The Baby Book Nook

     Babies grow up! Wee readers turn into preschoolers with a new set of book needs.  Twice a year the folks at The Horn Book publish The Horn Book Guide to Children's and Young Adult Books , a thick softcover tome that reviews newly published works. Here is a list of starred preschool books released between January and June of this year: Push Button by Aliki LMNO Peas by Keith Baker Forever Friends by Cairn Berger Alfie Runs Away by Kenneth M. Cadow Beaver Is Lost by Elisha Cooper I Can Help by David Hyde Costello Sky-High Gu y by Nina Crews Boom Bah! by Phil Cummings Cupcake: A Journey to Special by Charise Mericle Harper My Garden by Kevin Henkes The Village Garage by G. Brian Karas One Night in the Zoo by Judith Kerr Kindergarten Diary by Antoinette Portis Who Said Coo? by Deborah Ruddell Brownie and Pearl Step Out by Cynthia Rylant When Jack Goes Out by Pat Schories What If? by Laura Seeger A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Ph...

Below is an excerpt from an article, "Reading Books to Babies," published by Kids Health . When and How to Read Here's a great thing about reading aloud: It doesn't take special skills or equipment, just you, your baby, and some books. Read aloud for a few minutes at a time, but do it often. Don't worry about finishing entire books — focus on pages that you and your baby enjoy. Try to set aside time to read every day — perhaps before naptime and bedtime. In addition to the pleasure that cuddling your baby before bed gives both of you, you'll also be making life easier by establishing a routine. This will help to calm your baby and set expectations about when it's time to sleep. It's also good to read at other points in the day. Choose times when your baby is dry, fed, and alert. Books also come in handy when you're stuck waiting, so have some in the diaper bag to fill time sitting at the doctor's office or standing in line at the gr...

Sturdy board pages. A rainbow of baby faces. Verse rhythm and rhyme. Playful, patterned artwork that pops from the page. All of which brings me to a final note (for now) about children's book illustrator Annie Kubler. Pictures can make or break a baby book's appeal. Kubler draws babies front and center, in the middle of things, just where they like to be! Her page action is simple. Each drawing carries one main idea or topic for conversation. Young children are grand imitators. Kubler's characters are often partnered with stuffed animals, 'lovies,' who imitate them . Her babies simply can't sit still! Sound like someone you know? Born in France, Annie Kubler lives and works in the UK. She is the Art Director at Child's Play International , an English publishing firm that specializes in books for the youngest reader.

Toddlers sometimes run in packs. The habitat varies: Daycare centers, playgroups, public libraries, family reunions, Y-care, playgrounds, church basements, families graced with multiple births. Three books by Annie Kubler play particularly well in small group settings.  Hands ready? The nursery song Ten Little Fingers (2003) is a fun-filled read that ends on a quiet note. It won an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Best Book Award . Ring Around A Rosie (2003) illustrates the circle game of the same name. It includes a second verse, Fishes in the water, Fishes in the sea ..., which gets children back on their feet ... W ith a one, two, three! I'm a Little Teapot! (2007) sets up pretend play. Kubler paints toddlers in togs that mimic the colors of a teapot. They are the teapot! Tottering two-year-olds stand on one foot and bend: Tip me up, and pour me out! Balance skills! At book's end, a   tea party. Does your toddler have a favorite nursery rhyme book?

This Little Piggy (2008), Annie Kubler's version of the popular rhyme, requires barefoot reading. Each two-page spread features a toddler touching a toe on the left and, dressed as a pink pig, acting out verse on the right. Ralphie as a rabbit in The Christmas Story comes to mind. Kubler draws five tikes across ten pages. Early vocabulary words- ball, book, blocks, and cup- are introduced on pages 3 and 4. A baby crisis occurs on pages 7 and 8: This little piggy had none! Major upset! You can talk about feelings. An opportunity to mimic animal sounds (yes, a pig) presents itself on pages 9 and 10. Adaptable for babies of all ages, This Little Piggy is perfect for 12- to 18-month-olds.

Illustrator Annie Kubler turns traditional nursery rhymes and songs into action tales. Perfect for busy babies and toddlers, her board books set the stage for off-the-page play. If You're Happy and You Know It... (2001)  is based on the song of the same name. The first stanza is set to music and printed in its entirety on the back cover. A total of eight song actions are pictured inside. For example, If You're Happy and You Know It... Clap your hands! (Babies clasp their hands at about 4 months of age.) Hide away! (Babies start peek-a-boo play at about 6 months.) Rattle and shake! (Babies as young as two and a half months can shake a light rattle.) Sing and play sans book throughout the day : Push some blocks! (Babies can build a tower with two alphabet blocks at about 12 months of age.) When you revisit the thick board pages, they will have more meaning. Note: Developmental stages are taken from the original Hawaii Early Learning Profile and describe grou...

The following board or cloth books have been recalled from the market due to  possible choke or lead exposure hazards. Click on product links below for more information. You'll note that many recall notices are several years old. Older books circulate as hand-me-downs and yard sale finds. Amazing Baby look and play! Amazing Baby touch and play! Amazing Baby rattle, rattle! Baby Buddy clip-on stroller book- Baby Faces Big Rex and Friends Cloth Book Monday the Bullfrog Plush Book Hello, Curious Buddies Gund animals, numbers, colors Priddy Trucks Shaker Teether Book Little Builder Children's Board Book Sets with toys Discover Bunny Book Zowie's 123 Disney's Winnie the Pooh A Very Merry Christmas

Dumpty, of course, but I wasn't really asking. Jennifer Griffin takes Mother Goose out of mothballs with a honk and a waddle in her fun-filled nursery rhyme primer for parents, Humpty Who? A Crash Course in 80 Nursery Rhymes for Clueless Moms and Dads. Poems parade in alphabetical order starting with "The Alphabet Song" and ending with "Where is Thumbkin?" Short, personable notes talk about rhyme origins and offer play suggestions.  Humpty Who? is the perfect antidote for those Hmmm... what now? moments of baby's day. A 35-song CD is included. Here's an excerpt: Alice the Camel is a simple, memorable song that takes your little one on a wiggly-jiggly lap ride. Not part of the Old Mother Goose tradition, it's a contemporary number that has quickly become a classic. (Listen to the CD if you don't know the tune.) Camels are fascinating to children for their mysterious water-carrying humps- you'll start seeing them soon in children's book...

How number savvy are children at the start of school? It varies. According to the National Center for Education Statistics most first-time kindergartners can count to ten. Many can identify some single-digit numerals. A few can add and subtract. Much of what children know on that first day of school they know from home. Sooo... make your little one's day count. COUNT OUT LOUD. Kiss 10 tiny toes. One, two socks fit 1, 2 feet. One, two feet fill 1, 2 shoes. A shirt has how many buttons? At snack time, cookies disappear. Palms up. All gone! That's a number! Count wheels on a tricycle, peas in a garden pod, clouds in the sky. Twelve eggs fill a carton. Take away one for pancakes. How many does that leave? Serve up a hot stack. Hey, Mom! Tom got more pancakes than me! 'More' is an amount. Sibling rivalry or simple math? Numbers and counts are everywhere. 1, 2, 3 books teach number concepts. They come in a variety of formats for a variety of ages- board books, pop-ups, ...

Meet two babies extraordinaire, 17-month-old siblings Quincy and Simone. Their mom kindly let me post their YouTube video and answered questions about their reading routine. Cast a researcher's eye as the video plays: The babies are reading Let's Play Peek-a-boo ! by Jane Massey. Simone reaches for a peek-a-boo flap on the front cover. Quincy's eyes follow. This is the first of several moments of joint attention, when reading partners focus on the same word, picture, or page element. This it the sweet spot of read-aloud where learning takes place. Simone holds the book right-side-up and reads from front to back. The babies turn pages- sometimes one at a time- sometimes several at once. Quincy points. Simone plays, diving into the book to kiss a mirror insert on the last page. Peek-a-boo! Together, they vocalize, back and forth, in book conversation. Booooo! Simone and Quincy look at books daily. They attend a library lap-sit program weekly. Favorite books include...

Reading researchers Monique Senechal, Edward H. Cornell and Lorri S. Broda studied the reading behaviors of 36 babies- 12 9-month-olds, 12 17-month-olds, and 12 27-month-olds. They wrote their findings in an article titled "Age-Related Differences in the Organization of Parent-Infant Interactions During Picture-Book Reading." They note, The youngest children, on average, looked at the books for 55% of the duration of the reading episode. The 17-month-olds looked at the books for 73% of the time, and the 27-month-olds looked at the books 88% of the time. In addition, the youngest children looked at the book less and less as the reading progressed. In other words, the older babies looked longer than the younger babies and the 9-month-olds (only) experienced looking fatigue during the course of a single book. The researchers also note, Children could look at each double-spread page for 30 seconds for a total of 120 seconds per book . Babies vary. Senechal's statistic...

There is a bevy of board books on the market. How do you find the good ones? Ask a children's librarian. Google "ten best baby books." Ask a friend. If you are lucky, a list of good books will land in your mailbox as it did in mine. Part way through this entry, the latest copy of The Horn Book Magazine arrived and with it an article by children's librarian Viki Ash titled "What Makes a Good Board Book?" Talk about timing! Here are some of her favorites: Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs (1994) by Byron Barton, Colors (2009) by Emily Bolam, Barnyard Dance! (1993) by Sandra Boynton, Time for Bed (1997) by Mem Fox, Kiss Good Night (2004) by Amy Hest, White on Black (1993) by Tana Hoban, Where is Baby's Belly Button? (2000) by Karen Katz, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (1996) by Bill Martin, Jr., I like it When... (2005) by Mary Murphy, and  Clap Hands (1999) by Helen Oxenbury. In the end, the best baby book is the book your baby likes best!

NUMERACY 101 * Toddlers and 2-year-olds learn their numbers one by one and in order. Do not expect your little one to understand the concept of 3 before she has a firm grasp of 2 , or 2 before 1 . Two-year-olds might successfully retrieve one of something, but if you ask for two, three, or more of anything you'll likely get a handful. Two- and 3-year-olds can count small sets of things... How many cookies are on your plate? One, two, three.  Yet most lack the understanding that the last number counted, 3 , means that you have three cookies. Yum! First counting books focus on numbers 1 and 2, such as What is 2? by Molly Carroll, above. That said, board books that introduce numbers 1 through 10 are easy to adapt to your toddler's level of understanding. Simply talk a lot about the low numbers and a little about the high. *Based on research by Karen Wynn, Ph.D.,  Lab Director at The Infant Cognition Center at Yale University

Does your toddler have a pre-k, kindergarten, or first grade sibling? With the help of the right book, the older child can "read" to the younger one, learning letters, numbers, and sight vocabulary along the way. Many board books have little or no text and baby book illustrations tend to closely match the print on the page. Consider two books by Michel Blake:  Baby's Day   and Off to Bed . Each board book shows baby in action in black and white. The twist? One item on each page is in color, catching the reader's eye. That item is labeled in large print--blocks, bowl, blanket. An emerging reader will likely tell a tale based on pictures, but just as likely, he'll notice book print as well.   Grab a baby book, scoop up your kids and hand over the reading reins, if only for a day.

Count down to bedtime with Caldecott Honor Book Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang. Read and play on and off the page... 10 small toes all washed and warm . Count your baby's toes. 9 soft friends in a quiet room. A cat is among them. Point him out. Cat is often one of baby's first words. 8 square windowpanes with falling snow . Ask, 'Who is looking out the window?' The answer? Cat! 7 empty shoes in a short straight row .  There are three pairs of shoes and a single blue sneaker. Point to each pair and count out loud, 'One, two black shoes. One, two white shoes. One, two red shoes. One... Oh-oh! One blue shoe. One! Where is the other one?' 6 pale seashells hanging down . Ask baby, 'Where is the cat?' She might point to the answer. 5 round buttons on a yellow gown .  1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Eyes spy the missing sneaker.  4 sleepy eyes which open and close . Count the eyes on the page. Point to baby's eyes and yours. One, two. One, two. 3 loving kisses on c...

Twinkle, twinkle! is an amazing baby ™ book for babies 3 to 18 months of age based on the nursery song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Star-shaped cut-outs and sparkling foil inserts dominate the patterned pages. Bright and eye-catching, they say in a not-so-quiet way, REACH OUT AND READ. Babies pat, poke and point their way through thick board pages.

Ten topsy turvy toddlers star in Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes... , a 10-page board book by Annie Kubler based on the nursery song of the same name. When baby starts pointing (at about 9 months of age) it's time to start asking, "Where's Baby's nose?" and introduce this whimsical action book.

Mrs. Mustard's Baby Faces , by Jane Wattenberg, is an accordion-style concept book for babies. Baby faces, fourteen in all, float across bright, patterned pages. Seven happy. Seven sad. Reading to newborns is as much about one-sided chatter and gaze sharing as it is about pictures and print on a page. As your baby regards each face, make up a silly story. "Why is this baby so crabby? Maybe he had beans for breakfast!" Imitate page expressions and see if your baby, in turn, imitates you. Be a ham. EXAGGERATE! Mrs. Mustard's Baby Faces  was  first published in 1989. It was re-released in 2007 with updated graphics. Who is Mrs. Mustard? I've sent a note to the author, asking. I'll let you know if I hear back. 

I t was a dark and stormy night on Plum Street . Sam, a bear cub, peers out the window. It's time for bed. "Ready now, Sam?"  (Asks Mrs. Bear. )  "Oh, no," said Sam. "I'm waiting." For what?  Mrs. Bear gently persists. She reads his favorite book, arranges his covers and stuffed animals, serves up two glasses of milk...   book, blanket, friends, milk . Sam playfully resists. I' m still waiting . For what? A kiss good night! Amy Hest's writing takes aim at the heart and experiences of very young children. Kiss Good Night 's homey cadence is sprinkled with rhyme and alliteration. She subtly introduces basic concepts- colors and numbers. Illustrator Anita Jeram's expressive pictures team perfectly with the text. Your almost-1-year-old will understand just some of the words, but all of the kisses!

Crash! Bang! Wallop!  Language sounds abound as a summer storm blows through a barnyard on a hot steamy day, scattering chicks, kittens and busy bees. Kitty, kitty, kit cat. Skit, skit skat.  Brightly colored characters dance across warm brown pages. After the storm: Cooler, Quieter. Late. Late. Later. No more skit. No more scatter.   Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy MacLennan is a perfect nap time read-aloud. Published first in hardcover (2007), a board edition was released in 2009 with five fuzzy chicks on the cover.  P.S. Does anyone know what a moggy is?

Babies love to read about themselves. Here is their chance! Some snippets . In Helen Oxenbury's I see , a toddler scrunches down and looks at a leaping frog. In I hear , he smiles, listening to the drum-drum of the rain from under his umbrella. I can is filled with everyday doings: sitting, crawling, jumping, waving. In I touch , Oxenbury's babies pat a cat, pick up a wriggling worm, and roll over a ball. She writes just one word per page, leaving the story telling to you. Babies and toddlers listen with a wiggle, a babble, and a leap (frog). Two-year- olds are apt to tell short tales of their own!

A cow says MOO. A sheep says BAA. Three singing pigs say La La La! "No, no!" you say, "That isn't right. The pigs say OINK all day and night." Sandra Boynton's rhythmic, rhyming, RIOTOUS writing is music to young babies' ears. Read about the author/illustrator turned lyricist and her latest projects here . Day four brings more!

Who are they? One sheep. Two pigs. Three dogs. Four cats. Five ducks. That's who! Tana Hoban introduces babies to the shapes of critters in her black and white book, Who Are They? , a wonderful high contrast book for very young babies. The simple silhouettes inspire storytelling. Who Are They? doubles as a counting and wordless picture book for young preschoolers. Hand it to your 2- or 3-year-old and say, Read me a story . Day two is through!

Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr. wrote in his memoir, The Dreaming Game (2004), "In the fall of 1938 my mother began to imagine a revolutionary new kind of book for babies." His mother, Dorothy Kunhardt, captured these imaginings on cardstock in Pat the Bunny . The book was an immediate success, due in part to its unique voice- Kunhardt wrote from the baby's point of view. She was a field researcher, an (unschooled!) ethnographer studying early childhood development. In 1937, following the birth of her fourth child, Kunhardt started taking notes. She recorded "literally thousands" of bits of information about Edith's toddling development... What makes her laugh? What captures her attention? What kind of play does she return to over and over again? She observed first hand Edith's hands-on learning style. Kunhardt became the first writer to thoughtfully conceive a novelty book for babies. Copies of the first edition reached bookstores in time for Christmas, 1940. ...

for illustrating my blog header! Holly's first picture book, Mama's Bayou , will be released to bookstores on February 15th. View book trailer here .