Perhaps the most obvious way a children’s book can have developmental value for a child is by its ability to educate about a certain topic.  As the child reads the book, she learns something via the content of the book.  In this post I will discuss the place of educational themes in rendering a children’s book developmentally valuable, and I will offer some advice on choosing children’s educational books.  Educational themes might be understood as a complement to attractive themes, which contribute to the subjective appeal of a children’s book.

This post is part of a continuing series on how to choose children’s books.  To read the series from the beginning, click here for “How to Choose Children’s Books”.  For the prior article in the series, “Stories of Virtue: Character Building Stories,” click here.

Children’s Educational Books: Importance of Developmental Stage

There is no mystery to how children’s educational books can contribute to a child’s development: books with educational themes simply help a child learn something she didn’t know about before.  The key, then, to choosing children’s books with educational themes is to make sure the themes of the book fit with the child’s stage of cognitive, physical, and emotional development.

For example, children in the infants and toddlers age category (roughly up to three years old) are generally learning basic concepts, acquiring language, learning to recognize objects in the world, and learning to control their bodies in basic ways.  So, books featuring letters (e.g., Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!), colors, and numbers are obviously appropriate and beneficial.  As I suggested in my review of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, one reason Eric Carle’s classic book is so good is that it exposes children to numbers, the biology of caterpillars and butterflies, and to basic objects (e.g., the sun, leaves, food items, etc.).  These elements are educational for young children.  Potty trainin