The 8 Best Books on How to Raise Toddlers, According to Child-Development Experts

When you were getting ready to be a first-time parent, you might have read one or two pregnancy and baby books and maybe even took a couple of classes to prepare for the arrival of your little bundle of joy. But what happens after the first year of life when that baby turns into an independence-seeking toddler? To help you navigate the terrible twos and beyond, we consulted child psychologists, therapists, authors, and developmental experts to create a reading list of the best books on how to raise toddlers with patience and understanding. Our panel of experts include Sarah S. MacLaughlin, author of What Not to Say: Tools for Talking With Young Children and senior writer at Zero to Three; Dr. Stephanie Lee, a psychologist at the Child Mind Institute; Dr. Eileen Kennedy-Moore, author of forthcoming book What's My Child Thinking?; Maureen Healy, author of The Emotionally Healthy Child: Helping Children Calm, Center, and Make Smarter Choices; child psychologist Dr. George Sachs and author of The Mad Sad Happy Book: Emotional Literacy for Preschoolers; child and family psychotherapist Joseph Sacks; child therapist Michelle Paget; psychotherapist Matt Lundquist; Dr. Sarah Roseberry Lytle, director of outreach and education at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences; British parenting expert Sarah Ockwell-Smith, author of Gentle Discipline: Using Emotional Connection -- Not Punishment -- to Raise Confident, Capable Kids; and speech-language pathologist Gordy Rogers. As always, each title below was mentioned by at least two of our panelists -- and in the case of one our picks, by nearly half of them.