Books for Babies

Sometimes all you need is a little push.  I have created my share of booklists over the years, but a "best of" for new parents seems to have eluded me.  Generally, this has always been an area that involves a hands on approach.  Let's walk to the shelves and see what's there.... However, the children's librarian is not always in the building.  No, really, we don't live at the library. I once had a child ask if the doors to the magic storytime closet lead to my bedroom.

I got my push yesterday as I settled in to a very nice breakfast with about twenty extended relatives.  While snuggling one cousin's five month old, I listened to another (23 weeks pregnant) announce that her sister is also expecting.   Baby showers abound and what else will a librarian give as gifts but books?  Actually, I think I will send this list to my cousins so that they can each use it when they start the registries.  Don't worry, I have plenty more titles to build an element of surprise into the party.

Sandra Boynton
  Rhyming is critical to brain development.  Babies get to hear the smaller sounds in words which will help them when they are learning to speak, and read. 
Sue Williams
Margaret Miller
  Babies love pictures of other babies.  Actually, photos of people in general bring out a different reaction in babies than illustrations.  It's good stuff; mix it up.
Margaret Wise Brown
  No list for babies is complete without a nod to Goodnight Moon!  I think I have seen this given at a gift at every baby shower I have ever attended.
John Schindle
   Rhyming, photos, and cute animals.  His "Busy" series of books flies off the library shelves.
Tana Hoban
   The first thing your baby can see is sharp contrasts.  Hoban has done many books in just black and white.  Some of them are also wordless, like White on Black.
Lucy Cousins
   One word per page can be fun, too.  Babies' attention span is super short; a lot of text is just not going to work at first.  You can always embellish the story if you want.
Rosemary Wells
Helen Oxenbury


The incomparable Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has a list of even more titles.

Flannel Friday - Passive programming

Thanks to the Flannel Friday Round Up, our library's collection of felt board stories has been growing for a couple years. They are a wonderful addition to storytime, but it seemed a little boring to leave them in files the rest of the year.

We happened to have some foam core posters just waiting to be repurposed.  After measuring the space, I trimmed a piece to fit, and used instructions similar to those at Time for Play.  It is nicely mounted to the bookshelf with Command strips.  Now our library's felt pieces can be used by children on a regular basis.

Each set is likely to sit out for play from one to two weeks at a time.  For the first two months, the set was left out just like that.  Then it struck me that this could be even better.  I added a pocket for index cards.  Now, each set can have a card printed up with the rhyme that matches.  Each family that plays is welcome to take home the card as a reminder of their library visit.  Another bonus is that our staff can count the cards left when we swap sets to tally this as a passive program.

By the way, I just love our hand painted signs, don't you?