The Baby Book Nook

Reading the same book over and over and over again at your child’s request can peel away your patience and make you want to cry. Think onion. But go with it. Each reread creates a new layer of book understanding: Peeling an onion in reverse. Consider the following excerpt from What Research Reveals: Foundations for Reading Instruction in Preschool and Primary Education (2002) by Susan B. Neuman: "Repeated readings appear to further reinforce the language of the text as well as to familiarize children with the way different genres are structured (Eller, Pappas, & Brown 1988; Morrow 1988). Understanding the forms of informational and narrative texts seems to distinguish those children who have been well read to from those who have not (Pappas 1991). In one study, for example, Pappas found that with multiple exposures to a story (three readings), children's retelling became increasingly rich, integrating what they knew about the world, the language of the book, and the mess...

As with most board books, In My Den 's plot is minimal: A bear cub settles down for a long winter’s nap. Six-month-olds do not need nuance. WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK The board pages are thick, making it nearly indestructible. The title page and pages that follow have circular cut-outs. Each gets progressively smaller– the last one is about three inches in diameter. It is a book a 5-month-old can sink his mitt into! A brown flannel cub, a finger puppet, pokes up at the reader, staying still till the last page. Movement is a perfect attention getter for very young babies. In My Den is a wonderful hands-on, eyes-on reading experience for babies 3 to 12 months of age. It is literally tailor-made for the youngest reader. Simple, action sentences include words that relate to baby's day- soft, warm, up, down, outside, look, roll, bed. New words are introduced: earth, leaves, pine cones, twigs. Nature baby! The pages are pattern rich, yet not so busy as to disorganize baby’s gaze. The il...

This year’s Caldecott medal was awarded to Beth Krommes for her artwork in The House in the Night (2008), a book written by Susan Marie Swanson. The story is built on the bones of an old English poem called “This is the Key,” reproduced below. The House in the Night is a sweet bedtime read: Here is the key to the house. In the house burns a light. In that light rests a bed. On that bed waits a book... Verse rhythm and word repetition highlight words for learning: key , house , light , bed , book , above . Black and white scratchboard illustrations catch and keep young eyes' attention. Key words are pictured in warm golden hues, popping from the two-tone pages. Watch your child’s eyes as you read to see where they settle - on a teddy bear ‘lovey,’ a setting sun, a yellow ball - all are conversation starters. The last pages show a home full of light . In a moonlit room, on a plumped-up chair, a golden book waits to be read. A child sleeps, tawny bear i...