Today, in honor of summer vacation, I’ve rounded up my favorite beach books for toddlers.
Going to the beach is a special tradition of summer. Every year growing up my family would rent a beach house for a week or so. I have many happy beach memories: hiding water balloons under the sand and tricking poor unknowing siblings to step on them was a favorite! Boogie boarding, sandcastles, digging giant holes in the sand, eating freshly caught shrimp, all that fun stuff is associated with summer and family.
For me, part of the vacation fun is planning. Finding new restaurants, museums, places to stay, best travel routes, what snacks to bring, what beach blankets we need to buy, and what delicious meals we will cook! I like to share the vacation anticipation with my daughter by talking to her about our upcoming trip and what we’ll do and who we’ll see.
A great way to share this excitement is through beach books. Toddlers are most comfortable with familiar places and faces. By reading books about beach fun, you can familiarize your child with the place and activities so that when vacation time arrives everyone can jump right into the fun.
You can also practice constructing sandcastles in the sandbox, go to an aquarium to see some marine life, or show your toddler pictures from past beach trips. This will help build beach vacation excitement for everyone!
Here are some of my favorite beach books for toddlers.
Wave by Suzy Lee, is a wordless book, pictures only. The illustrations are pen and ink with varied blue hues. It tells the story of a little girl’s trip to the beach. I especially enjoy this book for teaching respect for the water, and that while it’s fun to play in the ocean, you must be wary of big waves! I wrote a more in-depth review of this book here.
If you’ve never read Matthew Van Fleet’s books, go check them out! Usually, Costco has a good selection. These books are the interactive type where you touch and feel, lift the flap or pull a lever. Kids adore these books because they get to participate in the story.
Oscar the Octopus is more ocean than beach-themed BUT I’m including it because it’s a great book and one of Ava’s favorites. Toddlers and babies will love pulling flaps and touching and crinkling the book as they learn about different ocean creatures.
I love good night type books because we tend to do most of our reading at night before bedtime. Good Night Beach by Adam Gamble is a great read to take to the beach and read after a long day in the sun. Kids will relate to activities in the book such as building sandcastles, swimming, and eating seafood.
This is part of the ‘Good Night Our World’ book series. I also own Good Night Mountains which I bought when Ava was just a baby. She loves going through the different aspects of mountain life and wildlife and going through a day in the mountains. Good Night Ocean is another great read if your baby likes this style book.
Seashore Baby is a simple board book with brightly colored pages that features lift-the-flaps to entice the small one. It’s about a baby’s fun day at the beach and is perfect to introduce your child to beach activities.
Ava is at an age where she likes looking at pictures to find out what’s going on. Sometimes we’ll go off script and just talk about what we see in the pictures. “That little girl is making a sandcastle! That baby is laughing as the seagulls fly by!”
Uh-Oh! is a nearly wordless story about a little girl’s trip to the beach and has beautifully full illustrations. The book shows all the little uh-oh’s that can happen at the beach, but also how they make the trip fun and memorable.
I hope you found some good ideas for your next beach trip. Wherever you go this summer (even if just a stay-cation), I hope it’s peaceful and relaxing. For more summer book suggestions for young ones, check out Summertime Books for Young Children. Thanks for stopping by!
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