ABCs for a two-year-old?

July 2, 2011 4:54 PM

What's a good book for a 2-year-old? Something to familiarize him with the alphabet?

My son turned two in April, and has been reading picture books for a long time now. He's reciting his ABCs fairly well and shows a real interest in trying to spell words on the page. This only really happens if the font size is big enough; we've got plenty of books way beyond his age range with text he can't read, but if the font size were bigger he would perhaps try to spell things out.

So he needs books with some pictures, but mainly practice with his ABCs. Words printed in a big font. Storylines unimportant.

posted by zardoz to Education (13 answers total)

Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing might be good. I remember liking it a lot as a kid. Funny pictures, easy-to-read font, and it's an alphabet book without being a P STANDS FOR PORPOISE book.
posted by phunniemee at 5:08 PM on July 2, 2011

Hop on Pop remains a classic.
It is funny and engaging, and has lots of rhyming pairs of words.
posted by Flood at 5:39 PM on July 2, 2011

Does he have an interest? When my little girl was 2, she loved dinosaurs, and loved "Dinosaur A-Z". Maybe you can match his interest to an appropriate ABC board book? "All Aboard ABC" was a hit when my son was going through his train-obsessed 2's.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:46 PM on July 2, 2011

Our two-year old loved Dr. Seuss' ABCs.
posted by reverend cuttle at 6:16 PM on July 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is a delightful book. Each page is one letter, A is for Ape and so on.
posted by carter at 6:26 PM on July 2, 2011

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is great. Technically over his reading level, but just a few words on each page.
posted by donnagirl at 6:36 PM on July 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

Not a book - but my son learned to read ABC very quickly because he was interacting with them through iPhone apps.
posted by gomichild at 6:54 PM on July 2, 2011

My favorite ABC book for my daughter when she was little was the delightfully subversive "A Is For Salad", but maybe it's more for a three-year-old than a two-year-old.
posted by briank at 7:19 PM on July 2, 2011

We're in roughly the same place. We use a combination of kiddie dictionaries, bathtub letters, flashcards and Boynton books to practice sounding out words a few times a week. Mostly we read him longer stories, but when we work with those books/items we let him drive and guide him. While I know my son has Moo Baa La La La memorized, I also know he recognizes many of the letters in the book and is starting to sound them out as well.
posted by Nanukthedog at 7:52 PM on July 2, 2011

What about something by Richard Scarry?
posted by SisterHavana at 9:45 PM on July 2, 2011

Gyo Fujikawa's A to Z Picture Book is a fantastic treasure. Each letter of the alphabet has its own one or two pages, and those pages are filled lovely, small detailed drawings that the adult and the child can enjoy. It's very creative. It's not a picture of a Mushroom, and a Mole, and a Maple tree, but the Mole is popping up by the Mushroom under the Maple tree. Super-excellent. My child and I enjoyed that book for years. And two is a great age to start it - a lot of the drawings are of toddlers doing activities - Mopping, and Mooing, and Measuring. Lots of nature and sweetness. And a couple of scary pages. I forget which letter, the whole page has a wild, windy, dark, autumn theme that is brooding. That page was good for us too, because we could try out how to handle something scary. The page is not truly creepy or frightening, it's just a little more turbulent and dark. Still gorgeous. Highly recommend.
posted by Ellemeno at 9:44 AM on July 3, 2011

Sorry, said child was calling me and I didn't proofread well before posting.
posted by Ellemeno at 9:45 AM on July 3, 2011

We have Eating The Alphabet by Lois Ehlert. Big font, bold pictures, only a few words on each page. (Each fruit/vegetable word is in both capitals and lowercase, as well.)
posted by flex at 5:33 PM on July 3, 2011