Nursery & Reception Books

Nursery and Reception Books

Reading is important at any age, but it can be daunting to know what to buy your child. By categorising our recommended children’s books by age and school year we aim to make the process easier for you. 

Encouraging children to read early on in life sets them up for a lifetime of literary adventures. Unlocking creativity and hours of enjoyment as you read to them and then see them start to read independently. Nursery and Reception years are vital for any child's development, whether it’s practising phonics, learning animals or exploring children’s literature it is important to give them the best options. Our collection aims to show you sets from the best nursery activity books to the best reception and early years books but at an affordable price.

Aimed for children aged 0-4 this range has a wide selection of recommended reading materials you and your child can enjoy together. Our compilation of Early Years books is aimed at children starting their reading journey, whether that be listening to stories being read to them or starting to read independently. We aim to cover all reading ages and help to develop those key skills. Our Learn to Write pack helps establish children’s pen control and their vocabulary ready for their first year at school whilst learning about a wide variety of topics including animals, tractors, dinosaurs and many others. The pack has a wide range of themes and activities to help improve their handwriting literacy skills. During this stage children’s reading skills are developing at different rates, we hope by placing some recommended titles together we can make the search easier for you. 

Aimed for different reading levels

For younger readers, we have a box set of That's not my Zoo books. That's not my…books have rapidly become bestsellers with their sturdy board book design combined with sensory touch and feel patches and adorable illustrations, babies and toddlers alike will love them. They are the perfect introduction to reading and interacting with stories, whether your child is interested in pre-nursery books or just starting school they will thoroughly enjoy these stories. The Author, Fiona Watt, worked as a researcher for a company which published children's educational pieces for when they went on trips to places like zoos, museums and galleries so her combination of children’s writing experience and subject knowledge is what makes these books such a success. We have a wider selection of these books available here, if your child is enjoying these books, purchasing them in bulk will ultimately save you money whilst also feeding their interests. 

We also have a collection of books aimed at readers level 1 to 5, Reading Champions for New Readers so as their reading skill increases they can move through the books. Many parents have found that box sets like these not only save money but also their children are determined to read all of the books and therefore progress through the levels sooner than if they were separate and not in a set. If this box set works well for your child’s reading progression, we also have a Roald Dahl Ladybird Readers set that is aimed at reading ages 1-5. 

Well known Authors 

Here at Books2door we stock a wide selection of children's books and have specific collections for popular authors. This is aimed to encourage children to keep reading, for example, if they loved reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit they will most likely enjoy other Beatrix Potter books. Therefore by having the books in collections and box sets you can purchase all the books in a series or specific books by a specific author to save you money in the long run. This collection along with our Winnie the Pooh collection make for the perfect nursery books. 

Julia Donaldson’s Songbirds collection is aimed to help children develop their reading skills as well as sounds, spelling and phonology. The phonics collection is hugely popular as it includes Donaldson’s style within the learning and prepares them for starting school. Her most famous and award-winning children’s books include The Gruffalo, Superworm and Room on the Broom, and many others, Donaldson has quickly become a household name within children’s literature and early years reading, earning her the title of Children’s Laureate in 2011-2013. For more of her books, see our dedicated Julia Donaldson page or we have her bestsellers available in board books for younger readers. If you would like more books illustrated by Axel Scheffler, like Donaldson’s bestsellers, we have a page dedicated to his books.

We also have a beautiful collection of 30 Winnie the Pooh books containing the classic illustration style of E.H.Shepard alongside A.A.Milne's classic stories. This collection has been a staple for children’s bookshelves for many years due to the creativity of the storytelling as well as the important messages they convey. Winnie the Pooh is a great place to start for any young reader or for some imaginative bedtime stories. This easy-to-read collection will encourage children with their reading and listening skills whilst also providing parents with a sense of nostalgia.

Learning to Read

Biff Chip and Kipper books are a staple item on most Primary School reading lists. Learning to read with their many stories and collections aimed to suit many different reading abilities, our Biff Chip and Kipper featured in this collection is set for stage 1 to help with understanding sounds and structure sentences. We have multiple different collections organised by level to suit your child’s strengths. There are also activity books available here to help with reading, writing, spelling and rhyming. 

Our Roald Dahl early readers collection provides the classics we know and love in a more accessible format, the text is simplified and more images are making it ideal for children who are starting to read independently or are getting more involved with the stories being read to them. Starting at level one the Roald Dahl Ladybird Readers Collection is aimed to fit the child’s development whilst still enjoying Roald Dahl’s classic children’s books. They contain short sentences, past and future tense, basic punctuation and more. The collection contains 7 books complete with illustrations that follow CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) to assess each book's individual guided reading age. We have included images of the guidance for each title in the collection so you can see what is best for your child’s ability. 

In addition to this range, we also have an extensive collection aimed for 0-5 years including, pop-up books, touch and feel books, phonics books and reading libraries for primarily nursery and reception age books. For older readers, don’t forget to check out the rest of our back-to-school range.