Amazing Baby, Five Little DucksI am often asked to recommend baby books and admit I am pretty picky as to what I suggest. Here are some of my criteria for a stimulating and enjoyable book to share with your baby into toddlerhood:

  • simple subject related to your baby’s experience and world
  • lines with lots of rhythm and beat to encourage baby to move 
  • rhyming lines
  • repetition of simple phrases or words that baby hears over and over and can anticipate
  • fun vocabulary related to her world, not limited to “easy” words
  • simple, bold graphics depicting the subject matter, giving parents lots to describe related to the story
  • several beginning concepts embedded in the story form (colors, counting, numbers, prepositions), to carry the story beyond just a baby book into toddlerhood.
Here’s an example of a seemingly simple baby board book that is much more that what it appears:

Five Little Ducks disappear, one by one, ignoring mom’s call to come back to her Quack! A concise number book of subtraction, interactive touch and feel, rhythmic rhyme and bold graphics leads your baby through the circular cut-outs to reveal remaining ducks and flowers to count.  Babies follow the adorable ducks, rocking to the rhythm of the verse, soaking up the rhymes and grabbing the cutouts to turn the pages. Revealing an array of concepts, this baby book takes your little one from her earliest days as a newborn listening to the rhythm of language, through her first year and a half, hearing rhymes, counting ducks and flowers, recognizing numbers, and finishing repeated phrases. This baby book has staying power with plenty of learning for many months.