Pro: Your child will love to read books.
Con: Your child will want to read the same book (which may only be a few pages long) repeatedly until you want to hide the book.
And find it she does, regardless of how many distractions surround it.
Here's more recommended reads for baby to beginning readers:
"Christmas Peekaboo" by DK PublishingThis book combines the three elements that are essential to baby books (even if it is no longer seasonal:
1) Certain aspects of the pages (the doll's dress, the santa hat...) have different textured surfaces for your young reader to feel.
2) Bright and colorful images with large, thick pages (especially good if your young reader is teething)
3) Lift-the-flap features, hence the name "Peekaboo"
Even thought it is almost March, we continue to have this book requrest by our baby daughter, and she sometimes will not even wait for us to read the words to lift the "peekaboo" flap.
"First Words Bright Baby" by Roger PriddyI love cartoon drawings, but one thing that seems appealing to my baby girl is seeing photos of actual things, rather than drawings.
Her face lights up as she recognizes some of these real life objects in "First Words," including "girl" and "boy," of course.
This book also features the thick, chewable pages, which are also beneficial if your young reader decides to play before/after reading. Our baby loves to spill all of her books off the shelf onto the floor, for example. These thick little books can take it!
"Teenie Greenies: The Little Recycler" by Jan GerardiAlthough 11 months old is probably too young to be concerned with recycling, my little girl grew fond of this book for one reason:
Lift-the-flaps.
Plus, this book covers more than just remembering to put aluminum in the giant city of Tulsa blue bin instead of the giant gray one. It also mentions sharing old toys and reusing cardboard boxes for playing (complete with lifting the flap to see the kid under the box).
Please share your favorite beginning reader books in the comments!
--Althea Peterson
Related entries:Jan. 28: Baby books: My 10-month old recommends these "reads"Oct. 22: Little parent-child time makes big difference
Baby bit: It was with happy surprise and a lot of shock that our once-wobbly walker is now ungracefully meandering on foot around the house. She usually has her arms around head-level like a baby mummy/zombie for balance, but it is still amazing how fast she went from a few steps to a lot of steps. She'll still fall to the floor (sometimes on purpose) eventually.
This week, my baby is eating:
Carrots, apples and parsnips in a squeeze pouch. My baby was very enthusiastic, to the point of wanting to serve herself (yes, it turned out to be a mess). I definitely need to find something for her to play with other than food during meals.
Althea Peterson is the proud mother of a 11-month old girl. Althea returned to work at the Tulsa World in May after two months of maternity leave. Baby advice, baby questions or baby words of encouragement can be sent to althea.peterson@tulsaworld.com. Also, follow Althea and other parents on Twitter at twitter.com/twbecauseisaid. You can also follow Althea at twitter at twitter.com/a1a4ou.
