Reading to Babies

Quotes from "Babies Need Books"
by Dorothy Butler, Atheneum NY c 1982:

Ideally, a small pile of good books awaits the new baby's arrival.

You can teach your baby a lot about books in the first few months. To begin with, he will learn that a book is a thing, with different qualities from all other things.

As early in his life as possible, start showing your baby successive pages of a suitable book. Babies love to be held, and you will be getting your hand in early.

You will need books that have clearly defined, uncluttered pictures, in bright primary colors. Give him time to soak it up....

Babies need people: talking, laughing, warm-hearted people, constantly drawing them into their lives, and offering them the world for a playground. Let's give them books to parallel this experience.

And now to nursery rhymes. Don't even consider facing parenthood without a really good collection. The evidence will be undeniable that the baby loves them now.

Quotes from Choosing Books for Children
by Betsy Hearne, Dell Pub, NY, c 1990:

You and your child can begin sharing the pleasures of reading as soon as you can prop the baby and the book in your lap without dropping either one.

The songs a mother, father, and grandparent sing to a baby, the nursery rhymes they chant, are deeply imprinted literature.

Books for babies can be made by sewing "pages" of plain heavy material, cut with pinking shears, down one side and cutting out shapes of familiar objects (which can be drawn or traced from magazine pictures) out of other scraps and sewing them on the pages

Books to Read to Your Baby

Board Books:

Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton, Little Simon, NY, 1995

Baby! Talk! by Penny Gentieu, Crown Publishers, NY, 1998

White on Black by Tana Hoban, Greenwillow Books, NY, 1993

Black on White by Tana Hoban, Greenwillow Books, NY, 1993

Baby’s Splish Splash by Lara Holtz, Dorling Kindersley, 2002

Peekaboo Zoo by Susan Hood, Learning Curve International Inc., Chicago, IL, 1999

Where Is Baby’s Belly Button? A lift the flap book by Karen Katz, Little Simon, 2000

Look Look! by Peter Linenthal, Dutton Children’s Books, NY, 1998 (black, white, & red)

Oh Where, Oh Where? By John Prater, Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 1998

Show Me! By Tom Tracy, HarperFestival, 1999

Shhh… by Guido Van Genechten, Pleasant Co. Pub., 2001

So Big! By Dan Yaccarino, HarperFestival, 2001

Good Read Alouds:

Old MacDonald Had a Farm by Jane Chapman, Candlewick Press, 1998

Sometimes I Like To Curl Up In A Ball by Vicki Churchill, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2001

You Are My I Love You by Maryann K. Cusimano, Philomel Books, 2001

No Matter What by Debi Gliori, Harcourt, Inc., 1999

I Love You With All My Heart by Noris Kern, Chronicle Books, 1998

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, Candlewick Press, 1994

My First Mother Goose by Lisa McCue, Reader’s Digest, 1999

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff, Scholastic, Inc., 1985

Can’t You Sleep Little Bear? By Martin Waddell, Candlewick Press, 1992