It’s never too early to introduce your baby to great literature. If that great lit comes in the form of tough board books for babies, even better. bynature.ca carries the BabyLit series of board books because they entertain us as adults as well as entertaining our babies.
We read to babies because they learn language as we speak, because we want to create the habit of reading in our children. Before babies even come close to understanding stories, we read them stories. Once they start to recognize numbers, colors, animals, and objects around them, we read books about the familiar.
Trouble comes when a favorite book, a book that absolutely must be read nightly, bores us to tears. We might lose it or distract at bedtime. Clever children will find their favorite books, though. You can escape the repeat performance.
Before you find yourself reading a book about a self-sacrificing tree or an inevitably caged monkey for the hundredth time, start with books that will amuse you. I like the BabyLit books because they make me laugh. Reading these books gives parent and child a multi-layered experience.
You will find the structures of the books familiar: counting books, object books, color books, and weather books.
Anna Karenina, for example, has one item of cloth per page then encourages the reader to find another. It’s an easy hidden object book, or, as the book itself claims, “a fashion primer.”
“HAT.
“Can you also find the heart?”
Pride & Prejudice is a counting book with “1 English village, 2 rich gentlemen, 3 houses, 4 marriage proposals,” and so on. Jane Eyre and Dracula are also counting books. Alice in Wonderland is a color primer, Wuthering Heights is a weather primer, and The Jungle Book is an animal primer.
Jabberwocky will be fun for any child who loves to play with language.
“Twas Brillig, and the slithy toves. . . .”
All of the books have bold, simple artwork that will hold a toddler’s interest.
BabyLit is a fun series. Though it is made for toddlers, you will find yourself calling friends and family members to read these books to adults. The books are published by a friend of mine, who sent me the whole series. I’ve read every one aloud to my husband and to friends. The juxtaposition of baby and lit delights them. They laugh. It’s a secret between adults, when the children just have fun listening and pointing.
Come by the store in Orillia and choose a few of your favorites for a baby—or for an adult.
