At a year and a half, I'm not sure what the child is more interested in - the pictures or the tone of your voice. At that age plot doesn't seem to be a big issue.
I was a big fan of Enid Blyton as a child. I had a wonderful illustrated copy of The Magic Wishing Chair. My mother used to read it to me and change some of the text so that the male/female roles as written by Blyton were not passed on to me (I found out this later, obviously). So Dick would do the washing up while Fanny went out to help father in the garden (I wonder why I recalled these two names...
).
Some classic tales may be good too - for example Peter Pan, which is a lovely story, albeit a bit scary in parts (omit at will!). Given how young your son is, you'd want to have illustrations to go along with it.
Other wonderfully illustrated books that I recall, although it might be premature for your son at this stage, are:
- Animalia (you can tell your own stories with this one)
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Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker (a beautiful book where all the pictures are collaged)
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Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book
- I also recall an illustrated book of Rudyard Kiplings, but whether it was The Jungle Book or a collection of short stories I can't recall.
And the following have an Australian focus, so they may not be available or what you're looking for, but I'll put them down here in case someone searches this thread.
- The Quinkins series of books about the Aboriginal people.
- How the Kookaburra Got Its Laugh (there is a whole collection of these Dreamtime stories with bright vibrant colours and simple stories that are nice and short but allow discussion. 'How the Kangaroo Got it's Tail', etc).
Just as an interim read before Conrad.
