Infants & Toddlers: Choosing Great Books for Babies

Helping children develop a lifelong love of reading

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Every teacher wants to boost a baby's chances at later success. Providing nurturing, responsive care while reading a book to a baby instills in him a deep sense of "I feel good about myself. Learning is a real pleasure. Books are, one of my special highlights each day!" The single most powerful tool a teacher has for awakening a deep love of books. and learning is to read to children daily Reading should become a loved, intimate activity filled with the delicious sensation of being snuggled and settling in to share a well-loved book.

Make Careful Selections

For young babies, sturdy cardboard books, cloth books, and plastic books that can be easily cleaned if drooled on are preferable. Babies are easily distracted. Early on, choose short books with a single large and colorful picture on each page.

Babies are fascinated with pictures of adult and baby animals. Choose books with animal pictures that they will recognize with delighted satisfaction. Babies love familiar animals, such as dogs, cats, horses, cows, bunnies, and mice. They love to make the special sounds of each animal, like moo, woof woof, and meow.

If you share books with other preschool teachers, choose books where the illustrations are intrinsically interesting. For example, the pictures in Curious George will fascinate a very young toddler who is not yet ready to follow the complex tale of one of the monkey's naughty pranks. A baby will enjoy just seeing the active little monkey as you turn the pages.

Be Dramatic!

Though you may feel self-conscious at first, try sharing picture books with a fair amount of theatrics and style. Babies love it when adults change voice tones from one page to the next. Try using a singsong or mystery voice, and act surprised and delighted as the page turns and a wonderful new scene appears. Low musical tones and drawn out syllables alert babies that something interesting is being shared.

Encourage Participation

Choose a quiet corner for picture book sharing. Express your own interest in the book with your voice tones. To encourage a baby to participate, hook your finger into the top of the next page and ask him to "Please turn the page." Rather than turn several pages at a time or even close the book, the baby will easily turn to the correct page. Thank the baby for turning the page so nicely. Your deep appreciation of books, tender treatment of them, and efforts to involve toddlers in choosing favorites at reading times all set the tone for a positive picture book sharing experience.

Even babies who are not yet able to speak can point to favorite animals. They can also point to parts of the body, articles of clothing, and food items, such as bananas, apple slices, crackers, and cereal. After a while, when animal pictures in a book become familiar, ask an older baby or toddler to tell you the names of the animals. Babies about VA years old will delight in making the animal sound that goes with each creature in a picture.

Simplify It!

Older toddlers are often ready for a story line. When the text is suffused with poetic cadence, rhythms, and rhymes, toddlers enjoy story reading, even when the story line is still a bit complex. When the story is a bit bewildering, simplify it. You are in charge of the book. Leave out elements that might make understanding a bit too frustrating. Add in new elements of the story when you feel that a toddler is ready.

Personalize the Experience

Here are some ways you can individualize the book sharing experience to make them more meaningful for young children:

• Create simple picture books for young babies. Find large colorful pictures of a baby in a bathtub, a duck in a pond, a puppy chasing a ball, a mommy monkey cuddling her baby, or a daddy feeding a baby some cereal. Put each large colorful picture in a sleeve of plastic and bind your book with sturdy ribbons. As a baby's attention span lengthens, you can add pages to your homemade book.

• Extend the time you read as babies become more and more attuned to the specialness of your picture book sharing time each day. When you read, be sure to express pleasure at the end of the book by closing the book together and exclaiming: "We finished reading the whole book!"

• Ask each parent to bring in duplicates of photos of when the family and baby were together. Make a book of family photos for each baby in your program. Try to have some pictures of aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, and the family pet of each child. If a parent has a photo of a child delighting in a preferred activity, such as digging in the sand or licking an ice cream cone, these may be especially appealing in the child's personal photo album book.

• Some toddlers love being snuggled on a lap for a story so much that they will sit through books with dozens of pages, such as the Madeline stories. Some toddlers will already have preferences for books with ball games or for books with cars, trucks, and trains. Your attentiveness to each child's special interests will help you customize the homemade books you create for them and select just the right titles to share with them.

• Add prosocial words when reading storybooks with toddlers. Add comments like "That was so kind of the Me bear" and "That was so friendly of him!"

• When reading with several toddlers, make sure that they are leaning against you, as you sit on the floor at book reading time. Be sure to turn the book pages so that the toddlers can see the pictures clearly. You may have to turn your head a bit to read as you hold the pages open.

• Include books that tell the story of a song or chant you often share with toddlers. Remember that toddlers love board books such as The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round and Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. These books are special treasures because little ones have already experienced the pleasure of these stories during your music times.

Alice Sterling Honig, PhD, a professor emerita of child development at Syracuse University, is the author of many books on infants and toddlers, including Behavior Guidance for Infants and Toddlers and, with H. Brophy, Talking With Your Baby: Family as the First School

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