Books in Abundance--Baby Board Books

Hello fellow MOPS moms,

It's never too early to start introducing the concepts of early literacy with your children. Thankfully, libraries and bookstores have made your task of helping the birth to 2 year crowd enjoy books even easier with sturdy board books that are just right for little hands to hold, turn and explore.  What makes a good board book for this age?  Here are some general criteria to look for that I have found to be true, both in my home and in working with children in the library world.  (Many of these books can be found in both paper and board book versions because they stay enjoyable past the age of "less gentle" readers.)

- Simplistic pictures

 

Two authors who do a great job with simple illustrations are Eric Carle and Byron Barton. Eric Carle is well known for classic books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  These books are also nice because they have a repeated text that is easy to predict.  Even before children can enjoy the whole text, you can use these books to talk about what food or animals are on the pages.

 

Byron Barton is famous for books on simple concepts with child-like illustrations.  My son really loved his vehicle themed books like Trains or Trucks.  I also enjoy his Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs book which names some common dinosaur species with very simple text. Dinosaur lovers start young.

- Realistic photographs

 

Looking at realistic photographs with babies can help them build vocabulary and language skills.  Roger Priddy authors the Bright Baby series of books, like Animals, shown above. They can spark great dialogue about animal sounds or where you might see each animal.  I also like the Say and Play series of board books by Sterling Publishing Company.  One title is Colors.  Each page has just one picture and one word like "green" and some grapes.  

- High contrast shapes

Babies focus very well on high contrast shapes, such as the ones featured in Black and White by Tana Hoban.  Hoban has several books that follow this idea, so you can get several. These are great for dialogue on shape identification, which will eventually lead to letter identification and other symbols.

- Touch and Feel Books

 

Babies are very sensory and love to touch things to better understand the world around them. Touch and Feel books are a great way to interact with books beyond just the text or the pictures.  You can use these books to introduce some texture words like "bumpy" and "furry." One of my favorite touch and feel series is That's Not My ____.  (Duck, Train, Dinosaur, Monster, Princess, etc).  DK Publishing also has a large selection of great touch and feel books like Wild Animals.

- Simple Rhyming Text

 

I know of no author who does simple rhyming text for babies better than Sandra Boynton. My son loved these books, and they are readily available at libraries and thrift stores. Boynton blends the rhyming text well with silly plots and likable animal characters.  Hippos Go Berserk and Moo, Baa, La La La! are sure to be two of your favorites as well.

As this list of board book criteria is in no way comprehensive, it will at least give some good places to start.  The best thing is to start sharing books with your children, whether they end up approving of my book picks or find their own favorites.  Look forward to next month when I will explore books with more of a seasonal theme (think Thanksgiving and Christmas).

--Emily Hawkins