Reading Jbrary’s annual roundup of 2023 Favourite Storytime Picture Books made me think back to the list of Great Books for Two- and Three-Year-Olds I prepared back in April 2019. It’s actually still a pretty solid list! I don’t repeat books in storytime that often, because there are always so many good new ones, but there are several books on my 2019 list that are still in my rotation – Grumpy Pants, Huff & Puff, Hooray for Hat!, Where is the Green Sheep?, Carrot and Pea, A Parade of Elephants, and more.

I skimmed back over my storytime titles from September and picked a few to build this new list of storytime success books. Of course, every storytime is different – depending on who shows up, and how many, and what their energy level is, it’s a real YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) situation. And there are some books that the kids connect to, and others the adults love – it isn’t always both. But as I see it, the storytime is for everyone who attends, from babies to grandparents. (I usually make a note when someone checks out one of the storytime books after the program is over; if they liked it enough to take it home, that’s a good sign!)

So, here are ten to try:

• Are You Big? by Mo Willems
• The Button Book by Sally Nicholls and Bethan Woollvin
• Dim Sum Palace by X. Fang
• Daniel’s Good Day and Wonder Walkers by Micha Archer
• Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier
• Mr. Scruff by Simon James
• Now by Antoinette Portis
• One of These Is Not Like the Others by Barney Saltzberg
• Somewhere in the Bayou by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey
• Tumble by Adriana Hernandez Bergstrom

And here are 10 more that overlap with the Jbrary list:

• How to Count to One by Caspar Salmon
• If I Was A Horse by Sophie Blackall
• I’m Going to Build A Snowman by Jashar Awan
• Is This the Bus for Us? by Harriet Ziefert and Richard Brown
• Just One Flake by Travis Jonker
• Mister Kitty is Lost! and Lucky Duck by Greg Pizzoli
• The Rainbow Snail by Karin Akesson
• Roll Little Pea by Cecile Bergame and Magali Attiogbe
• Superbaby! by Stephanie Parsley Ledyard and Lincoln Agnew
• Whose Egg/Footprint/Poop Is That? by Darrin Lunde and Kelsey Oseid

Over the past half-year, I’ve made an effort to include Spanish/English bilingual books in my storytimes. Some of the ones that have worked well are:

• Marta! Big and Small by Jen Arena and Angela Dominguez
• I’m Hungry / Tengo Hambre and How Are You / Como Estas? by Angela Dominguez
• Round Is A Tortilla / Green Is A Chile Pepper / One Is A Pinata by Roseanne Greenfield Thong and John Parra

What are your storytime favorites?