Top 5 Best Books for Babies

If you are like most parents your experience with selecting books to read to your baby goes something like this...take whatever books were gifted to you by a warm wishing friend or relative, and hope that baby is at least interested enough to sit through peacefully so you could start a bedtime routine, or practice for all the reading you will do in the years to come.  Once in a while though, your baby seems to wake up from the book trance or squirm on your knee and come alive when they encounter that special kind of book.  Below are those books which our daughter literally would squeal and squack at - making reading a delightful and fun play experience.

1) Where is Baby's Bellybutton? By Karen Katz.  This lift-the-flap book was our daughters absolute favorite book from the age of 6-8 months.  She was just so surprised when we'd ask "Where are baby's eyes?" and then lift the flap to exclaim "Under her hat!"

2) Toes, Ears, and Nose.  By Karen Katz.  Our family bought us a set of Karen Katz's books after the great success of Where is Baby's Bellybutton and this book along with Where is Baby's Momma? were a part of it.  These books are delightful for babies 9 months and up because they do tell more of a story than offer a hide and seek of body parts.  Our daughter loves this book now, but I think she will really appreciate the overall story over the next year or so. 

3) Peek-a-baby.  By Karen Katz.  As you can see, Karen Katz is our favorite author for baby books.  We love her lift-the-flap concepts and funny illustrations.  Peek-a-baby is on target with Where is Baby's Bellybutton because it appeals to the peek-a-boo playing starter set - ages 6 months and up.  So your little one can start enjoying this book earlier.

4) Moo, Baa, La La La.  By Sandra Boynton.  Our daughter has been enjoying the lyrical sing song of this story since she was only 2 months old.  I think some of that had to do with her momma's voice but, as all babies think their momma's voice is special, the same technique should work on your little one.  I memorized this story after reading it several times and would then just tell it whenever my daughter was getting fussy.  She liked to hear me say "The cow says Mooooooooooooooooooo...." And she hasn't gotten bored with it yet. 

5) Good Night Moon. By Margaret Brown, Margaret J. Wise.  We actually have 4 copies of this book, and we received all 4 copies as gifts.  You will inevitably end up with at least 2 for the same reason, but do keep both copies since you can take one with you on your travels and not worry about destroying or losing it.  We try to read this one before bedtime if our daughter is still awake after her last bottle to set the stage for bed.  She will sometimes look for it on the side of our glider as if she is anticipating that we will now read Good Night Moon before she is put into her crib for the night.