I have been reading stories to my daughters since they were in the womb. I believe that reading aloud to your kids is not only fun and educational, but soothing and can become a hugely enjoyable ritual for you (even caregivers) and your kids.

Studies show that it help kids acquire skills and information they will need in life, such as word meanings, learning about their world, and gaining an appreciation and love for reading.

Reading also helps children improve their language skills. The child learns to recognize written words. Studies say that reading before going to bed helps the child feel secure and comfortable while sleeping. Emotions can be best understood through the characters in stories. Experts recommend reading to your child/children 20 minutes a day - preferable one-on-one reading. This 20 minutes can even be broken up into shorter time frames, like twice a day for 10 minutes.

Create a comfortable place where you often sit and read aloud to your child. Help them learn as you read - ask questions about the story or the pictures as you read to them. Read all kinds of books. Kids will develop favorite books and will want to read them over and over again - don't get frustrated, just go with it and enjoy the fact that your child has a love of stories! Encourage your older toddler (3+) to help complete sentences once they become familiar with stories. Ask them to predict what will happen by looking at the illustrations.

All young children love to ask questions when they are read to because they all have curious little minds. Reading one-on-one provides children with the best opportunity to ask all the questions they want about the pictures, the story, or whatever may be burning in their minds.

Dr. Seuss: The Foot Book, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?, and There's a Wocket in My Pocket! These books were favorites of my girls for a long time - in fact my youngest, who's now 2.5 still loves The Foot Book. The picture above is of my oldest daughter reading The Foot Book aloud to herself (before she could even speak)! These are just plain classics.

The Real Mother Goose Touch & Feel Book - classic and easy to memorize nursery rhymes, plus fun textures to feel and learn about.

The Going To Bed Bookby Sandra Boynton- we read this to both my girls just about every single night from birth until they were almost 2! I can still recite it word for word without even cracking the cover!

Goodnight Gorilla is a picture book, no words - you make up the words as you go which come easy because the pictures tell the story for you. As your child gets older, they will enjoy "reading" this one to themselves and it's so fun to hear them make up the story themselves!

Katie Cat is a simple pop-up book that comes with a tiny, flat stuffed cat that "interacts" with the story. At 4, my oldest STILL loves for me to read this to her while she acts out the story with the cat.

My Melody's New Bike is a a cute story that the kids just seem to enjoy over and over again.

Good Night, Good Night Sleepyhead is a great bedtime story!

My Little Animal Book is not a story book, as it's mainly pictures of all kinds of animals that are grouped into categories. It is interactive, like asking you to find the baby animal that goes with the mommy animal and such. My youngest had to "read" this book every single night at bedtime for months and months; she even liked to sleep with it in her crib!

From Head to Toe, Polar Bear Polar Bear, Baby Bear Baby Bear- all by Eric Carle. There's something about the repetitiveness of the text in these books that make kids just love them!

Planes by Barton - simple but fun to read; my daughter loves to point out the airplanes and what they are doing.

Karen Katz books: Excuse Me, No Hitting, I Can Share, Where is Baby's Bellybutton - these all flap books, which is so fun for the kids. These are good because the actual flaps are large - almost the whole page size. Some other books with small flaps end up getting torn too easily.

The Carrot Seed by Krauss - simple story about a boy who was determined to grow a carrot.  Great lesson about perseverance.  Great classic, retro look. 60th anniversary edition!

Hands Are Not For Hitting- my little one loved this book. I got it for her because she started developing a hitting habit and I thought it might help. Okay, i have to admit that it didn't really help even as much as she loved this book! We still repeat "hands are not for hitting" on occasion, though. So even though it didn't stop the hitting (time did, however) it is still a great book about teaching a lesson and kids enjoy reading along and lifting the flaps.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt - This book is a wonderful book to act out while reading aloud. It has a lot of repetition, which kids enjoy and it makes it easy for the kids to memorize and that makes it fun to read together - we had a lot of fun with this one for a long time! This Anniversary Edition was just released in September 2009.

I Dreamt I was a Dinosaur - what kid doesn't like dinosaurs and leaning about their strange names?

Secret Seahorse - nice rhyming story; kids can interact and find where on the page the seahorse is hiding.

Go Away, Big Green Monster - GREAT book! At first the cover picture scared my kids, but I convinced them to listen to the book and they loved it immediately - puts control of the monsters into their hands!

But I Waaannt It! - Dr. Laura Schlessinger writes very well. This story is cute and it teaches patience and charity. Because of this book, my daughter is always wanting to give some of her toys to kids who don't have toys.

Blueberries for Sal- Cool, retro-ish illustrations and good story - the kids seem to just love it. They like repeating the "kaplink, kaplunk" and other sounds.

Oliver Who Would Not Sleep - Great bedtime book. The boy has a healthy imagination and must exhaust himself before he's ready to sleep.

Where Are You?- The kids enjoy this sweet tale about a cute little dog that gets lost in the grocery store, finds his grandpa, then accuses his grandpa of getting lost!

Five Little Monkeys - Fun and funny rhyming story that makes you laugh - and can be acted out by the kids.

Midnight Fairies- a few cute stories in one book and each one has a built-in jigsaw puzzle. My daughter loves to have me read the book to her, then she plays with the puzzles in bed after story time.

The Girl In The Castle Inside The Museum - lovely story and some of the prettiest illustrations I have seen.

Llama, Llama Mad at Mama - My daughter can't get enough of these rhyming adventures of a funny looking Llama.

Llama, Llama Red Pajama - good for bedtime

Llama, Llama Misses Mama- good for kids about to start school or preschool

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly - fun to sing!

Miss Mary Mack - Have a blast trying to teach your child to do pat-a-cake with this one!

The Wheels On The School Bus - Fun to sing this one, too.

The Lady With The Alligator Purse - Funny rhyme.

Dare I assume that no explanation is necessary for these few:

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Where The Wild Things Are

Goodnight Moon

Curduroy

Both my girls (2.5 and 4) LOVE the I Spy Phonics Fun book set - fun to watch the "wheels turning" as they search for the hidden objects.