The Baby Book Nook

Few board books meet the developmental needs of very young babies like Hello, Bugs! (2010) by Smriti Prasadam and Emily Bolam. Ten sturdy pages feature ten noisy insects pictured in bold black and white with colored foil accents. The text is simple and repetitive. Hello, Bee! Hello, Worm! Hello, Spider!  The bugs buzz, buzz , wiggle, wiggle and creep, crawl . At one month of age, babies look briefly at bright objects placed within reach. At two months, visual tracking skills emerge. Horizontal tracking develops first, then vertical--side to side, then up and down, down and up. As you read, bee the bug. Turn your hand into a tickling spider alerting baby to book play. Turn your two pointers into talking worms, "Hello, Worm!" "Hello!" Stage the action 8 to 12 inches from baby's eyes and allow her time to focus on one wiggling finger before wiggling the next. Make the bee fly. Let baby's eyes settle on the black and yellow cover image, then slowly move ...

Between 12 and 18 months of age babies begin to show a sense of funny . What tickles their olecranon process? The unexpected. According to The Hawaii Developmental Charts (1993), at this age babies begin to laugh at incongruities . Imagine you and your toddler in the kitchen. The telephone rings. Instead of answering your cell, you pick up a banana, "Hello?" Toddlers will laugh at that. Truck Duck (2004), a 26-page board book by Michael Rex, delivers loads of laughs and belly quacks. It is ideal for 18-month-old boys because of their love of trucks and all things that go vrooom in the night. Each two-page spread pictures an animal (or fish or bug) in a vehicle. Each scene is labeled with a rhyming, two-word phrase- cab crab , plow cow , tug bug . Rex's illustrations make you smile. His pairings are zany. These creatures love their ride! Point and label as you read and you'll bolster baby's word learning. Related books for your read-aloud stack include My Truck...