Books about Love for Babies and Toddlers
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy through my link but does not change your price.
Valentine’s Day is not a big holiday in our culture but we have decided in our home to celebrate it just a little bit. I grew up celebrating it. My husband did not. We decided though, ultimately the holiday isn’t really religious and is just about love at this point and that was a good thing to celebrate in our home! While in the past we read a lot of books about love, this year I had to get the themed Valentine’s books of some of his favorite series. Since we don’t celebrate Halloween or Easter we already miss out on two Little Blue Truck books and I decided we couldn’t miss out on a third!
I am going to divide this post into two sections: general books about love and Valentine’s specific books below that. This is so the first part is still relevant if you don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day….or if you are reading this post in September.
Books about love are a favorite theme for me. It is always wonderful reading to our children about just how much we adore them. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of books for babies and toddlers about love! These books include some classic favorites as well as some beautiful modern books. Many share a similar style of poetically convincing our children just how much we love them. I am always on board for sweet books like that. Here we go, my favorite books for babies and toddlers about love!
Our bookshelf is Sprout Kids (code OnTheWay10 gives a discount).
Books for Babies and Toddlers about Love
I Love You to the Moon and Back: This is a sweet book in the theme of reminding our children just how much we love them. I love how it emphasizes our love not just for them but our love for spending time with them and playing with them. It is a very pretty and poetic book for babies and toddlers about love.
If Animals Kissed Goodnight: There is actually another in this series called If Animals Said I Love You which is great for this theme, but I think this one as well is a lovely book for babies and toddlers about love. It imagines how all different baby and parent animals would kiss goodnight.
I’ll Love You Till the Cows Come Home: This is such a funny and poetic book about just how much we love our children. It is a similar vein to Guess How Much I Love You and I Love You to the Moon and Back but it ingests some humor with all sorts of silly rhyming scenarios like Yaks in Cadillacs. This is such a cute and fun book. It is a book about love my toddler adores.
Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You: From the first part where it says “I wanted you more than you ever will know” this book has me in my feels. I wish that every child could know just how loved and wanted they are. Nancy Tillman’s illustrations are gorgeous, as always, as is her poetry. This is a must for books about love for babies and toddlers!
I Love You All The Time: This is an absolute favorite love-themed book of mine. It is from Lovevery so it isn’t available on its own, unfortunately (I sure as heck wish they were, I met the CEO of Lovevery at one point and that was my request). I just love it so much though I had to include it. It uses real pictures of diverse babies telling them how you love them all the time, whether they’re just your cutie pie or they get upset and make demands. This is a precious book for babies about love.
A Kiss Means I Love You: This is a sweet real picture book for babies. It goes through different actions such as kisses, hugs, reaching, and their meanings. It is a sweet way to remind babies we understand them even before they speak. Babies tend to love the real pictures in the book as well. This is a great love-themed book for babies!
Mama, Do You Love Me?: This is another beautiful book about love in the theme of how a parent will always love their child, no matter what. The daughter in the book crafts all sorts of strange scenarios in which the mother might be angry or scared or surprised, but she will still love her. The mother is honest that she would be angry but still love her, which I think is a nice way of expressing emotions but the continuation of love regardless to children. It is an arctic setting which is unique and fun. This is a sweet love book for babies and toddlers.
I’ve Loved You Since Forever: This is another sweet book just expressing to your child how much you love them and how you always have. It, like many, uses gorgeous nature imagery and sweet lyrical prose. It is a wonderful short book about love for babies.
Snuggle Puppy: Our family loves Sandra Boynton and this book is one of our absolute favorites. It’s a cute poem about a mom and baby where the mom sings about how much she loves her little one as they cook together. Just thinking about the books I find myself singing it in my head! There is a song that goes with it, though our family has our own tune we sing. I highly recommend this love book for babies and toddlers.
Guess How Much I Love You: This is a favorite story in our home and my son listens to it all the time on his Toniebox. Of course, you’ve probably heard of it as it is about as classic as you get! Still, it is such a lovely book where the parent and child go back and forth about who loves the other more.
Bigger Than a Bumblebee: This lovely book goes through different things in nature the child is bigger and smaller than and then says he is smaller than love which is a sheltering hug. The last part of the book goes through what love is, ending with love being me and you. The illustrations in this book are gorgeous and I love some of the diverse nature vocabulary introduced.
The Love Letter: This book about love is more appropriate for older toddlers and preschoolers than babies but is such a sweet book. I love the idea of pairing it with writing a letter to someone about how much you love them. Each of the characters end up finding the same love letter as they each drop it. Though in the end it wasn’t meant for any of them, the letter made each of them feel wonderful. It is a lovely reminder of just how powerful we can be in telling those we love how much we love them.
Valentine’s Day Books for Babies and Toddlers
Little Blue Truck’s Valentine: If you’re a fan of Little Blue Truck (and if you don’t know Little Blue Truck, now is the time to check it out!), this book is a must Valentine’s book. I will admit it is not as good as some of the other Little Blue Truck books in my opinion, but it is still so sweet. Blue goes to deliver Valentines to all his friends but is a little sad when he gets none in return. He gets a wonderful surprise at the end though showing just how much he is loved.
Where do Diggers Say I Love You: If you are a fan of the “Where do Diggers?” series, this book is a must! It is such a cute book about love featuring different trucks. It is specifically Valentine’s Day-themed as many of the trucks give Valentines to each other (which, honestly, I was a tad bummed about as I would have loved it to be a year-round book). It is a very cute addition to your Valentine’s Day books if you have a toddler who loves vehicles and construction!
Construction Site, You’re Just Right: This is another book from a series, this one is the Goodnight Construction Site series. It is a really cute book honoring how each vehicle does its job the best at the construction site. I am not a huge fan of lift-the-flap books, but this one is cute as you open each flap to read the Valentine given to the vehicle.
This is NOT a Valentine: This is a sweet book about a young boy showing his care for a little girl. He has made her sweet gestures of his friendship but says they are NOT Valentine’s as they don’t have glitter or beautiful flowers or expensive jewelry. Instead, they are simple and handmade. And most importantly? He doesn’t just like her today on Valentine’s Day, he likes her every day.
