I love books. I wanted my son to also love books. So I started looking for children’s book when Leo was still very young. I spent hours researching and reading reviews about books. I had no idea what constituted a ‘good’ book. So I bought a few books here and there both new and second-hand. When I was visiting Brazil, I made sure to take at least 2 full afternoons in bookstores just looking for books. I also asked my sister to bring books in Mandarin from China. Now that I have a small collection of books I was ready to read to Leo.

As a 18-month-old toddler, Leo is mainly interested in the objects and pictures in the book. He also likes books with sounds, especially animal or car sounds. Nee-nah goes the little red fire truck…he grabs the book and says “nee-nah nee-nah”. He also loves farm animals with all their sounds quack quack, oinc oinc, muuuu.

Chinese favourite: 蝴蝶豌豆花 （Hu die Wan dou hua) – a compilation of Chinese classic poems Author 叶圣陶 (Ye Shengtao) Leo reads Di Da Di Da (the sound of rain drops in Mandarin)

German favourites: Mein erstes großes Wörterbuch Deutsch – English Leo reads quack quack, vrum vrum, meh meh and Die Eule mit der Beule – Leo reads Aua, Sheesh

Portuguese favourite: Pop up supresa peixe engraçado Leo sings Baby shark tudududu

English favourite: Nee-nah Nee-nah The little red fire truck

Best material: Board books – They’re nice and strong for the little hands with limited fine motor control

I hope this inspires you to get started with your own collection of books.

What is your favourite book in Spanish, Portuguese, English German or Mandarin? Please leave them in the comments below.