Board Book Favorites -- 9 months

My friend and I were discussing how it's an interesting thing that children develop favorites so early in life. As babies, you can tell their favorite people, foods, toys, lovies, etc. I've had so much fun seeing Susie show interest in books, too! I'm sad to say that for right now, the paper-page book collection has to go on hold, or else my paper monster might just chow down on the pages. I recently tried reading a regular picture book, but I just don't want to give the message that books aren't for her to touch just yet, so I've decided not to fight that battle until she can understand a little better. At a younger age, we were reading Madeline, Dr. Seuss, Golden Books, etc., and enjoying them all, but for now we can just discover that wonderful world of board books (side note: board books are not steel, however, in the little mouth of a teething baby! I have found them with entire corners GONE, and telltale bits of white around her little mouthy).

Here are some favorites:

Babies by Gyo Fujikawa This is absolutely, hands down, Susie's favorite of the favorites. She loves it so much that I took it along when we went to get her portrait taken, so we could get some of her reading it. She smiles at the babies, greets them when she sees the book on the shelf, squeals at the pictures and touches their faces as we look through it. I'd always heard that babies love to look at pictures of REAL babies (and that certainly has been true in my experience), but in this case, Sus loves the illustrations of babies. The sweet simple wording is just so gentle and charming. I usually add on to the end, which goes like this: "But good or bad, all babies like to be hugged, and cuddle and loved." and I add "and kissed, and smooched, and sniggled and snuggled. . . " etc., all while demonstrating the sniggles and snuggles. I also really like the shape and size -- it's tall, so she can hold the bottom and smack the pages, while I hold the top, and it's not overly-heavy. I came across this little gem while shopping at Blue Kangaroo Books in downtown Danville! This book is almost 20 years old, but I'd never seen it before. I'm planning to get Sus some more of Gyo Fujikawa's books -- there are several more out there.

That's Not My Bunny. Part of the Usborne "That's Not My" collection, this touch and feel book has been good for pointing out specific parts of the pictures. I was surprised how early Susie would be able to understand the concept of feeling the texture on a tiny part of the picture. She knows this one well -- she reaches right for the "rough paws" or "wrinkled nose".

God Bless. . . Baby's family photo book. I put pictures in this for Sus for Christmas, and it immediately emerged as one of her favorite toys. There are only 3 openings, so you might find something better out there, but she certainly loves to flip back and forth to the pictures of Daddy, Mama and Grandma and Grandpa. She bends over and gives the pages wide, open mouthed kisses, and flings it around by the handle (it's SO lightweight). I got mine on sale at LifeWay, so I'd suggest looking somewhere other than Amazon (it's a little bit expensive!!)

What are your favorite board books?