My Favorite Books for Baby
- Michelle Stiles
- Aug 8, 2020
- 5 min read
We have made it a priority to read to Jack since he first came home from the hospital. Actually, we even read to him before he was born. Every night my husband and I each read him a book and then we read one more book alternating who reads each page. It is part of our bedtime routine and probably one of my favorite parts of the day.
Jack also loves to turn the pages, and now that he's older, he will sit and flip through book after book on his own when he's playing during the day. It is adorable!
There are so many benefits that come from reading to your baby. According to KidsHealth from Nemours,
"Reading aloud:
teaches a baby about communication
introduces concepts such as numbers, letters, colors, and shapes in a fun way
builds listening, memory, and vocabulary skills
gives babies information about the world around them
By the time babies reach their first birthday they will have learned all the sounds needed to speak their native language. The more stories you read aloud, the more words your baby will hear and the better they'll be able to talk."
Additionally, an article from Psychology Today tells us that, "Reading to young children is an easy and obvious way to expose them to language. It expands their vocabularies—you don’t have to go to the zoo, for instance, to talk about camels and elephants.
And reading gives parents something to talk about. Those who feel shy or silly talking about the everyday world to a nonverbal child can pick up a book and instantly launch into lively language.
Furthermore, the rhythm, repetition, and rhyme of children’s books help lay down the neural networks kids need for reading.
Nonetheless, a national survey found that only 60 percent of parents in middle-class families read to children every day."
Only 60 percent!
Well, if you feel like you're not reading to your baby enough, or if you just want some ideas of fun books to read to your baby, read on for some of our favorites.
One of our favorite books to read is, Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night?, by Brianna Caplan Sayres. We received this book at our first baby shower from Jon's cousin who said it was one of her son's favorite books. It is an adorable book all about where different trucks sleep at night and what their parents say to them as they put them to bed. It has a great cadence and rhythm, adorable illustrations, and the sweetest story for each truck!
I also found out that it is part of a series of books! Other books in the series include:
There's also a board box set of Where Do Diggers, Trains, and Planes Sleep at Night? if you want to get three of the books!
I even found a Christmas edition called, Where Do Diggers Celebrate Christmas? and now I need to go buy all of these!
Another favorite book of ours is If Animals Kissed Goodnight, by Ann Whitford Paul. It is the sweetest book all about what different animals would do if they kissed goodnight like we do. It tells the proper names for adult and baby animals so babies and children can learn the different names of animals and has the sweetest illustrations! It also has a great cadence and adjectives.
I'm also seeing that this is a series as well, which includes:
And, If Animals Went to School, which is a new release!
Of course we all know the classics:
One thing that makes a book a favorite besides the story it tells, is the illustrations! We have several books with the same illustrator, Tim Warnes. I just love his illustrations as well as the stories told in these books, which have made them favorites of ours as well!
I Love You As Big As The World is a book told from a parent to a child comparing how much the parent loves their child to things like the deep sea, the high mountains, and, as the title says, the world. It is the sweetest story of a parents love for their child that also introduces things like the morning dew, the sun, and the wind.
I Love You to the Moon and Back is a similar book that once again is a parent telling their child how much they love them and how much they love the different things they get to do together throughout their day.
And we most recently got, I'm Going to Give You a Bear Hug for Jack's birthday from my sister, his Aunt Mae! It is the cutest book about a mama giving her child a goodnight hug and comparing that hug to all kinds of different animals and describing how different animals would hug you. At the beginning of the story the mother is wearing an outfit that is bright green with pink polka dots and as each animal is shown in the story they have the same pink and green pattern somewhere on them. What a fun way to show that is the mama giving all of these hugs, and as children get older it would be so fun to have them try to find the pattern on each page!
As you know, our family loves the outdoors, and my husband found a series of books by a company called Smile Outside. Smile Outside children’s books are by James and Luke Jubran and focus on different aspects of the outdoors as well as conservation. One of the best parts of their books is that “$.50 per book goes to Conservation Organizations who create, protect and manage healthy lands, waters and wildlife.” Not only are they teaching children about the outdoors, they are teaching them how to conserve the beautiful land in this country.
We have Conservation Series 1, and they just came out with Conservation Series 2, which is available for pre-order now!
We also love any Sandra Boynton book, especially:
Snuggle Puppy, which Jack always let's a big smooching sound out right on cue during!
And my mom's favorite, and one she read to us when we were little, Doggies! She is a pro at making every dog sound in this book.
The last book we read every night is Good Night Vermont by Michael Tougias and Cooper Kelly. We started reading it to Jack every night before we moved to Vermont and continued after we moved here.
If you aren't familiar with them,"The Good Night Books Series of board books has been designed and developed since 2005 to celebrate special places and themes in a way that young children, ages 0-5, can easily relate to and enjoy with their families. All the books are written and illustrated with a simplicity that captures the “essence” of each subject and place." We also have Good Night Dinosaur and are hoping to collect many more of the Good Night Series (there are 191 books in the series)! Plus, as I was looking at the website I found some very exciting information: "In this time of the Covid-19 crisis, in order to support families with young children stuck at home, Good Night Books is posting a free daily book for your enjoyment." How fun is that?!
I could go on and on and list many more books that we love, but here are just a few of our favorites! I hope you find some new books to read to your little one and enjoy reading to your baby as much as possible. Now I need to go update our budget so I can buy the rest of these adorable series! Happy reading!
Aw, I love these books! I will say, now I have a bias toward The Pout-Pout Fish now too. Blub!