Busy Babies: Books for Play, Pretend, and Reading

Sure, you want to read to your baby, and the book market is flooded with board boards of all types. But, which books will your baby actually listen to? These recommendations are written from my personal experience of which books and types of books my children actually liked and wanted me to read to them. (By the way, neither Ben nor Grace were the type of babies that naturally wanted to sit and cuddle with a book).  These books and tips are great for a baby who is starting to talk, who understands basic words, and who mostly interacts through pointing and touching.

These elements make a great baby book:

• The closer to indestructible the better. (Check out your library’s collection. What books have survived hundreds of kids touching them without falling apart. Those books are the ones worth purchasing!)
• Babies like bright colors.
• Babies like people, animals, or common recognizable objects.
• Babies like realistic artwork or photographs.
• Babies like simple images with only one or a few objects per page.
• Babies like books that encourage interaction. Lift-the-flap, touch-and-feel, and books with objects that encourage interaction (example: a cat encourages your baby to meow)
• Babies like little books.
• Babies like “real” books. Fabric books are a great idea and nice for tiny babies, but my kids always want a book that looks like mine. In fact, my kids often prefer a book with paper pages over a board book.

In my experience, babies interact with books in three different way:

1. Playing with books. Babies play with books by touching interactive pages. But, also babies like to {groan} tear, eat, stand on, throw, etc. with their books.
2. Pretending with books. Babies like to be like you and handle books with real pages. Set aside a couple small adult books for your children to play with. (Of course, supervise or else . . . )
3. Reading/Listening to Books. This can be either when your baby sits in your lap while you read to him/her or when your baby sits and turns the pages of a book looking at the pictures and words.

Here are the books that my babies have enjoyed, plus some that my friends and readers of this blog have enjoyed!

Books that babies will love to play with:

The best place to find books for your baby to play with is yard sales, thrift shops, and dollar stores. You may want to purchase some nicer lift-the-flap and touch-and-feel books new, since they tend to get torn up and dirty. Here are some books that we have found and liked:

Busy babies love interacting and playing with these picture books!

• Karen Katz Lift-the-Flap Books This series by Karen Katz has bright, cute illustrations. (Note: We don’t own these books, but the ones I have seen at the library did not look like the flaps were very sturdy).
• Baby’s Colors by Karen Katz – This board book gets an A+ for being the sturdiest board book I have ever seen. (Also in this series, a book on numbers and a book on shapes. See here: Karen Katz Brand New Baby series)
• Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book) by Dorothy Kunhardt – I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t read this book, but it certainly looks like one of the best within this genre.
• Picture Me Board Books – We own Peek-a-Boo Farm in this collection. The text was a bit annoying, but my children loved playing peek-a-boo with a photo of their own photo.
• Touch-and-Feel Books – We own Touch-and-Feel Wild Animals and Touch-and-Feel Pets. My children enjoyed interacting with the pages as well as making animals sounds while reading these books. I’ve also seen these Touch-and-Feel Books by Dwell Studio which are adorably cute and would make great baby gifts. And there is of course, the popular Usborne Touchy-Feely Books, That’s Not My . . .
• Baby Plays Pat-Pat {favorite} – We checked out this book from the library, and Grace loves reading it because she gets to pat-pat all the animals (i.e. whack them as hard as possible). Bonus points for sturdier construction than most board books.
• Books with glitter texture or sparkly paper (example: Shiny Seaside – The text in this book annoys me, but my kids have enjoyed it).
• Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Bryan Cauley – This book is great for older busy babies, since they can act out the book (and keep busy) while you read to them!

Books that babies will love to pretend with:

You probably already have a couple of books that fit this description in your house. Anything little is usually a winner. My children have liked:

• Miniature board books from kid’s meals
• Small New Testament (We let our babies hold and look at a Gideon New Testament that we already owned)
• Small gift books (like the Chicken Noodle Soup for Soul type sold at bookstores)
• Pocket Dictionaries
• Old hymn or song book 

Books that babies will love to read:

Obviously, some of the previous books will fit this category too. But, these are books that focus primarily on language skills. These books (especially the classic ones) are worth investing in.

Even busy babies love reading these books!

Word Language Books – these books feature only a few words and are perfect “first” books

• Bear and Ball by Cliff Wright {favorite}
• Baby Talk (Lift-the-Flap book)
• Lisa Patricelli’s books – our favorites are Yummy Yucky, No No Yes Yes, and Baby Happy Baby Sad

Story/Sentence Language Books – these books feature simple sentences and plot structure.

• Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann {favorite}
• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown {favorite}
• BunBun at Bedtime {Ben’s favorite} and BunBun the Middle One by Sharon Pierce McCoullough
• Jamie Harper’s Baby Bundt Series – we love Night Night Baby Bundt: A Recipe for Bedtime
• Sandra Boyton’s Books - our favorite (don’t laugh) is The Belly Button Book
• Bright and Early Board Books – typically these come in sets of four books at the store. Babies love how little they are, and as one friend pointed out to me, they are great to throw in a diaper bag. Our favorites are: Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins and Dr. Seuss’ ABC
• Just in time for Mother’s Day – Karen Katz’s Mommy Hugs and Counting Kisses 
• Thank You, God by P.K. Hallinan – a favorite from a friend
• Chicka Chicka ABC by Bill Martin, Jr.
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle

Singing Books

•  Sandra Boyton’s Books and Raffi Books
•  All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Frances Alexander and illustrated by Anna Vojtech {favorite}

If you like these suggestions, be sure to follow my collaborative children’s lit board on Pinterest (The Children’s Bookshelf) where I will continue to pin any new books I see that are perfect for your busy baby!

Related:
10 Tips for Reading to Busy Babies

What is your baby’s favorite book?

My busy baby Grace decides to take a break and lounge with a book. Good choice, Grace!

Thank you to everyone who helped contribute to this post by suggesting books!

This post is linked to: Tuesday Tots, It’s Playtime, The Kid’s Co-op Link Up, and T.G.I.F.