The Baby Book Nook

Hello! I've moved to Poughkeepsie (New York, not Arkansas) and started a free online magazine about books for babies. It's called All A Board! and can be accessed via a title search at issuu.com or by clicking here . It offers a peek at new and upcoming board titles. Age icons help match babies to books based on stages of development. Articles focus on the people that make board books happen and early book sharing. The first issue is out. What's on top of your read-aloud stack?

It's tomato season in Louisiana. Translation: Tomato sandwich season!  Two slices of white lightly toasted, thick slabs of juicy red goodness, Blue Plate mayo, a sprinkle of salt. Summer HEAVEN.   Does your tot take to tomatoes? Does she beam at the sight of green beans? Does eggplant egg cite him? I thought not. Board books can help.   In their 2014 article Let's look at Leeks! Picture Books Increase Toddlers' Willingness to Look At, Taste and Consume Unfamiliar Vegetables , UK r esearchers Philippa Heath, Carmel Houston-Price and Orla B. Kennedy conclude that reading books about veggies to a two-year-old can increase his interest in the nutritious fare.  Study participants were more apt to eye, try and eat more of a vegetable that they'd read about with their moms, given the vegetable was new to them.  The children in the study were 19 to 26 months of age, which is important because strictly speaking study results relate only to same-aged kiddos. Moms wer...

Give yourself and your baby a present.  Time. Time together, apart-from-others time. No ring tones. No sass tones. No Ho! Ho! Ho!  Quiet, one-on-one book time, one-on-one look time. Sleepy head, head on shoulder time.  Quiet LOUD (2003) by Leslie Patricelli .

There's still time! I traveled north this past Thanksgiving: 48 auto hours made possible by CD's, audio books and coffee, no cream, no sugar. A new purchase, You are My Little Bird (2006) by Elizabeth Mitchell, was among the mix. If you need a last minute baby gift, or clap happy entertainment for car seated little ones, this is it. You are My Little Bird is a compilation of children's folk songs sung in clear soft tones by Mitchell and friends. Most are in English, one is in Spanish, one in Japanese, one Korean. A favorite of mine, "Little Liza Jane," takes me back to Preservation Hall in New Orleans. Best books for very young babies carry rhythm and rhyme. Songs on paper. Young babies, ears awash in language sounds, face the daunting task of parceling and making sense of what they hear. Playful, beat-driven verse helps. Anthony Seeger, former Director Emeritus of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and You are My Little Bird 's producer, writes, M...

Count My Kisses, 1, 2, 3 and Red, Green, Blue, I Love You , both published in June of this year, were recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on September 11, 2013. Check your book stacks. For details, click here .

Dear Dad, Do you like my hat? This phrase brings back very vivid memories of morning and evening greetings in the Allentown house. Waking up to Go, Dog. Go! quotes and eating cinnamon toast with my knees tucked into my over-sized, worn-out, Eagles t-shirt. That pretty much encapsulates ages five through nine. I know that when you said it you were basically guaranteed a comment and an eye roll about your clearly hatless head, but I hope you know that as an adult, it has become one of my favorite memories of my Dad. I love you and I'm so happy that I got a Dad who quoted talking dogs. Otherwise life could have been boring and who knows if I could be as proud about anybody else. Love, Molly Found note. True story. True dat! True dad. Go, Dads. Read! Happy Father's Day.

Is your baby learning English and Spanish? Here are 5 bilingual picture books for bab ies 0 to 5 months of age. Each bathes ba by's ears in lyrical language sounds. Each is eye-catching. T uck away books when baby starts reaching. Take them out again when they turn... five?      

I've been on the road . I stopped by The Strand, a large independent bookstore in NYC, to look at their board book offerings . The 18 miles of a isles were packed with grown-ups and kids a nd me, plump with batting to fight the cold and windy streets. I barely fit! I shopped with haste . H ere is what I found.   The Noisy Book (2012) by Soledad Bravi is a near-perfect word learning book for ones and twos. Why near? Research suggests young 1-year-olds learn best from photographs. Bravi's page design --one object per 2-page spread-- holds constant, assuring a single point of view for book talk.  A colorful patchwork of thumbnail prints, drawn from The Noisy Book 's interior, blankets the inside front and back pages, creating a wonderful opportunity for point-and-label play and word review. I spied a board edition of The House in the Night (2011) by Susan Marie Swanson  and Caldecott Medal winner Beth Krommes. The book's gentle cadence and warm glow make ...