Experts agree that the earlier parents and caregivers start reading to their children, the better. The more vocabulary young children acquire, the better they will be able to read and learn when they go to school. Those who enter school with large vocabularies are at a huge advantage, so the bottom line is — read as much as you can to your babies!

Here are some clever books for young children. They will enjoy them and you will enjoy sharing them with eager listeners.

Everyone loves stories by the master of stories for young ones, Margaret Wise Brown. Here is a new collection of her stories called “5-Minute Stories.” These are perfect for reading just before bedtime, or when a short break is needed, or while waiting for lunch to be ready. Each story is illustrated by a different artist, and the book is filled with animals and counting and seasons. Many of the stories are perfect for bedtime as they end with all the animals sleeping tight in their beds. It’s everything one might expect from Margaret Wise Brown, and more. (Silver Dolphin Books)

“Red House, Tree House, Little Bitty Brown Mouse” by Jane Goodwin is a fabulous book for having young children identify colors and objects while finding the little bitty brown mouse on all the colorful pages. There’s a red house, a green house, a blue house and a tree house! There are blue and pink and purple and red flowers with many petals to count. There are different colored fruit and bunnies, shoes of all colors, fish and boats. Kids will enjoy the simple illustrations with blocks of color, and they’ll have a good time finding small objects in the larger page illustrations. (Dial)

“One Red Sock” by Jennifer Sattler is the story of a little purple hippo who is getting dressed and deciding what socks to wear. It’s a wonderful book to teach not only colors, but rhyming, too, as the lines lead to a rhyming color. ‘”This is driving me crazy! It just isn’t right!” So she put on another sock. This one was…’ (have kids chime in with “white,” the rhyming word. And then turn the page to read the rhyming color. Kids will enjoy naming the color of the next sock based on the rhyme before the reader has time to turn the page. There’s a clever ending with an additional twist that will make kids giggle. (Sleeping Bear Press)

And because everyone (almost) wears socks, another sock picture book that kids will love is “Little Sock” by Kia Heise and Christopher D. Park. In this clever little picture book, the authors solve the mystery of where the missing socks go. They travel through a secret tunnel in the back of the dryer and visit Sock City, a magical place where socks have fun. Kids will get a kick out of imagining their socks traveling to magic places, and when they are missing a sock, now everyone will know exactly where the sock went! (Sleeping Bear Press)

Please note: These reviews are based on the final, hardcover books provided by the publishers for review purposes.