Best First Books for Your Baby

I'm a sucker for reading, and for books.  Our family has thousands of books, 4 eReaders, and almost every single popular magazines.  Times, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, Fortune, People, National Geographic, The Horn Book,  Money...to name a few; and this is not counting our professional subscriptions.  I'm not an educator nor a writer, but after 40 years of reading and 3 children ranged from 7 to 15, I do know a little about book choices.  Family and friends always ask for my recommendations, and I always happily oblige.  It finally occurs to me to write them down somewhere, where I could just refer the post to the people who ask...

So here's my first list, best baby books:


Goodnight Moon - Almost everyone heard about this book, and have purchased this some time in their life, but there's much more than just reading it out loud...for example:  Make you child find the little mouse that's hiding in every spread.

I Love You, Sun.  I Love You Moon -  This is another book that has almost a sing-song like lyrics...telling your child to love everything in the nature: flowers, clouds, river, fish....and of course, you and me.

Freight Train - At a glance, it looks like a 'boy' book, but both boys and girls will enjoy the simple and basic drawings, introducing your child not only to the different cars of the train, but also concepts such as over/under, light/dark and day/night.


Jamberry - A delightful and rhyming read, with a boy and a bear picking all kinds of berries....One berry, two berry, pick me a blueberry.  The illustrations are upbeat and colorful.


Is Your Mama a Llama? - Little llama goes around asking all his baby animal friends if their mother is a llama, too.  The answers are all poetic and rhyming, telling little llama that their mom is not a llama because she has flippers, has feathers, or says, "Moo...", etc.


The Very Hungry Caterpillar - The caterpillar just hatched from an egg, so he's going around hunting for food.  He ate one apple, 2 pears.....and so on.  There are little holes on the pages (where the caterpillar eats through...) and your baby can put their finger in each, as they count with you.


Pat the Bunny - This is a texture book, where a bit of different textured material is inserted in each page so your baby can touch and feel them, for example, the fluffy material for the bunny, and the shiny one for the mirror.  A series of similar books are published after this book became popular, but this original is the best of all.



Studies have found that reading to your babies cultivates the love of literature and reading in your child, as well as creating a special time that you and your baby spend together, which he will always remember and cherish.  If you only have time to do one thing with your child each day, read aloud to him.  It's the best gift you could give your child.


Happy reading!

Why didn't I read this sooner? Blame my history teachers.

I always wonder about people's different taste in reading, or in books.  Why do we read the different books that we read?  Why do our all-time-favorites so different from our best friend's?  It's a puzzle that always baffles me...I know some taste are acquired by life experiences, like a dog-lover reading books about dogs, or a neurosurgeon reading books about brains; but how about the books that we read for fun?  Why does your best friend loves mysteries while you only read biographies?

I always thought I read everything...by everything I mean any books that interest me, or attract me by their cover, or summary.  I read books in every single subject one could think of...brain, economy, surgery, biography, politics, parenting, business, math...and of course, the fictions.  However, when I started sharing books with my friends, I realize that there are a lot of books that I actually don't read.  For example, romantic novels, political stories (unless it's a biography), historical fiction that takes place in the US...or fantasy novels with werewolves or vampires.  When the book "The Help" was climbing the charts, I avoided it in purpose, since the description says, 1960's, Mississippi.  I did so terrible in history when in school, I just don't think I can understand or handle anything that happened more than 5 years ago.


Then I started hearing good things and reviews about the book, I mean, lots of them.  I finally gave up and ordered it on my Kindle, so that just in case I wanted to read the book, it's available.  Many months passed, during which I read lots of other books, some serious and deep, others not so.  Then the raves about the audiobook started coming.  I downloaded it from Audible.com as my first ever audiobook and started listening...WOW!  The women who lend their voices to this book were amazing, their southern accents, the feelings in their voice...I was drawn in right from the first sentence.  Then I decided the to read the book myself to get through the story faster, and regretted not starting this book as soon as it was published.  Stockett did an amazing job on her first book, about Mississippi in the 1960s, the conflicts and complex relationships between the helps and their white employers.  The book is narrated by three voices, a white female writer, and two African American helps, and a decision that they risked their lives to make.  Wonderful book, wonderful writing, and wonderful narrating in the audio format.  I don't think I could think of any other equivalent works.


So much that I wanted to avoid historical fiction, I found myself being pulled into this sad period of American history, when not everyone was treated equal.  I still could feel the sadness and the pain, long after finishing the book.