Favorite Board Books

	The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle—This book is wonderful works so well as a board book. The different shapes and sizes of the pages, along with the holes where the caterpillar has eaten through one of the foods, gives babies (like my Liam) something tactile to explore. Unlike some hardcovers turned board books, this one is the entire story, without any abridgment.
	Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do you See? By Bill Martin Jr.—Another hardcover turned board book. This classic works well in the smaller, sturdier form. The simple images and text mean Liam has less to focus on and we’ve started to discuss colors and animals with a bit more success. I look forward to him growing into this concept book.
	(Baby Faces) Smile! By Roberta Grobel Intrater—This simple board book has photographs of various baby faces. Liam has started recognizing “babies” in pictures, so this book is fun to go through with him. Any photography book like this is a wonderful addition to a board book collection—I’ve been bringing home several from this series.
	Dear Zoo (Lift-the-Flap-Book) by Rod Campbell—Liam loves lift the flaps—it’s the main thing that will stop him from turning a page quite so soon. He will spend some time exploring how flaps open and close and is quite pleased when he can manipulate those flaps. The ones in Dear Zoo are sturdy (not pulled off as easily as some lift the flap books) and the book itself is a cute menagerie with a range of animals that children can learn to recognize.
	Will You Wear the Blue Hat? (Scholastic Publishing)—An adorable new board book with a helpful bumpy edge for turning pages. This book is all about the colors of clothing a little boy is going to wear, told in a sing song text. It’s great for children learning colors (each item of clothing is offered in several colors so that the child can pick out which one is the blue or red or yellow one).
	Eating the Rainbow by Rena D. Grossman—This book features eight colors. Each page spread shows a baby or toddler holding or chewing on a food in that color and then a selection of four pictures of food in that color. A great way to combine an interest in foods and a chance to teach colors. Liam seems to like the brightness of the images (though I still have difficulty him to eat half of these foods!)

Happy Reading! ^_^ Shanshad

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