Books to help your child cover the basics before they start school.
Find more resources on preparing for school, including recommended books and a loanable school pack.
True or False: Colours
Do brown hens lay pineapples, do clowns drive red fire engines or do orange carrots grow on Mars?
Each page features a simple question, with two fantastically silly false answers and one true answer, all hidden behind flaps and sliders that little ones can open and move themselves.
This high level of interactivity, and the mixture of wacky illustrations and photographs will engage toddlers as they increase their vocabulary, and stimulate their imagination.
Bizzy Bear’s Big Book of Colours
Benji Davies
Lift, learn and play with Bizzy Bear in this chunky tabbed board book with 10 colourful scenes, over 300 words and more than 20 flaps!
Find the red fire engine! Count up all the orange dinosaurs! And join Bizzy Bear for a spooky purple party in the attic. There are so many colourful things to see in Bizzy Town!
Buzz: A Child’s Guide to Bugs and Bees and How to Spot Them
Richard Jones
Discover 15 bugs with extraordinary abilities, and uncover the secrets of their survival in nature.
Try to spot the Indian stick insect and see how its remarkable camouflage helps it evade predators. Admire the vibrant colours of the monarch butterfly and learn how its wings support an incredible migration. And take a closer look at the emperor dragonfly’s compound eyes to see how its vision helps it catch its next meal.
Green Hippo
Petr Horáček
Green Hippo is feeling sad. Why? Because someone said green hippos don’t exist! Frog, Elephant and Giraffe try to cheer him up, but Green Hippo is feeling too down to listen.
But maybe Green Hippo will make a discovery of his own as he goes down to the river and sees the beautiful colours of the world all around him.
Colours Under the Sea
Julia Rawlinson and Tiphanie Beeke
Bright, bold, and irresistibly fun! Our Neon Buddies series brings early learning to life with a splash of neon colour on every page.
Each high-contrast board book pairs playful sea creatures with colours. Designed to delight little readers and captivate parents alike, these striking titles will light up storytime.
Fletcher’s Colours
Julia Rawlinson and Tiphanie Beeke
Learn about the different colours Fletcher and his friends encounter in the forest featuring the characters from the Fletcher picture books.
The Leaf Thief: Colours
Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater
Join Squirrel and Bird on a flip-the-flap adventure!
Squirrel and his best friend Bird are having so much fun spotting colours, can you spot them too?
Colours of Things!
Pippa Goodhart and Emily Rand
Colours of Things! is a stylish preschool picture book which will encourage children to practise choosing, categorising and spotting familiar everyday objects.
With an engaging, rhyming text by Pippa Goodhart, author of the bestselling You Choose! series, and gorgeous rainbow illustrations from award-winning Emily Rand.
Cows are Pink!
Becky Davies and Gareth Lucas
Cows are pink, aren’t they? And horses are yellow? That can’t be right! Turn the peep-through pages to transform these funny coloured farm animals back to how they should look.
Little ones will hoot with laughter at the mixed-up pairings in this hilarious and interactive introduction to farm animals and first colours – from pink cows and yellow horses to red sheep.
The Crayons’ Book of Colours
Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
It’s Duncan’s birthday, and the crayons all want to make him a card! With their fun and quirky illustrations of fire engines, dragons, even wheat, the creative crayons each have something special to contribute.
But when they come together, they can create a truly spectactular celebration!
My Very First Colours With the Very Hungry Caterpillar
Eric Carle
Read along with the very hungry caterpillar and discover bright and colourful animal friends! Each page of this chunky board book has been thoughtfully designed with a peep-through flap to encourage little ones to join in and guess the colour.
Perfect for getting very little ones excited about learning their very first colours.
Borrow My Very First Colours With the Very Hungry Caterpillar →
Crazy Colours
Dr Seuss
Aimed at tiny tots and toddlers, this book is part of a series of board books that is designed to teach young children simple concepts from colours and numbers to opposites and animals.
Adapted from some of Dr Seuss’ most popular books, each title contains bright, bold illustrations.
Elmer Search and Find Colours
David McKee
Jam-packed full of things to spot, questions to answer and details to discover, all from Elmer’s colourful world.
Help young children learn their colours while searching each busy scene, developing their powers of observation, visual acuity, and their number and language skills.
Paddington: Colours
Michael Bond
As Paddington goes for a walk he is on the look out for the colours that are all around him from the bright red bus, the blue flowers and the green front door.
This eye-catching board book is a first introduction for little ones to the colours.
My First Colours
Shirley Hughes
Learning your colours is fun and easy with Katie and her baby brother, Olly. Join them as they explore their friendly and familiar world and all it contains in this first look at colours.
From the beautiful blue sky, bright red berries or green peas and green leaves, there are so many colours to learn about.
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