Favorite Books for Your Baby's First Year and Beyond
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Every time that we ask my pediatrician what we can do to help our son advance verbally and mentally, she says READ TO HIM! And we do read plenty of books to him. I get bored of reading the same books over and over so I have bought him many books. Here are the favorites that we go back to over and over.
S loves books! At 9.5 months, his favorite activity is grabbing books off shelves.
I Kissed the Baby! by Mary Murphy
This is my absolute favorite baby book! We have been reading I Kissed the Baby! to my son multiple times a week since he was about a week old. It is great for the early weeks because it is mainly black and white with splashes of color, so the pictures are interesting to the baby from the start. It doesn't have many words, so baby doesn't get bored, and the storyline is incredibly sweet. It is about a bunch of animals celebrating the birth of a baby and boasting about what interaction they had with the sweet baby.
Noodle Loves Bedtime by Marion Billet (and other books in the "Noodle Loves..." series)
We own four books in this series and my son never gets bored of them. Every page has Noodle and his mom (both in black and white) and lots of colorful images. There are touch and feel and peek-a-boo elements on every spread of each book. My son is nine months old and a bit lazy when it comes to pulling himself up to stand and cruise, but he will do so easily to get to a Noodle book. The specific four that I have are Noodle Loves Bedtime (this one gets the most love from us), Noodle Loves the Zoo, Noodle Loves the Farm and Noodle Loves to Eat. They are all great and look brand new despite how much we use them. The only thing that I'm not crazy about is Noodle's diet choices in Noodle Loves to Eat. One little thing that is nice about these books is that the pages are inset from the cover, so my son can easily open the book and turn the pages.
The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
This book has a lot of words yet my son always sits patiently til the end (which isn't always the case, even with shorter books). I think it is mainly the repetition and sing-song of the book that keeps his attention, but the illustrations are really nice too. I also like that the book imparts a sweet lesson.
Because I was so impressed with this book I also ordered The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark, which is part of the same series. It isn't a bad book, but not up to the level of the The Pout-Pout Fish.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Slide and Find Board Book
I sing the rhyming questions and responses of this book to my son to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This is a new take on the classic Eric Carle book with an interactive element. My son loves to help slide the window on each spread to find the next animal and color. I think that my son will continue to enjoy this book as he gets older. It's also pretty sturdy and would make a nice gift.
Bear and Friends: Bear Snores On; Bear Wants More; Bear's New Friend (The Bear Books)
Like the The Pout-Pout Fish, these books have many words to them but they have a rhythm and repetition that holds my son's attention and each book has a sweet lesson.
Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett
This book contains only five words arranged in clever variations with sweet illustrations. It is simple and sweet. I try to read multiple books to my son each day and a final book as part of his bedtime routine. On nights that we are running late on bed time or he just seems exhausted, I reach for this book as it is a super quick read. I look forward to the day that my son begins to learn and appreciate the concepts illustrated in this book, I'm sure that he will be amused!
What are your favorite books for babies first year? Eventually, I plan to write a post on books for toddlers, so I would love to hear your favorites in that category too!
