How to Choose Books for Your Baby

When do you really need to start reading to your baby? Now’s a good time!

Early literacy begins early.

Research shows that newborns are born equipped to respond to the language they’ve heard in the womb. They’ve been listening to you all this time and they love your voice! When you read to your baby they will love listening to you and looking at the pictures.

You’re building a foundation for relationship, for learning, for language development and eventually, learning to read. That’s a really good thing because when you can read, you can just do so many things in life.

Take a listen to learn more about how to pick out great books for your infant and toddler.

What to look for as you select books:

Baby faces

Babies love to look at faces, they love to look at your face. They love to gaze into your eyes and that’s how they learn about you that’s how you guys Connect as you do all of this looking at each other and babies just love faces and so if you notice many infant books and toys have images of faces on them. So try to find some that have nice images of babies faces

Colorful, familiar images

Choose books with bright, simple images that feel familiar – like, if you have a black labrador retriever and the book has a black dog in the pictures. When children can make a connection between their real life and the story, it enhances cognitive development. They’ll remember the story when it feels familiar.

Easy to handle, thick pages 

Cardboard, plastic and other indestructible materials make a great book for infants and toddlers. Why? Well, for one, they don’t have enough fine motor control to gently manipulate pages and also they’re in the oral stage of sensorimotor development and put everything in their mouth. Plain paper pages will get eaten. 😃

Encourages interaction

Books that invite your child to interact by lifting a flap, touching a texture or putting their finger through a hole in the page are always fun.  Repetitive phrases or words they can say with you are great too and allow them to be a part of the story.

Travels well

Have a few books that are small enough to toss in your tote to pull out when you need a little entertainment. My favorites are the chunky, not-too-many-pages picture books that babies can handle on their own.

Download our list of 10 Must-Have Books!

Wondering what to do when baby wants to cry instead of read? Check out our post on the reasons newborn babies cry!

Check out play ideas for 3-6 month olds and 6-9 month olds!