I’ve written a bunch about the ways that subject matter influences S’s willingness to read books over and over again, and about the fact that even having a favorite subject in the background of an illustration can be enough to get a repeat reading request. To that end, I thought it might be interesting to create a list of the (sometimes idiosyncratic) subjects that seem to be toddler gold:

• Animals – bonus points for foxes, penguins, dogs, bunnies, and cats
• Transportation – bonus points for airplanes, helicopters, and buses
• Construction vehicles – bonus points for excavators and bulldozers
• Birthdays – parties, candles, balloons, cake, characters saying “Happy Birthday!”
• The moon
• Letters of the alphabet
• Counting
• Babies
• Challah bread
• Pizza
• Characters wearing bows (bowties, hairbows — you name it)
• Being upside down
• Camping – bonus points for marshmallows and campfires
• Bubbles
• Popsicles
• Legos
• Hanukkah
• Playgrounds
• Clocks – S loves to point out wall clocks in the background of things

If you really want an A+ on S’s picture book report card, combine one or more toddler-approved book subjects into your story. This can be in the main plot or in the illustrations.

Nikki Shannon Smith and Tamisha Anthony‘s In the Neighborhood was an immediate favorite in the board book category because of its sweet refrain and because it seems to deliberately (and brilliantly) hit on just about every topic a toddler might like. Baby goes on a walk (with “laces in a bow”), blows bubbles, gets flowers, meets a horse and a puppy, gets berries, sees cars, gets car stickers, watches friends learning how to throw a ball, sees a friend reading, and has a picnic.

As noted above, even putting toddler-approved book subjects into the background of illustrations is often enough to get a re-read request. We’ve been getting a ton of mileage recently from books like Goodnight Bubbala where a favorite object (there, a toy schoolbus) can be spotted in the background in different places on different pages.

I you happen to know of (or write) a book that fits these categories, let me know in a comment. We’ll be first in line to grab it!