As my son has just turned one, it seems like a great time to reflect on the books that we loved this year. Reading and enjoying picture books together has meant so much to me, to both of us, in this time. It makes me so happy that he now over-enthusiastically grabs picture books out of my hands, eager to turn the pages himself!
When I found out I was expecting , I was really excited about building a collection of books for my baby but I had no idea where to start and what was suitable for babies. For example do you get books with no words? Or should I get tactile, soft books or classic picture books? This was really weird for me, when it comes to books I usually know exactly what to get but this was a whole new world of books to discover. I also heard that there are special black and white books for babies which are easier for them to see, at that stage in their development. I didn't see many of these on general sale in book shops. Lots of parents and librarians I know, suggested that the best thing was just to just make sure you spent time reading to your baby (it didn't technically matter what, I read Harry Potter to my son during the early uncontrolled crying days) and to just enjoy that special bonding time. So I bought a few pictures books and received some lovely ones as presents and at first it was odd, admittedly, but that is what I did until it became habit.
(It turns out that reading to babies from early infancy is great advice, backed up by lots of studies.)
I'm so happy that reading was a part of our lives from the beginning and here were five of absolute favourites.
This is a really great book to read to babies before bed while establishing a bedtime routine, as it is about small animals going to bed. Pretty, dreamy illustrations follow various baby animals and their parents in their natural habitat, as they go to bed for the night. The story is told in a simple rhyme which is almost like a lullaby. I've read this hundreds of times and we never get sick of this. I just came across it by chance but it's a picture book that deserves to be better known.
This was my first introduction to Nick Sharratt's colourful work and it is such a fun picture book! This is a riotous swirl of colour and pop-ups featuring octopuses (you don't see enough of them in children's books!) in various funny scenarios. Babies and kids can interact with the well-thought out pop-ups. My son loves the phonetic octopus nonsense rhymes in it and I love reading it to him in funny voices.
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Baby & toddler picture book royalty! One of the first picture books to feature paper flaps for your child to discover the crazy animals that the zoo has sent, this book is a classic that is frequently recommended by children's librarians. Fun, simple format, illustrations and story. Brings a smile to my son's face every time we read it.
A Poem For Every Night Of The Year edited by Allie Esiri
This is a bit of a wildcard as it isn't really a picture book or a baby book (although the delightful cover art and small inner pictures are created by the very talented illustrator Zanna Goldhawk) but yet...it works really well for bed-time reading and I think we will be getting many years of wonderful reading experiences out of this one. As a child, my father often read poetry to me from his secondary school collection, instead of a bed-time story. I still smile when I hear those poems today.
A Poem For Every Night Of The Year is perfect as babies can appreciate the sounds in the rhymes, and parents can enjoy reading a poem especially chosen to correlate with the time of year and find a deeper appreciation for those little poetic moments in the seasons and in life.
This is a bit of a wildcard as it isn't really a picture book or a baby book (although the delightful cover art and small inner pictures are created by the very talented illustrator Zanna Goldhawk) but yet...it works really well for bed-time reading and I think we will be getting many years of wonderful reading experiences out of this one. As a child, my father often read poetry to me from his secondary school collection, instead of a bed-time story. I still smile when I hear those poems today.
A Poem For Every Night Of The Year is perfect as babies can appreciate the sounds in the rhymes, and parents can enjoy reading a poem especially chosen to correlate with the time of year and find a deeper appreciation for those little poetic moments in the seasons and in life.
Pop-Up Book (Tiger Stores)
This is a pop-up book exploring the under sea world, it was available in UK Tiger stores in early August 2017. There are no words in this book and it was fun to entertain my son with the enticing seascape and paper mechanisms until he started pulling the pop-ups off! Well at least he still enjoys it. I am wishing I bought a back up copy for posterity as I don't think it's in stock any more. There is no reference to the illustrators or designers but presumably they are part of the Tiger team as it is similar to the designs on in-store products.
Of course there are so many other beautiful and special books but these were our absolute top 5. Would love to hear about the book experiences of other parents/librarians/bloggers/picture book fans who have read with this age group!
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