Books for 3 Year Old Girls

Why it worksThe anger is drawn rather than explained - the outlines go red and orange and Sophie roars a red roar - and then she runs, climbs a tree and comes back when she is ready. It models leaving the room to cool down, which is a strategy a four-year-old can actually copy.

Why it worksEach animal loses something, finds it, and asks 'Is there room on the broom for a dog like me?' - four times, with the same closing rhyme, so children join in on the question and then supply 'Yes!' before the witch does. The dragon chase gives it a real third act, which most rhyming picture books lack.

Why it worksA handful of words a spread carry a whole year - bump, wait, arrive, crawl, walk - so a toddler gets the entire arc of a new baby in about a minute, which is exactly as much as they can hold.

Worth knowingSo short it is really a gift book; do not expect it to fill a bedtime.

Why it worksBoard pages and one short rhyming line per spread make it usable with the two-year-old who is about to be displaced but cannot sit through a story - and it keeps saying 'I am' rather than 'you must', so it reads as a promotion.

Why it worksOne image does the whole job: a string of love running from your heart to everyone you miss, which stretches to an uncle who has died and equally to the nursery door at half past eight. Families end up using the phrase daily at drop-off long after the book goes back on the shelf.

Worth knowingIt mentions heaven, and the idea is restated rather than dramatised - some children experience it as a lesson rather than a story.

Why it worksEach page gives the child a task with their hands - pat the fur, play peekaboo with the cloth, put a finger through mummy's ring - so it is the book that teaches a baby that books are things you do, not just look at.

Worth knowingDated in places (Daddy's scratchy face, mummy's ring) and the flimsy pages do not survive a determined toddler.

Why it worksSwishy swashy, splash splosh, squelch squerch - every obstacle has a noise and an action, so the whole book can be done with hands and feet, and the run home is read at double speed with the child shouting the sequence backwards. It is closer to a game than a story.

Worth knowingIt winds children up rather than down. Not a last-book-before-lights-out choice.

Why it worksBill says 'I want my mummy!' and nothing else, on nearly every page, so the smallest listener has one line to shout while the two older owlets do all the reasoning for them. The mother comes back with no drama and no explanation, which is the exact shape of a nursery day.

Why it worksThe mouse's description of the gruffalo is recited twice - once as a lie, once with the real gruffalo standing there - so a child who has heard it once can chant 'terrible tusks, and terrible claws' with you, and gets the joke of the second telling. The couplets are metrically tight enough that a stumble is obvious, which is why it survives the fortieth reading.

Worth knowingThe gruffalo reveal is genuinely startling for sensitive two- and three-year-olds; the reassurance only arrives several pages later.

Why it worksThe same twelve-word frame every spread, with only the animal and colour changing, and the next animal is always shown before it is named - so a barely-verbal toddler answers the question correctly and feels like a reader. This is the single best first 'I can read it myself' book in the set.

Why it worksEvery spread is the same two beats - guess the animal from its crate, lift the flap, 'he was too big, I sent him back' - so a one-year-old learns how a book works, and a three-year-old learns adjectives: too tall, too grumpy, too scary.

Worth knowingFlaps tear. Buy the board edition if the child is under two.

Why it worksThe chant is pure percussion - children bang out 'chicka chicka boom boom' long before they know what a letter is - and because every lower-case letter is named in order climbing the tree, alphabet recognition happens without a single flashcard.

Worth knowingThe letter injuries at the end ('skinned-knee D, and stubbed-toe E') go past a lot of two-year-olds; the sound carries them, not the sense.

Why it worksThe book gives instructions - press the yellow dot, tilt the page, blow - and the next spread shows what 'happened', so paper behaves like a touchscreen with none of the screen. It is the best swap in this set for a child asking for a phone.

Why it worksThe die-cut holes give a toddler something to do with a finger on every page, and the Saturday binge spread is the one they turn back to - ten foods to name and count in a single picture. Days of the week and counting arrive as a side-effect of the story rather than a lesson.