It will likely not surprise you to leave that from the time he was very very small, my son was listening to his parents read books to him. Reading is a part of our pre-nap routine, and books are his entertainment as he has a bedtime bottle every night.
My husband and I find ourselves going to the library and bookstore often to find new books to read to our son because it can be a lot to read the same board books over and over.
There are several things I look for when choosing a book to read to my son:
- Books without too many words as his attention span is only too long
- Engaging illustrations
- Some kind of lesson or something to be learned from the book
- Diversity (of people shown, types of families shown, etc)
And without further ado, here are the books we return to over and over again in our house.
Baby Bug by Wednesday Kirwin
This book was a favorite of my nephew’s, so it’s been in our rotation from the beginning of my son’s life. The illustrations are simple, but beautiful. The baby in the story is imagining themself as one of the bugs they see in the garden. I like to think that my baby has those imaginative moments when we’re hanging out in our backyard. The simple rhymes of the book make it easy and fun to read aloud. There are silly moments (like when the baby burps and farts), but there are also sweet moments like when the baby’s mom gives them a cuddle. We often quote the line, “tummy tickle giggle” around our house.
Happy Hippo, Angry Duck by Sandra Boynton
My husband referred to Sandra Boynton as his favorite author the other day, and I’m not sure how much he was joking. I fell in love with this book immediately upon reading it the first time. It begins, “Hello little person, how are you today. Is your mood quite terrific or only okay?” Yes, I quoted that from memory. We for sure ask our baby that question often now. The book then goes through different emotions that one might be feeling. My favorite part of the book though is when the character says, “I hope you are happy, but if you are not, you have friends who will help you, we like you a lot.” This lesson feels so so important. My six month old may not get that just yet, but I hope that sticks with him as he gets older.
Romeo & Juliet: A BabyLit Counting Primer by Jennifer Adams
My mom bought my baby this book, and I was so confused about how a board book was going to tell the story of Romeo and Juliet. Well, spoiler, this one doesn’t. However, it does teach babies to count. (2 lovers, 5 friends, 10 kisses, etc.) The English major in me loves the idea of introducing my baby to classic literature in any way. We have several other books in this BabyLit series including a Great Gatsby one. Each one is intended to teach something different. The Wizard of Oz one goes through all of the colors of the story for example. I also just discovered that the series includes many of Jane Austen’s books, so I will also be ordering all of those right now.
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
This one is a favorite in our house because the story is so funny. The cows in the story go on strike when the farmer refuses to meet their demands for heated blankets. All of the onomatopoeia of the typewriter sounds and the animal sounds in the book makes it so fun to read aloud as well. It is a longer book, so we only bring it out when we know our son will have the attention span for it. However, the storytelling here make it so that we want to return to it again and again. We also love Giggle, Giggle, Quack, which is another book in the series.
We read to our son a lot, and we will always take more recommendations of books to read to him, so please comment here with other books we should add to our regular rotation.
Bubbling up with Helena 