4 First Story Treasury & Collection Books for Ages 2–6 (A Perfect Starting Point)

 

Not all story treasuries are the same — some are picked up once, while others quietly stay and become part of everyday reading. 

1. Ladybird Stories for 3 Year Olds— Joan Stimson and Ingela Peterson

Though clearly meant for 3-year-olds, this book, containing three delightful stories, can easily be read and enjoyed up to 5 years of age. The stories are light and fun to read, and children are likely to enjoy them with full attention.

The stories are about a panda, a crocodile, and penguins. The first story is about a little girl, Lucy, and her panda, which came as a gift from her dad. The second is about a little boy, Ben, and his pet crocodile, while the last is about a penguin family.

The stories are written in short, simple sentences, have cute and colourful illustrations, and each ends with a touch of gentle humour.

Age: 3–5
Best for: early independent listening, short attention spans, and light, everyday reading

2. The Nursery Collection: Round and Round the Garden and other Action Songs— compiled and edited by Caroline Repchuk 

This book has 65 nursery rhymes, mostly fingerplay rhymes, lap rhymes, or action songs — something toddlers will love. Most of the rhymes are traditional classics, along with some newer traditional-style ones, so it will feel a bit different from the typical rhymes children hear these days.

Rhymes like Here sits the Lord Mayor and Here’s the Lady’s Knives and Forks have been enjoyed for decades, and little ones will love them when paired with the actions clearly shown in the instructions at the bottom of each page.

Some classic rhymes like There was a Little Turtle and This is the Way the Ladies Ride go back to the early 20th century and even earlier, passed down through generations — and it’s quite enjoyable to read them aloud while revisiting them yourself too.

The best part about this book is that you won’t run out of rhymes or action ideas for a while. The clear instructions guide how to involve the child — with movements like clapping hands, snapping fingers, pointing, shaking the head, and more. This makes reading time interactive and helps build a lovely bond between parent and child.

Not only is it a great collection for reading aloud, but also a book worth keeping in your own collection.

Age: 1.5–4
Best for: interactive play, bonding time, action rhymes and movement-based reading 

3. Nursery Treasury — Miles Kelly

This book has a total of 132 rhymes and poems, along with 29 stories. The stories are mostly fairy tales and children’s classics, and feature many European folk tales, such as the Swedish folk tale The Magic Porridge Pot and the English folktale Teeny-Tiny.

What feels different about this book compared to the previous treasury in the list is the presence of many older traditional rhymes like Who Killed Cock Robin and Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?, dating back to at least the 18th century, which were not included there.

It has a larger and more varied collection — with both the well-known rhymes we hear often and the older traditional ones that are now less commonly used. There are also literary children’s poems like Ducks’ Ditty and The Cow, along with modern school verse like High in the Pine Tree.

In this book too, there are instructions given below some of the rhymes where actions can be added, though I found the instructions and visual guidance in the previous book slightly easier to follow.

From Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to poems by Christina Rossetti and Robert Louis Stevenson, there is a wide range to explore. The rhymes, poems, and stories are well organised and clearly distinguished through the design. While the stories include smaller illustrations within the text, the rhymes and poems are presented with full-page illustrations and coloured borders, making them easy to identify.

The contents section also groups the material into themes like animals, bedtime, counting, and more, making it easy to pick something based on mood and interest.

The illustrations are done by various artists, so the book offers a mix of styles throughout.

A lovely book to have, especially when you want to return to familiar rhymes or explore something that feels a little less common.

Age: 3–7
Best for: a wide mix of rhymes, poems and stories, revisiting classics, and longer read-aloud sessions

4. The Children’s Treasury: Fairy Tales, Nursery Rhymes and Nonsense Verse — Edited by Alice Mills

This book feels like finding a treasure that can keep you sorted for weeks, even months. A well-organised treasury, it begins with nursery rhymes, followed by fairy tales, then Aesop’s fables, and finally concludes with nonsense verse.

There are 49 fairy tales, 18 Aesop’s fables, 10 nonsense verses, and more than 150 traditional nursery rhymes and classic literary children’s poems. So the choice here for poems is much wider than in the two previous treasuries in this list. The only difference is that, unlike the other two where instructions are given for actions, that element is missing here.

The stories are also greater in number, with some uncommon ones that my child had never heard before, like The Travelling Companion, The Story without an End, and The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was, among others. This is a clear plus as far as the collection of stories goes.

The illustrations are majestic, appearing on every page for the poems, nonsense verse, and Aesop’s fables, and almost on every page or within the text for the fairy tales. Here you will find the original artwork of great illustrators like Caldecott, Boyle, Crane, Doyle, and many more — reason enough to keep a copy for yourself. 

A great book to have in one’s collection, one that children can return to with nostalgia later in life.

Age: 3–6
Best for: slightly longer reading sessions, a mix of rhymes and stories, and children ready to explore beyond simpler collections 

Final Thoughts

A good story treasury is one you don’t finish in a day — it stays around, to be opened again and again, quietly becoming a part of your child’s routine — a rhyme today, a story tomorrow. 

Once your child gets comfortable with shorter collections like these, you can explore larger story treasury books with more variety and longer reads.