Our family bookshelf
Books to grow up with.
I love books. I’m a mom of three, I trained as a kindergarten and elementary school teacher, and I ran reading workshops that supported children’s critical thinking. And I also know how hard it is to find your way in that flood of books on the market. I’m not saying my tips are the only right ones — they definitely aren’t. This is a small, purely subjective selection of my favorites: the ones we have at home and love, that have depth, an educational reach, and that we can often build on creatively.
Ages are a guide based on my selection. A publisher’s recommendation may differ for a particular book.
For babies
The very beginning — contrast pictures, first colors and sturdy pages with hardly any text.
For the youngest: board books and picture books
Sturdy pages for small hands and picture books with short stories full of pictures. I put Strom here too — even though it isn’t a classic board book: we fold it out on the floor into a huge tree.
Where Are You Hiding, Little Rabbit?
ages 0–3
The little rabbit hides and children find him through cut-outs
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
from age 1
The caterpillar that is always hungry: counting, days of the week and those famous page holes
Who Is Sleeping?
ages 0–3
“Who is sleeping?” and animals hidden behind a leaf or snow
The Cricket and the Ants
from age 3
The cricket plays through summer, the ants work
Tom Thumb
from age 3
Tiny as a thumb, yet a big story
Come Mushrooming with Us!
from age 3
Mushrooms fascinate children and adults
About the Apple Tree
from age 3
We watch how the apple tree changes through the year
How the Mole Got His Trousers
from age 3
The Mole needs pants and friends help him
The Little Ant Broke His Leg
from age 2
The little ant is hurt and a friend’s touch helps most
Ivanka (Janouchová)
from age 3
Short texts about washing, food, illness and plasters
Hervé Tullet: Press Here, Mix It Up!, Say Zoop!
from ages 2–3
We tap, shake, blow and mix colors
The Tree (Strom)
from age 3
Strom is definitely not a classic board book
Petr Horáček (selection)
ages 2–5
Color, texture and short stories about friendship and courage
MiniPEDIE – Discovering the world
from age 1
Small format, sturdy pages and moving parts
Jak to žije — The cake shop and more
from age 1
A cake shop, playground, farm and cars: sturdy pages with sliding and rotating pictures
Egg, Egg, Egg
ages 2–3
A simple egg motif and what might hatch
Musical & sound books
Buttons, blowing, classical music — books you listen to as well as look at.
axiōma sound board books
from age 1
Simple pictures, good recordings and buttons little fingers can press
Usborne Sound Books: Night & Garden Sounds
toddler+
Night Sounds and Garden Sounds
Sweet Dreams (Sladké sny)
from age 1
It isn’t a classic sound book
Usborne Musical Books: Carnival & Four Seasons
ages 3+
Saint-Saëns and Vivaldi under a fingertip: press a button and music meets the picture
The Albi pen
I resisted the Albi pen for a long time. I’m a mom of three and I love ordinary paper books best — the kind a child leafs through alone, imagining the story in their own head. And I still see the risks: children turn pages on their own less and use their imagination less, they can easily get hooked on pressing buttons and playing sounds over and over, quality varies a lot — and then there’s the cost, the batteries and one more piece of tech in the children’s room. But it has big pluses too: a child can ask about anything and instantly hear an answer, the right pronunciation, a song or a fact I would never have come up with myself. We don’t use it often. But a certain kind of child — thoughtful, inquisitive, the one who wants to ask about everything — really appreciates it. If you go for it, choose carefully: the quality of individual books varies a lot depending on who prepared them. Here are the ones that have stood the test in our house.
Už vím jak (Now I Know How)
from age 6
How a house is built, how food or clothes are made — for children who ask about everything
Doprava (Transport)
from age 3
Vehicles, machines, road signs and the rules of the road
Zpívánky (several volumes)
ages 3–7
Czech folk songs, sung or instrumental — with colorful notes
Christmas Carols
from age 3
Twelve carols to sing with the whole family
Pets and Farm Animals
from age 2
A little book for the youngest: twelve animals from the farmyard and home
Playful English
from age 6
Words and sentences with the right pronunciation
Vehicles and machines
Diggers, tractors and how things work behind the scenes — boys and girls love them at our house.
Diggers, Tractors & Garbage Trucks
from age 2
Every page is full of vehicles and little stories to talk about
How Things Work (series)
from age 2
Big pages and lots of behind-the-scenes detail
Vehicles (Nowicki)
from age 2
Nowicki draws vehicles you want to study for hours — specials, details, big surfaces.
Combines, Tractors and Loaders
from age 4
What a combine does in the field and how a loader works — for all little farmers and builders
How things work & look-and-find
Seasons, a town in motion, finding characters on the page — books for noticing and talking.
Pop-up Seasons (Usborne)
ages 3+
Four seasons in 3D and a tree with all seasons at the end
A Year in… (Host series)
from ages 1–2
Large wordless board books: twelve months, lots of characters to find
Spring–Winter & Night (Berner)
from age 3
Ten things happen on one page
Ultimate Book: Life Around Town
from age 3
Over 55 moving parts: transport, shops, offices… discovering together how a town works.
How I Came into the World
from age 9
A kind explanation of how babies come into the world
Atlases & nonfiction
Maps, cross-sections, bees, bugs — books we linger over.
Maps
from age 6
Countries, animals, food, people — we browse together and always find something new.
Under Earth, Under Water
from age 7
A two-sided book full of cross-sections and details
Bees
from age 6
A large-format invitation into the hive
The Big Book of Bugs
from age 4
Beetles, ladybirds, spiders
People
from age 5
Short concepts and strong illustrations
The Great Indian Book
from age 9
Information and how-tos, careful illustrations
What We Know About… (Thovt)
from ages 7–8
Short stories followed by fact spreads
A First Book of Animals
from age 4
Short poetic texts full of facts and Horáček’s bold pictures
Jak zvířata spí (How Animals Sleep)
from age 3
How different animals sleep — underwater, on one leg, in the snow or in the desert
Me and My Family (Březinová)
from age 4
Short stories about animal young and their families
Trees
from age 6
From the creators of Bees: a giant book about who lives in trees, who plants them and who feeds on them
Rostlinopis
from age 6
A story for every plant — for example, why nettles sting
First reading
Tip: when a child starts reading, some kids at school syllable-read lowercase right away, others start with robotic speech and only uppercase print — we choose first books accordingly. When we search for “first reading”, we find plenty; I look for short sentences and a smaller vocabulary. Albatros does this well — e.g. Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad (Kvak a Žbluňk) and Mouse Soup (Myška a pohádková polívka) are top classics that work; Portál and more contemporary stories are great too.
Frog and Toad (Kvak a Žbluňk)
from age 6
Short sentences, a smaller vocabulary, warm stories of friendship
Mouse Soup
from age 6
Another Lobel that works for first reading — short chapters, humor, clear text.
The Stone Age
from age 7
Five short stories from prehistory, each followed by a fact spread
Dinosaurs
from age 7
Five dinosaur stories and spreads packed with facts
What We Know About Knights
from age 7
Knightly stories, each with a spread of interesting facts
Native Americans
from age 7
Five adventure stories plus facts about Native American life
I Don’t Want to Go to Bed
from age 3
Lindgren for bedtime, short and kind — it helped us fall asleep many times.
What We Know About… (Thovt)
from ages 7–8
Short stories followed by fact spreads
When reading is hard
When reading doesn’t click, it’s rarely laziness or a child not wanting to. Sometimes it helps to play with speech and words first, sometimes a typeface that is easy to read, short sections and a funny story. And sometimes simply five minutes a day, regularly and without pressure. These books helped us — and above all, they brought the joy back into reading.
Žvanda a Melivo (Chatterbox and Blabber)
from age 5
Word games, rhymes and riddles for vocabulary and a feel for language
Šedík and Bubi
from age 5
A dyslexia-friendly typeface, shaded syllables and short chapters with comics
Mařenka Can Say Ř!
from age 4
Every letter of the alphabet: words, rhymes and pronunciation tasks
Reading with Understanding Every Day (Grades 1 and 2)
grades 1–2
A short text and a few questions every day — five minutes that add up
Reading together / stories
Stories for reading together — by age, from bedtime picture books to longer classics.
About ages 3–6
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
from age 3
Short stories and beautiful original watercolors by Beatrix Potter
Little Polar Bear, Take Me Home!
from age 3
Lars the little polar bear and his journey home to the North Pole — we love it.
Lotta on Troublemaker Street
from ages 4–5
Another Lindgren we love at home — short, lively, close to little kids.
So That Children Wonder
from ages 5–6
Short fairy tales, fantasy, nonsense — I like its otherness; that’s why we reach for it.
The Little Pink Elephant…
from age 3
About a friend moving away — short, clear, with a hopeful ending.
Just Like You!
from age 3
A story about likeness, difference and belonging
The Greatest Treasure
from age 4
Seeking treasure and discovering what is precious beyond gold — lovely art to look at.
The Possum That Didn’t Smile
from age 4
About a creature that “doesn’t smile like the others”
Little Cheetah's Shadow
from age 3
A gentle story about a shadow that wants to be a friend — quiet pace for bedtime.
Kamil Can't Fly
from age 4
Starling Kamil keeps his beak in books and skips flying class
Winnie-the-Pooh
from age 4
Timeless stories of friendship from the Hundred Acre Wood
Povídání o pejskovi a kočičce (Tales of the Doggie and the Pussycat)
from age 5
A gentle Czech classic about two little animals who keep house their own way, with Čapek’s original illustrations
Ferda Mravenec (Ferda the Ant)
roughly from age 4
Ferda is clever, handy and always ready to help — his friends and those he meets for the first time
Play, Mozart, Play
from age 4
A picture story with a little text about young Mozart
About ages 6–9
Tip: besides Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling also wrote The Ickabog and The Christmas Pig for children — we love them at home.
Pippi Longstocking
from age 6
Pippi is a must-have for us — the freedom, courage and humor I love in Lindgren.
Madicken
from age 6
Another staple on our Lindgren shelf — we read together and come back.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
from age 6
I’ve loved Betty MacDonald since childhood
Nancy and Plum
from age 7
Besides Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle I also love Nancy and Plum
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
from age 7
Humor, exaggeration and a clear message about what happens when someone is greedy
Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter
from ages 7–8
A strong story of courage and friendship — a Lindgren highlight for us.
Mary Poppins
from ages 7–8
The magic and the edge of the nanny who arrives with the wind — a classic we return to.
Milton's Secret
from age 7
A story about fear, bullying and presence
Čenda the Spider
ages 5–6
Warm, humorous stories of a little hero with Pavel Čech’s clear drawing style.
The Christmas Pig
from age 8
A Christmas story about losing a beloved toy and the journey after it
Diogenés v sudu
from age 8
Witty stories about where familiar sayings come from
9+ / older
Tibet: Through the Red Box
from age 8
More demanding, personal, richly illustrated
The Ickabog
from age 9
A stand-alone fairy tale about fear, truth and courage
Děvčátko Momo a ukradený čas (Momo)
from age 8
About a girl who defeated the time thieves
Nekonečný příběh (The Neverending Story)
from age 10
Bastian, Atreyu and the Great Quest in Fantastica
Fairy tales
Poetic, beneficial and classic fairy tales — for evenings and reading aloud.
Beneficial Fairy Tales
from age 4
Animal stories about kindness, courage, and about every child being enough just as they are.
The Garden (Zahrada)
from age 5
Five boys enter a mysterious garden with a gnome and a tomcat
Rainbow Fairy Tales
from ages 3–6
Seven poetic tales of how the Sun turned a gray world colorful with the rainbow
And Then It Happened!
from ages 5–6
Ten tales about uncombed hair, unbrushed teeth and toys left lying around — we love it.
Buddha at Bedtime
from age 4
Twenty retold stories of compassion and wisdom — we read them at bedtime.
The Magic Lantern
ages 4–8
Twenty calming stories; each begins with the child picking up a magic lantern
From the Diary of Blue-Eye the Cat
from age 5
A classic about Blue-Eye the cat — one we keep coming back to.
Fimfárum
from age 6
Werich’s fairy tales we return to for the language and humor
Bible & stories of faith
Bible stories at different depths — from first selections to more substantial reading. Advent and Easter sit right under them.
The Great Children’s Bible
from age 8
More substantial Bible stories with Martina Špinková’s art
Discover Bible Stories
from age 6
365 stories for a whole year, each with a few questions
Bible Stories for Children
from age 4
Some of humanity’s oldest stories — from the creation of the world and Noah’s ark to the birth of Jesus
New Testament Stories
from age 6
Focused on Christ’s story
A Night Full of Stars
from age 3
A Nativity story with sheep and counting to ten — short, rhythmic, for the youngest.
Dear Pope Francis
from age 6
Children from around the world wrote questions to the Pope and he answers with kindness and humor
Advent & Easter
Before Christmas and at Easter we reach for these — Advent evenings and Easter reading.
Christmas for the Cat
from age 4 · Advent
The Bethlehem cat tells a story for each figure the children gradually place in the crib
The Christmas Mystery
from age 9 · Advent
An Advent story with calendar windows
Easter Book
from age 5 · Easter
Simply and honestly it brings close the Easter story and folk customs
On death
Children are naturally curious about death. I only put books here that are truly about death and grief — we read them together and leave room for questions.
Anton and Jonathan
from age 6
Teddy Anton is left alone when Jonathan dies
The Visit of Little Death
ages 3–9
Little Death is sad that everyone fears her
Anna and Anička
from age 4
Anička grows; grandma Anna is leaving
The Brothers Lionheart
from age 8
Lindgren on death, courage and brotherhood
Mice Belong in Heaven
from age 6
A mouse and a fox meet in animal heaven
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