A Winter Read for Your Little Bear: In My Den (2009) by Sara Gillingham, illustrated by Lorena Siminovich
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...