Picture Books to Read with 5-Year-Olds: Recommended Titles to Make Winter More Fun
The cold season is perfect for enjoying picture books indoors.
Here, we’ll introduce a variety of winter picture books just right for five-year-olds—stories that let them feel the changing seasons and the wonders of nature.
From falling snow and how animals live, to warm family moments, these seasonal tales will make children’s curiosity sparkle.
Even on chilly days, why not take a journey into the world of imagination through a favorite picture book? Explore the delightful world of winter-themed picture books together with your children!
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- March: Picture Books Recommended for Enjoying with 5-Year-Olds
Books to Read with a 5-Year-Old! Recommended Picture Books to Enjoy Winter (1–10)
The Secret Room of Wild Rose Village
If there were a secret room in your house that you’d never entered before, some children would surely be thrilled, wouldn’t they? This is a picture book that sparks that very curiosity.
It also features wonderful illustrations that heighten the excitement.
You can sense the book’s world through the artwork, and some people even buy the book for the illustrations alone.
The festival where the little mice celebrate winter in their rural life is depicted with great care.
Experience curiosity and the beautiful lives of the mice as you read this picture book.
Osechi (traditional Japanese New Year’s cuisine)
As the title suggests, this picture book introduces only osechi, the traditional New Year’s dishes.
Today’s osechi often features crowd-pleasers like chicken nuggets, sausages, and fried shrimp, but in the past it was filled with foods like kelp rolls, herring roe, and black soybeans—each with its own meaning and story.
This book presents those classic dishes in a rhythmic style—“kinton, kinkan, golden, gleaming.
May wealth pile up and overflow”—that will make you want to add your own melody and sing along.
The illustrations are so beautiful you might mistake them for photographs.
It’s a book you’ll want to read while you’re making osechi at home!
The Nutcracker
A story that has long been beloved: on Christmas night, a magical adventure begins that fills children with excitement.
The young heroine meets a mysterious nutcracker, faces the Mouse King, and journeys to the Land of Sweets.
The colorful balls and the sparkling world of confections will greatly expand children’s imaginations.
With each turn of the page, a magical world unfolds, making this a book that adults can enjoy alongside children as they embark on a dreamlike adventure.
It also makes a perfect Christmas gift, so be sure to read it together with the grown-ups, too.
Books to read with a 5-year-old! Recommended picture books that make winter fun (11–20)
Elephant’s Big Snowy Walk
With their long noses and necks, elephants and giraffes might be the animals that first capture children’s interest.
The picture book series Elephant’s Walk, starring such an elephant, has been loved for over 50 years, and this is its fifth installment.
It’s a heartwarming thought: mothers who grew up reading Elephant’s Walk now reading this book aloud to their own children.
As always, the cheerful elephant sets off on a stroll, eager to show his friends the heavy snow piled on his back… With its simple, delightful repetition, this is a book you’ll want to read again and again.
On a magical night
Everyone knows that reindeer pull Santa Claus’s sleigh, right? But did you know that before the reindeer, a single horse once filled that role? This picture book tells the story of how reindeer came to pull the sleigh.
The protagonist is Dashser the reindeer.
The dreamlike illustrations are as beautiful as paintings, and Santa Claus himself appears in the tale.
Let this book help you feel the magic of Christmas.
The voice of snow
Snow seems to have a way of absorbing sound, and people say that the silence of a snowy country’s night is a feeling only those who live there can truly understand.
Can you imagine a world where every sound is swallowed up? This is a book that portrays only the world of snow and the sounds snow makes—one I especially hope people living in areas with little snowfall will pick up.
The page that expresses the sound of stepping on snow as “kusususu!” is fantastic.
It also sounds fun to talk with your child about the title and ask, “I wonder what the voice of snow is?”
Gifts from the Snowy Forest
This exquisitely beautiful book by Dutch artist Linde Faas, depicting a Nordic world of snow, irresistibly calls to mind Disney’s hit film Frozen.
Sophie, the protagonist, is left alone at Christmas because her father is busy with work.
Lost in a snowy realm, she meets a gentle moose and steps into a mysterious world…
The vast, wintry otherworld feels both wondrous and strangely nostalgic.
It’s a highly recommended work that adults can enjoy just as much as children.