We love autumn children’s books. Children’s books are a great way of exploring the changing seasons with young children. We have a number of seasonal books in our house that we enjoy reading. Find my favourite books about seasons for preschoolers here. They’re great for starting conversations with young children about nature and the changes going on around us.
Now that autumn is here, I thought I would share with you some of our favourite autumn children’s books to read with young children.
If you are looking for the perfect autumn book for your child then read on, I have recommendations for all ages. I haven’t included any Halloween books as I have a separate post on our favourite books for Halloween.
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Books marked with # were sent to be by the publisher to review.
Autumn children’s books for babies and toddlers
Thes are the perfect board books for our youngest readers. They really show toddlers how much fun autumn can be and all the adventures they can expect to have during this season.
Millie-Mae in autumn, Natalie Marshall
This was the first seasonal book I bought my eldest daughter when she was just a toddler. It’s part f a series and we have all 4 seasons in our collection. We are enjoying reading them again with our youngest now she is two. It’s a really simple board book with lovely illustrations and a few tactile areas. The book follows Millie-Mae through an autumn day focusing on the tree around her house, what she wears for the season and playing in the autumn leaves at the park.
This book is available in two formats, Fall for the US market – available to buy now from Amazon.
Autumn for UK readers – Available to buy from Amazon here.
Autumn, Ailie Busby
This board book is another great book for introducing seasons to toddlers. The illustrations are really sweet too. Follow the children as they have fun playing indoors and outdoors in autumn. This book is sure to get your children excited about autumn activities such as collecting acorns, splashing in muddy puddles and picking apples, pears and pumpkins. Again we love this book so much we have the complete set of all 4 seasons.
This book is available in two formats, Fall for the US market – available to buy now from Amazon.com.
Autumn for UK readers – Available to buy from Amazon here.
1 2 3 A walk in the countryside, Rosalind Beardshaw
This part of a series of board books that teach toddlers basic concepts like numbers, opposites and the alphabet. They are all set on a country walk and each one is themed to a season. 1 2 3 is set in autumn and each number from 1 to 20 has it’s own page with a specific number of items to illustrate the number. There are lots of books on the market that cover counting but I love that this one uses nature and is perfect for families who like spending time outdoors. Available to buy from Amazon.co.uk.
Little snappers Peek-through forest
This is a bright coloured board book full of flaps which in my experience toddlers love. Although not specific to autumn, I always associate forest books with autumn. It’s not really a story but a collection of rhymes and facts. Perfect for toddlers who love animals. Available to buy now from Amazon (UK or US).
Find more autumn books for toddlers here.
Autumn children’s books for 3-5 year olds
Tree: Seasons come, seasons go. Patricia Hegarty, Britta Teckentrup #
This is a gorgeous book that explores the changing season through the life cycle of a tree. We love the illustrations and the clever cut-out elements add another element to the book that children love. The accompanying text has a lovely rhyming rhythm to it. The illustrations are colourful and perfectly represent the changes that trees undergo throughout the seasons. Available to buy now from Amazon (UK or US).
A stroll through the seasons, Kay Barnham, Maddie Frost
This is a great introduction to seasons for preschool and early primary school age children. Again the illustrations are colourful and engaging. This book covers all the seasons so it is perfect to dip in and out of all year round. It talks about the type of weather, the sun rising time (early or late), what goes on in nature (e.g. leaves changing colour) and what happens to the animals (such as birds flying south). This book encourages children to think about the world around them. The book finishes with some suggested activities which are lovely ideas. Finally, there are 4 suggestions for other seasons books that you might enjoy (spoiler – tree: seasons come, seasons go is included). Available to buy now from Amazon (UK or US).
The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler
I’m sure you are more than familiar with this classic rhyming book. We read this classic all year round but for me, it’s a perfect autumn read. We love this book and my 4 year old loves hunting for the Gruffalo whenever we are in the woods. Available to buy now from Amazon (UK & US).
Wakey, wakey big brown bear. Tracey Corderoy, Rachel Swirles.
This is an enchanting seasonal story about a bear who doesn’t want to go to sleep for the autumn/winter. He doesn’t want to miss out on rolling in crunchy leaves, splashing in giant rain puddles or making snow bears. Even the illustrations and colours are perfect for autumn. We love reading this story through the autumn and winter months. Available to buy now from Amazon (UK & US).
The squirrels who squabbled, Rachel Bright, Jim Field
This is a fun rhyming tale of two greedy squirrels that are after the last pine cone in the woods. The illustrations are beautiful and the colour palette is perfect for autumn. It really shows the beauty of forest life in autumn as well as making my 5 year old laugh. I like that as well as being funny it teaches children about sharing and friendship. Available to buy now from Amazon UK.
Find more gorgeous Autumn picture books here.
Autumn children’s books for children aged 5-7 years
Nature’s day, Kay Maguire, Danielle Kroll
I love this gorgeous book which is probably best for children from 5 years old. This is the perfect book to build on the seasonal knowledge that they will have gained from earlier books. The illustrations are beautiful and perfectly represent the seasons. For each season there is a general overview of the season followed by a couple of pages on each season in the garden, the veg patch, the woods, the farm, the field, the pond, the orchard and the street. This is one of those books that we love dipping in and out of. Available to buy now from Amazon (UK & US).
Once upon a wild wood, Chris Riddell #
Another book that isn’t specifically for autumn but it’s set in a forest. Little Green Cape is on her way to Rapunzel’s party but along the way she stumbles across many classic fairytale problems. A beautifully illustrated tale full of familiar fairy tale characters as you’ve never seen them before. Available to buy now from Amazon UK only.
So these are my favourite books to read with my girls in autumn. Do you have a favourite children’s book to read in autumn?
If you want even more recommendations for kids of all ages, head to my post with all the best children’s books here.
Where to next?
If you love poems, you’ll love Tiger, tiger burning bright book review. An animal poem for every day of the year.
If these books have left you excited about autumn adventures, you might like to read some of these posts:
Autumn outdoor activities for kids
Autumn activities for preschool
Autumn activities for toddlers
Autumn scavenger hunt printable
Autumn process art for toddlers
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Beautiful books – we always loved the gruffalo and stickman in Autumn! Oh and room on the broom 🙂
We love room on the broom too.
These books sound great. My daughter is a massive bookwork. She loves the Gruffalo – she loves all Julia Donaldson books to be honest. As do I! haha. I haven’t heard of a few of these books so we will have to check them out.
It’s always nice to discover new books. We love Julia Donaldson too.
Oh some of these look lovely! We are just branching away from board books as I can almost trust Piglet not to rip a normal book to shreds (almost!)
That opens up so many possibilities. Have fun picking new books.
These sounds beautiful books and I’ve not heard of any of them. I love a good book recommendation and the wakey wakey bear sounds a gorgeous book my girls would love!
Wakey, wakey is a lovely book for autumn and winter.
It really is. This is a library book but we need to add it to our collection soon.
I love autumn themed books, they are great for little ones! We have a good one about a squirrel that has lost his nuts… I need to find a few more though.
That sounds a lovely book.
It is. This is a library copy. Tink we need to buy it.
It’s nice to have some seasonal reads. They areall beautiful.
The gruffalo is a classic for a reason.
We have all year roind favourites and also seasonal favourites. The gruffalo is a classic for a reason.
What a lovely selection of books. Will have to watch out for these for the grandchildren 🙂
#KLTR
What a glorious collection of Autumn reads! We love Tree 🙂 #KLTR
These books look so great. I love the sound of The seasons come and the seasons go and the fact the trees have holes in them This is a great collection of Autumn themed books and your posts makes me want to go to the library with my daughter to find them! Thanks for linking to KLTR
Gorgeous selection, autumn is such a beautiful time of year. I love the Britta Teckentrup book. #kltr
I’m glad I was able to introduce you to some new books.
Oh I love the look of nature’s day- what a gorgeous set of books!
It’s a gorgeous book
These look lovely books, and some I’ve not heard of before. Will check them out! Thanks for the ideas.
You’re welcome. I hope you enjoy them.
We love ‘Tree’ as well, the illustrations are gorgeous! I’ll have to check out some of the others on your list.
Tree is gorgeous but so are the others too.
Oooh ask those autumn-y colours are making me want to go out for a walk! Might be time for Welly walk today!
I hope you had a nice day. We went for a welly walk.
These books all look amazing – and I love the way you’ve photographed them. I think themed reading really does encourage kids a lot.
Thank you. My eldest particularly is learning so much lately. She just soaks everything up.
Some lovely books here. I like the look of squirrels that squabble. We have a lovely picture book about autumn. It’s great to talk to kids about season changes and help them understand it better.
It’s a really funny book.
Oh my goodness, this is just what I needed. My boys need some new books and I’ve wanted to make there book gallery wall more season. The books look beautiful x
I love seasonal books for kids. I hope your boys enjoy them.
I love the idea of seasonal books, although my son is only 7 months he does love being read to and looking at the pics or the tactile books. I will need to check out the Millie-Mae books. I just bought him Halloween themed ‘That’s Not my’ books the other day which he seemed to enjoy ?
Never too early. I hope he enjoys them. We love that’s not my …. books
Erm, so a few of these gorgeous books just slipped into my Amazon basket 😉 These look great, and the photos made me feel all warm and fuzzy! x
Thank you. I hope you enjoy the books.