The Bean has hundreds of books. Some might say that I have a bit of a problem when it comes to buying books. (Although I don't really see it as a "problem".) Before we even started TTC we had at least a shelf full of children's books; many of them from when I was young, but also a good number that I had picked up for teaching or just because I liked them.
A love of reading is definitely something we want to foster in The Bean. He'll grow up seeing us reading, and we want to make reading a part of his day-to-day as well.
We tried having a little basket of books out in the living room, where we spend most of our time, but really weren't reaching for them often. So when we decided to start a bedtime routine, we made reading a story a part of it.
Usually The Bean's quite tired and starting to fuss when we're getting him ready for bed, so most of the books we chose this week we're short... just a few lines of text on each page. Maybe not so interesting for Mommy and Mama, but about what our baby can handle right now.
Here are this week's choices:
 |
| Farm Babies Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type The Going to Bed Book Click Clack ABC Zoe's Sunny Day Welcome Spring Biscuit Visits the Petting Zoo |
As I said, these were mainly chosen for their brevity. All are board books, so we don't have to worry about The Bean ripping the pages. They also have bold artwork or photographs, which seem to capture his attention. Welcome Spring and Biscuit Visits the Petting Zoo are touch and feel books, which engage him just a little bit more.
Any parents out there with suggestions of books your kids have enjoyed, we'd love to hear them. Any parents-to-be, we hope this list is helpful. Feedback is appreciated, I might continue to try to do a weekly update of this sort, if there seems to be any interest. Alternately, I could post a little review of a book every week or so. Let us know what you'd like to see!
---
As an aside, I just finished John Irving's newest book, Last Night on Twisted River and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys his writing (quirky characters and story lines which require just a little bit of suspension of disbelief). IMO it's up there with Garp and Owen Meany.
I'm a crazy book lady too! Love Sandra boynton for sure. Mo Willems is hilarious. HP is digging Eric Carle lately as well. I'm trying to grow our pile of lgbt kids books. Maybe I'll do a post about what we've got in that department someday. These days whoever puts him to sleep chooses two books to read before bed and HP gets to pick which one we read first.
ReplyDeleteThat'd be awesome Jessie! We have And Tango Makes Three, and I've seen some others (King and King, Pugdog and another one about a hippo that I don't remember the name of, to name a few). I've also heard that Todd Parr has some good ones. More suggestions are always welcome!
ReplyDeleteSome of Monkey's favorite books are Is Your Mama a Llama (love this one), The Monster at the End of This Book, Ten Apples Up On Top, Heads (by Matthew van Fleet - he loves Tails, too), Dear Zoo, and Winnie the Pooh Bedtime ABCs.
ReplyDeleteOMG I used to LOVE The Monster at the End of this Book. next time we buy some books this is definitely going to be on the list.
ReplyDeleteWe love books and so does chunk! His favorites are Polar Bear Has Fur So White, Fred and Ted (Dr. Seuss), cock-a-doodle-blue, my first abc book (baby Einstein) and Little Engine That Could.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestions Jen!
ReplyDeleteMy school is having a used book sale in a couple of weeks, and I know I'm going to have a hard time limiting myself based on what I've seen coming in so far!