Read to Them

July 23, 2012

For my inaugural blog I’m going to talk about baby books, because this has been the summer of baby showers.  I’ve been to three in the last three months, and I’m hosting one for my best friend in two weeks.  This is a little trying, as my husband and I are going through our second round of IVF, but nothing makes me happier than buying books for kids.  As a reading teacher, naturally all of my friends get a couple of books with their gift.  My “goto” board books are Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr, Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr and Eric Carle, and B is for Bear by Roger Priddy.  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a rhyming and rhythmic alphabet book.  Kids love it, because it’s colorful and sounds like a song.  Brown Bear is a pattern book about colors and animals, with great picture support.  It will be one of the first books a kid can memorize and “read.”  (And believing they can read is half the battle.)  B is for Bear is a touch and feel ABC book that also rhymes.  My niece would rub the fuzzy duck for several minutes before we could turn the page.  I also recently found a series of counting books by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver based on classic literature.  I bought Pride and Prejudice: A Babylit Board Book for a Jane Austen fan.  “10 is for 10,000 pounds.”  It’s brilliant.  You can get Jane Eyre, Alice in Wonderland and Romeo and Juliet too. 

When I'm not attending baby showers, I'm visiting friends who have just given birth.  Last week, I met my good friend's four week old and of course I brought books.  She said, “You know we haven’t read to him yet.  I don’t think he can follow a book.”  I showed her the high contrast book I bought.  There is some research that suggests that infants like books with simple black and white pictures.  Look for the authors Peter Linenthal, Smriti Prasadam and Tana Hoban.  I bought Hello, World by Smriti Prasadam for the friend I mentioned.  I particularly liked this book, because the text is a narrative; it doesn’t just label the pictures.  Kids are never too young for stories.  When it comes down to it though, it doesn’t matter what you read a newborn.  They just like to hear the cadence of your voice.  Their brain is learning the sound of oral language when you read to them.  They can’t squirm away, and they haven’t developed any favorites yet, so you can read anything you want to an infant.  You can read them Fifty Shades of Grey if you want.  If things have been a little slow since the baby was born, have your husband listen too.  Kids with strong oral language are better readers, and babies learn oral language from their parents.  We need to start reading to them the minute they are born.  I read my niece her first book at a week old.  (I may have gently scolded my sister for waiting a whole week.)  She’s two now, and last night she picked up Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and “read” it to me over Facetime.  She bounced five fingers to the rhythm of the words and even did a deep voice for the doctor.  I’m taking full credit for her literacy. 

Kristin’s Good Books for Babies

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin and Eric Carle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

B is for Bear by Roger Priddy

Pride and Prejudice: A Babylit Board Book by Jennifer Adams & Alison Oliver

Hello, World by Smriti Prasadam

Look, Look by Peter Linenthal

White on Black by Tana Hoban

Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton

Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton

Toes, Ears and Nose! by Marion Dane Bauer

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow

Goodnight, Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Baby’s First Animals by Hinkler Books