The 10 Best Fish Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers

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10 fantastic fish books for toddlers who love all things ocean! Including non-fiction, picture books, and storytime kids books about fish.

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The Best on a Budget

The Rainbow Fish

Hello, World! Ocean Life

Good Night Fish

Earlier this year, we were able to visit Europe’s largest Aquarium in Valencia, Spain, and ever since then our daughter has been chatting away about dolphins and penguins and fish – and more!

Always wanting to do what we can to encourage her interests, we’re currently riding a bit of an ocean theme in our house. We’re doing our best to encourage the learning by stocking up on fish books for kids, using our ocean sensory bottle, and looking for fish in local rivers and the ocean.

With that in mind, I thought I’d put together a roundup of some of the best fish books for toddlers and preschoolers. Worth noting, we haven’t included one of our favorite fish books for kids — Fish Eyes — in this round up, since it’s already included in the round up of our favorite preschool counting books.

If you have a fish lover on your hands and need ideas for the best fish books for kids, we’re here to help! These books cover all sorts of ocean life, from sharks and whales and penguins all the way to rainbow fish!

Without further delay, here are our 10 best books for kids who love the ocean.

The Best Fish Books for Kids: Picture Books, Non Fiction Books & Storytime Books

The Rainbow Fish

The beautiful colors and shiny foil-stamped artwork will draw your kiddo right into this sweet story. It features a proud and beautiful fish who learns some valuable life-lessons: choosing friendship over material goods and vanity, that giving is better than getting, and learning how to share with friends. A very sweet picture book with a sweet story to boot.

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Hello, World! Ocean Life

Part of an educational non-fiction series, this book will introduce your little one to all sorts of ocean creatures and facts. It has cute and friendly illustrations and portrays the information with super simple wording that even the littlest readers will understand. Prepare to chat to your little one about whales, dolphins, sharks, octopuses, seashells, seahorses, crabs, lobsters, sea turtles, fish, and jellyfish. Expect beautiful illustrations with interesting facts in the fun nonfiction books in this series.

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Good Night Fish

This book is full of simple but accurate and colorful illustrations of over 15 different fish species. Sprinkled with fun facts and sweet and easy dialogue, it’s the perfect combination of learning and entertainment. Your little one will be introduced to swordfish, flying fish, flashlight fish, angel fish, parrotfish, catfish, butterfly fish, salmon, tuna, clownfish, groupers, puffer fish, sawfish, sharks, seahorses, bass, and piranhas!

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Big Fish Little Fish

Featuring sing-songy rhymes and the idea of opposites, Big Fish Little Fish is a great book to keep toddlers and preschoolers engaged. As a bonus, it is full of bright colors and fish-shaped finger holes. Good mix of vocabulary for little ones who are working on learning opposites.

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National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of the Ocean

Your little one is ready to soak up information like a sponge, and this book delivers with full profiles of over 100 of the ocean’s most popular and fascinating creatures. Both parents and their kiddos will enjoy delving into the most interesting facts about each animal. As you might expect from a Nat Geo book, the photographs are beautiful, too! If you’re looking for more nonfiction books for kids, this is a great picture book with facts for learning about the ocean and different sea life.

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One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

A Dr. Seuss classic, this book will keep little ones entertained with the silly and catchy rhymes. And when they are a bit older, it is the perfect book to help beginning readers with phonics. Very silly, as you’d expect of Dr. Seuss, with some good opposites and adjectives included as well. Definitely a classic among fish books for kids!

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Hooray for Fish!

This sweet board book is great for toddler-aged kiddos and includes a friendly little fish who wants to introduce us to all of his fishy friends. It has simple, rhyming sentences to describe each fish and bright and cheerful illustrations.

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Pop-up Peekaboo: Under the Sea

Full of seemingly plush and colorful fish, this book is based on an exciting game of hide-and-seek. A sea creature hides behind each flap and the words offer simple clues so your little one can guess who it is before they are revealed.

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Where is Little Fish?

Your kiddo’s best fishy friend is back in this book, only this time he’s playing hide-and-seek. They’ll love lifting the flaps to discover who’s hiding behind the coral and inside the shell.

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The Pout-Pout Fish

Featuring a pouty fish who can’t seem to help but spread the dreary-wearies all over the place, your little one will love the sweet and repetitive rhyme that carries the pout-pout fish on his journey towards transformation.

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What are your favorite fish books for toddlers? Did we miss any?

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