, and we have a new list with several of his favorites for the season. Happy reading!

Little Blue Truck’s Springtime

We received Little Blue Truck’s Springtime as a baby shower gift when Geekling was born, and it has become a longstanding favorite of his. As the title implies, spring has arrived at the cute, little farm where Little Blue Truck lives. On a lovely spring day, he tours around the farm to chat with the various animals who have just had babies! (‘Tis the season, after all.)

It’s a lift-the-flap book designed to help kids learn the names of both adult and baby animals. Geekling loves to lift each flap and see the cute baby animals. We also like that the rhythm and rhyme make it pretty easy to read aloud in a chipper, sing-song kind of way. It just makes for a fun, uplifting experience all around.

We also recently discovered the original Little Blue Truck, which is about how the Little Blue Truck helps to get a dump truck unstuck from the mud even though the dump truck was mean to the blue truck. Geekling frequently runs into our room just to remind us that the “dump truck’s tires are stuck down deep in muck and mire.” I guess you could say he’s a fan.

My Lucky Day

We recently highlighted My Lucky Day on our Instagram page (which you should check out if you haven’t already). But we felt it merited a full recommendation on the blog too. Ben’s family loves this book and has since he was a youngling. In it, a hungry fox is preparing to go on a hunt when he hears a sudden knock on his door. He opens it to find a rather startled (but delicious) looking piglet. 

The fox hauls the piglet inside and tries to prepare a meal of roast piglet. But the piglet has more stalling tactics than a two-year-old at bedtime. The result leaves the reader with a fit of the giggles and a single, burning question: Will the fox get his supper, or will he be outfoxed? Guess you’ll have to read it to find out.

Gossie and Friends

We stumbled on Gideon at a local library sale and instantly fell in love with this book series. Each book tells the story of a unique gosling with both a particular trait/preference and a small problem. Gossie loves to wear her bright red boots, but what happens when she can’t find them? Boo Boo is curious and eats everything in sight…but does that really mean everything? Gideon plays all day and hates naps, so what’s he to do when his mother calls out for nap time?

We haven’t read every book in the series, but those we have read are family favorites. The art is adorable, and Geekling loves to look at the baby goslings and cute illustrations. We love how innocent and sweet the books are. Each is a wholesome, uplifting experience every time we read it.

Muddle and Match: Adventures

Michela’s mom recently gave us a copy of Muddle and Match: Adventures, and Geekling would not put it down for several days. Basically, each page of the book has a different, single-sentence story. But the pages of the book are split into three horizontal sections (top, middle, and bottom). The top section always has a subject (e.g., Edward the Explorer). The middle section always has some sort of action (e.g., eagerly searches). And the bottom section always has some sort of object (e.g, an emerald egg). 

You can read each page completely, or you can swap out a given section for another one to make a totally different story with some wacky results. Geekling likes to do both, but we think the alliterative pages really stick in his mind better. We can’t count the number of times he’s gotten out of bed to tell us simply that “Wendell the Wizard wishes for wonderful white wellies to wade in the water with Wanda the Witch.” 

Nevertheless, Geekling has loved mixing and matching the stories and pictures. And we have enjoyed the giggles while reading this one. There’s a whole series of Muddle and Match books out there, so maybe we’ll grab a couple more to get some extra variety.

The Crown on Your Head

The Crown on Your Head is a bit different than the other books on this list. It’s probably more for slightly older toddlers, but Geekling really loves it. It’s not so much a story as it is a poem about how majestic and wonderful your child is. The Crown on Your Head points out that your child is unique and loved, and that each child is equally regal and beloved. Whenever we read it with Geekling, it leaves us with a small, happy sort of feeling in our chest. Kind of like our hearts are smiling. Maybe the book is a bit overly sweet, but some extra sweetness never hurt anybody.

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse

This is a bit of a longer picture book and is also one of Michela’s childhood favorites, so she’s really happy Geekling loves it too. Lilly loves school, and especially her teacher, Mr. Slinger. One day, Lilly arrives at school excited to show her class a brand new purple plastic purse she got from her Grammy…but in her excitement, she disrupts the class’s lesson. When Mr. Slinger asks Lilly to wait until Sharing Time, she does something she later regrets.

This is a really sweet story about learning from mistakes and apologizing when our actions hurt others. While we’re reading it, Geekling loves to say “When we hurt someone’s feelings, we need to say sorry!”  At that point, we have to stop reading for a moment because we’ve just melted and no longer have the capacity to hold the book up properly.

Who to Read With

All of these books are great to read with young children, although whether a child would enjoy them might vary based on their individual interests and attention span. They’re fun, engaging, and valuable tools for encouraging a lifelong love of learning. You might even enjoy reading some of them on your own after your little one (finally) falls asleep.

What children’s books have you been reading this spring with your kids? Any family favorites? Let us know in the comments!

The children’s books on our list are all available on Amazon and Bookshop.org. If you buy through Bookshop, you’ll also be supporting local bookstores that have been struggling to stay in business during the pandemic.

For more picture books to read with your kids, check out Geekling’s other recommendations and follow us on Instagram, where we frequently highlight children’s books we love to read with Geekling. And subscribe to our blog so you never miss an update!