The purpose of the current study was to examine how maternal reading strategies and book type would impact on toddlers' responsiveness as they became familiar with three books. Eleven mothers and their 2- to 3-year-olds were recorded reading the same set of three different books (i.e. word book, narrative book and no narrative book) on four occasions. Toddlers were more likely to respond when mothers used positive feedback, positive motivating strategies and questions than labelling and reading text for the word book and the no narrative book. When they were read these two books, toddlers also increased their likelihood of responding across sessions. In later sessions, toddlers were more likely to respond when mothers used positive feedback, positive motivating and verbal questioning even though maternal reading strategies did not change across sessions. The implications of these findings for literacy programmes for families that help parents read to their children and/or provide books to families are discussed.