Winter picture books 1-year-olds will love! A heartwarming collection of read-aloud ideas
On cold winter days, picture-book time is perfect for cozy moments with a 1-year-old.
Especially at this age, picture books play an important role in expanding their world of words.
With winter-themed books, the scenes outside the window overlap with the world in the book, drawing little ones even deeper into the story.
Here, we’ll introduce winter picture books that speak to a 1-year-old’s heart, featuring snow, winter animals, and warm ways to spend the season.
Use this as a guide to enjoy a wonderful winter time with your 1-year-old!
Winter picture books that delight 1-year-olds! A collection of heartwarming read-aloud ideas (1–10)
red gloves
This picture book charms with its gentle illustrations and storytelling, focusing on a child’s red mittens.
The two red mittens are always together, warmly wrapping a pair of small hands.
They helped when the child made a snowman for the first time and when rolling snowballs.
The way the red mittens are spoken of like close friends leaves your heart feeling softly warmed.
Children often lose their mittens, so if they think of them as friends like this, they might take better care of them.
In this book, the child loses one of the red mittens, too.
Let’s hope it’s found safe and sound…
Pikopiko the Rabbit
A rabbit parent and child find a basket in the forest.
When they open it, they discover a stuffed rabbit named Pikopiko inside.
The rabbits look puzzled at its appearance, which is a little different from their own.
Pikopiko keeps being fussy—refusing tiny strawberries and insisting it can’t sleep without a fluffy blanket and a music box.
But freshly picked strawberries are delicious, and a blanket of leaves is warm…
In the end, they spend time together like a real family.
It might remind you a little of a child going through the “no” phase.
The Mochi’s Feelings
It seems mochi have worries that only mochi can understand.
The star of this picture book is a splendid kagami mochi.
But its expression is anything but cheerful… Apparently, it’s on edge, wondering when it’s going to be eaten.
Being eaten means being torn and kneaded—enough to make any mochi dread the whole ordeal.
Some children might even think, “Poor Mr.
Mochi,” but don’t worry.
The kagami mochi escapes on its own two feet, and a surprising turn of events awaits! It’s a delightful winter tale about mochi.
Be sure to give it a read.
Daruma-chan and Tengu-chan
Speaking of popular New Year’s decorations, daruma dolls come to mind, don’t they? The protagonist of this story is also a red daruma boy named Daruma-chan.
Daruma-chan becomes envious of the things his friend Tengu-chan has and keeps saying, one after another, “I want the ___ that Tengu-chan has.” Then, using his own ideas and flashes of inspiration, he makes those wishes come true, and in the end he turns into something truly wonderful.
It’s a book full of a childlike sense of admiration and the joy of becoming what you admire.
Reading it is sure to bring a smile to your face.
brown bear
From autumn to winter…
and then spring.
This is the story of a brown bear mother and her cub, told alongside the changing seasons.
In autumn, brown bears eat plenty of nuts and fruit; when winter comes, they spend their time in a den—and that’s when new life is born.
What might the cub feel as it bursts from the dark den into the warm, vivid world of spring? The illustrations, rendered mainly in black, are a bit distinctive, yet they also convey a certain warmth.
Bears are popular animals among children, so I hope this picture book offers a glimpse into a bear’s life.
Speaking of winter…
This is a book where you can enjoy all sorts of things related to winter.
Speaking of snowmen? Cold hands.
Speaking of cold hands? Mittens… and so on, like a word-association game.
With each page you turn, you can feel winter from different perspectives.
It’s a small picture book just the right size for babies and toddlers, so they can turn the pages themselves and have fun.
The simple illustrations are easy to understand, making it a great first seasonal picture book for winter.
After reading, try finding lots of wintry things around the house or on a walk.
Mocchiin
Let me introduce the picture book “Mocchiin,” packed with the fun and deliciousness of mochi.
The first page shows a mochi-pounding scene using a mortar and pestle.
It also teaches various tasty ways to enjoy mochi, such as with seaweed, kinako, and natto.
The adorable illustrations feature mochi with little faces, and the vertical page layout beautifully expresses mochi stretching.
When children hear the countdown—3, 2, 1—they’ll likely say “Mocchiin!” and strike a stretching pose along with the mochi.
Just imagining it is absolutely adorable, isn’t it?