seasonal book basket

The other morning while my boys rummaged through the Halloween books I have out, my 3 year old said “I’ve never seen this one before!”

This was great because that’s the point! As much as I love books that are read and re-read and re-read again as favorites, I do enjoy reading books that I do not have committed to memory. (I read Giraffe’s Can’t Dance the other night with the book facing the kids and realized I didn’t need to turn it once to myself to know the words, ha!)

Just as some people choose to rotate out toys, I have a little spot by the fireplace where I rotate books out for different seasons. When the books get switched out the boys are interested in the “new” books in a way they would never be if the same books had been on a shelf all year.

This works well for us too because the kids’ bookshelves are already at max capacity with regular books and I’d have to stop buying holiday books if we didn’t do this. Since a lot of these seasonal/holiday options have inscriptions it’s nice to keep them stored and safe too.

I never keep more than 8-10 books in the basket, unless it’s Christmas time because I am a Christmas book addict 🙂

I am not great about summer rotating or summer books at all but I have several that I think would work well for a summer theme so I want to get better about that.

Here are some children’s book recommendations for different seasons/occasions through out the year.

Wintry books for January-February:

1. The Mitten
2. Snowmen at Night
3. There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow!
4. Snow
5. Mice Skating

Springy Easter books for March-April:

1. The Velveteen Rabbit
2. Marshmallow
3. He Is Risen: Rocks Tell the Story of Easter
4. Springtime Babies
5. The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Summertime books for May-August

Some of these are just off season but you may want to switch out halfway through summer to keep the book basket interesting!

1. Little Blue Truck
2. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale
3. How I Became a Pirate
4. The Snail and the Whale
5. There Was an Old Mermaid Who Swallowed a Shark!
6. Where the Wild Things Are
7. Beach House

Halloween books for Sept-October:

1. Room on the Broom
2. Seven Orange Pumpkins
3. Little Blue Truck’s Halloween
4. Pick a Pumpkin
5. Ice Cream Every Time I See A Ghost

Thanksgiving books for November:

1. Fall Leaves
2. Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade
3. A Very Thankful Prayer
4. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey!
5. The Story of Thanksgiving

Christmas Books for December:

I could go on and on but these 10 are musts.

1. The Polar Express
2. The Night Before Christmas
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
4. Room for a Little One
5. Carl’s Christmas
6. The Biggest, Most Beautiful Christmas Tree
7. The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree: An Appalachian Story
8. Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus
9. The Gift of the Magi
10. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Do you rotate your books to keep it interesting? I’d love to hear your approach and any favorites you have to recommend!