Engaging Books for a 6 Mo Old...?

Barnes and Noble has the Dr. Suess books on board books. I have been reading them to my son since he was a couple weeks old. He loves them.

But Not the Hippopotamus by Boynton was a favorite of my oldest daughter. Also look at Tumble Bumble. My daughter used to CRY when it was over and we would have to read it again and again. I think she still likes to hear it from time to time when I'm reading it with her younger sister.

Hi, G..
My twin girls really like the "That's not my Lion, Dolly, Bear...etc." series. They are tactile books. Enjoy!

I second the Sandra Boynton suggestion. We have purchased her CD/Books. The stories have accompanying music making it easy to sing along, and if you'd like, and you have her character dolls or extra time to make finger puppets, you can actually entertain your daughter while reading along.

My kids are wacky for these books. We listen to them while eating breakfast on weekends. They hoot and holler, and have a little "party."

I also am big on reading to kids. I have found that limiting yourself to only age appropriate books is like cheating you and your child out of new experiences. I read books for older children to my little ones as well. Even my youngest at age 2 could appreciate them.

My oldest is particularly fond of adaptations of the classics written for early readers. My husband just read him (he's 5) The Three Musketeers (a version aimed at kids 8-10) and he's in love with it and eagerly waiting to hear Treasure Island.

I think it all has to do with presentation, and thinking of creative ways to make it visual for the younger ones.

I'm big on puppets, and using voices when reading books with limited or bland pictures and sketches.

Some of our kids' favorite reads include;

All of the "Martha Speaks" series by Susan Meddaugh. Short picture stories aimed at 1-2nd graders about the adventures of a family dog who can speak after eating alphabet soup.

Curious George Series by H.A. Rey.

The Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by Milne

The complete works of Dr. Seuss (it's a huge volume of all of his books)

All of these have great pictures, and you can find stuffed animals and character puppets for the books just about anywhere. Some children's bookstores also carry toddler versions of these books in abridged, board book, versions as well.

Some good book stores and places with good kid books, character puppets, and more to help round out your libary collection include;

The Red Balloon in St. Paul
Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis
Toy World (Chanhassen, Wayzata, Edina)
Creative Kid Stuff
Lakeshore Learning Store (St. Louis Park, Maplewood).

You should know that Lakeshore has an incredible selection of toddler resources for storytime, including felt story boards, story telling vests and velcro finger puppet glove sets, of best-seller children's books like "Go Away Big Green Monster" and "Chica, Boom, Boom ABC", "Where the Wild Things Are" and the "No David!" series of books.

Go to www.lakeshorelearningstore.com to see what I'm talking about. Look under Children's literature and reading resources. These are really neat alternative ways to share stories with pre-readers.

My son has always loved Moo Baa La La La, I'm finding I enjoy reading all the Sandra Boynton books and neither of us gets tired of them. The That's Not My (dog, tractor, truck, dinosaur, etc) serious its a lot fun to, lots to touch and easy to read. Have fun reading!

I fifth, sixth, seventh wherever we are at with the Sandra Boynton books. lol. Another suggestion is a good sturdy picture book that has very thick pages. My son got one at a baby shower. It's got like a dozen pictures for counting on two pages, next two pages have food, next two pages have colors, next two pages have transportation and then the next two pages have baby animals.

I have an 11 month old and we read everything. He really enjoys exploring board books, but we definitely read books for all ages. Sandra Boynton is a favorite. We enjoy Bear Feels Sick and the rest of the Bear books. Is Your Mama a Llama? Sheep in a Jeep and Duck in the Truck. Read what you enjoy and your baby will take interest in most. I like to read the book reviews on Amazon.com before purchasing, just don't stick to age groups. Happy Reading!!!

I also want to add an awesome book for you to read. It is called "The Read Aloud Handbook." This book is a great tool for those that know the importance of reading to children and those who want to learn it. There are also book recommendations in it for every age.

Check out www.ubah.com/T2427

Baby's Day Board books are cute and interactive, the Luxury Touchy-Feely Board books offer several different textures/page
You will also find bath books and cloth books that offer flaps, touchy-fely patches and lots of other little suprises

Also fun and interactive is our Your Baby Can Read! Early Language Development System. A series of DVDs, and Double-side sliding word and picture cards.

hey G.

You got a lot of good suggestions for books, so here's someting you might not have heard from others here yet. I let my babies 'have their way' with old issues of the national enquirer. They also liked newspapers but the ink was terrible and smudgy on those and the tabloid magazines had silly little blurbs I could read to them and goofy pictures on paper that was crinkly enough for a good grabbing and ripping. It was also easy to clean up when they were done. If they got some in their mouths, they spit it out because it didn't taste good to chew.

My kids both responded really well to Maurice Sendak's "Chicken Soup With Rice" at an early age - the rhythm is so engaging and accessible.

I also found that anything that -I- found interesting, they liked to hear. I used to read ESPN magazine aloud to my son when he was that age. I'd also read novels aloud. That way I got to do my reading as well as spend time reading with them.

"What Do You Say?" by Mandy Stanley is a fun one that allows for some "audience participation" as well.

I second the Usbourne suggestion. I hadn't heard of this company until a friend from work became a consultant for them. The touchy feely books are great and all of their books are good quality - which I've really begun to appreciate as my little guy is getting older and wants to pull off the flaps on the lift-the-flap books. I've seen them at Barnes & Noble too.

I would go to your library and try out some of their board books with her.

I started early with black and white books, progressed to face pictures, and then basic books with nice, simple pictures. If you go to a bookstore like Borders they have many of the popular books. Priddy Books makes some great first books. My son loved the "That's not my..." books that Usbourne makes. Also books with animals. There's a cute one about Where's my bellybutton. And my son loved this one called "Peek a Who" that we found at the library. You could take her to the bookstore and just try out a few with her. There are SO many awesome first books that you can't go wrong with. Have fun!

My son also loves the Boynton books - specially Moo Baa La La La, a favorite when he was very little because of the rhymes and learning animal sounds.

Don't forget Goodnight Moon (as he's getting bigger he is noticing more and more), and Spot. At age 5 or 6 months he started getting really into simple pop-up books (spot, but also some cheapies that were very basic.) He still loves them at age 16 months.

Enjoy!

Usborne books has some great ones. We have "that's not my truck" and a couple others. They have unique touch-and-feel pages. Many of these can now be found at Borders.

Hi G.,
I have been reading to my daughter since she was tiny. She loves books. I actually own a Home based business, it's called Usborne Books. They are educational and have great pictures. Please feel free to visit my web site. www.ubah.com/s2438.
Have a great Day.
C.

My son and I really love Hands, Hands, Fingers, Thumb by Dr Seuss. It's not a tactile book, but it's short and has a good beat. There's also repeats of dum ditty, dum ditty, dum dum dum (drum beats). We have a toy drum and he bangs it every time that's repeated, which he loves. Now that he's a year, he picks this book out of all his books every time to read first.

My son liked any picture books- especially with baby faces. Also. "Goodnight Moon" and "the Very Hungry Caterpillar" were popular as well...

I love, LOVE Sandra Boynton books (Barnyard Dance, Hey Wake Up) The books are shorter and have neat rhymes that keep the little ones in tune a little longer. Books with actual pictures (not illustrations) of other babies always seem to be a hit at that age, can't think of any actual names though.
If you have time for a project you could make her a book with pictures of people she knows but doesn't see everyday, familiar objects around the house, etc. I made an abc book for my kids at that age with pictures of big brother, grandma, etc and they really, really loved it.
When I was desperate for more ideas for books when my twins were that age I asked the librarian who did the baby story time at the library for the list of books they use for story time and I found a lot of great gems listed there. They should be able to print you off a list and you can go from there.
Happy Reading
K. H.

I LOVE Dr. Seuss books! They are rhyming and with fun pictures. Also, just go to the book store and find ones that she wants to read that are the textile style.

All three of my kids have really liked the My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. It has SO many bright colors that even my 2 1/2 month old really likes it right now. My 2 and 4 year old still like it too, because I change my voice for the different emotions in the book. It's fun.

We also really like Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Seuss also. It's a fun way to practice animal sounds and again changing your voice with different things is great!

They also have liked Miss Mary Mack by Hoberman and My First Body Board Book. Miss Mary Mack has repitition in it which can be fun and the Body Board Book has lots of kids faces and expressions that my kids enjoyed. The Body Board Book is also one in a collection of books with similar titles, such as My First Colors Board Book.

Hi, G.!

My hands-down favorite children's author is Sandra Boynton. Her books are sturdy board books that are just the right size for little hands. Each page is a different color and there's just enough words on each page to keep the child interested. It all rhymes, so they love hearing the rhythm of your voice reading it to them. Many of her books are about everyday things like putting on your pajamas or waking up, so you can recite them while you're doing those activities with your child. My son started turning the pages on her books at 2-months-old because he loved them and wanted to get to the next page!! Now that he's almost one, if he is upset at the store or in the car, I just start reciting one of his favorite Boynton books and he instantly calms down because it's familiar to him.

Now that he's older, we've purchased some of her books that have "lift the flaps" or that are set to music. She actually has some books that come with a CD and he LOVES the fact that the music has lyrics he already knows from Mommy reading him the book.

Okay, I know that's a big advertisement for her books, but they are really that good! If you are still reading, there is also a company called Usborne books (I'm not affiliated with them but I'm sure you can find a consultant around you) that sells "That's Not My..." books. They're only 7-8 dollars apiece and they probably have 30 to choose from. My son has "That's Not My Truck" and "That's Not My Robot" and he loves both of them, but they have princesses, horses, penguins, pirates, etc. Again, they're sturdy and have just the right a mount of pages and each one has something to touch or push or a new texture or a shiny spot. They are great!

I hope you find some wonderful material! There is nothing better than sitting and reading together!!

LOL. this is going to sound like a shameless plug.

www.usbornforthefuture.com

i am an usborn books consultant! they are fabulous books, and you wont get any of the "cartoon character" names like disney, etc... so they are "genaric". the books are of AWESOME quality, even the paper paged books are sturdy. lots of board books, the touchy feely books are among a HUGE favorite for little babies.

my son wasnt really interested in being read books until just recently - hes 21 months old. he loved to look at them on his own though, which means many of our books have some teeth marks on them LOL but again, usborn books are sturdy, and even when destroyed we have a replacement program for half price.

anyway, check out my site, and if you have any questions you can email me at any time - ____@____.com

My daughter loves Sandra Boynton books (and her music CDs), Karen Katz books (lift the flaps), the Skippyjonjones board books, one called Goodnight Baby (animals on strings that she can tuck into bed), Brown Bear Brown Bear, and anything that is a familiar song or nursery rhyme. We frequently go to Barnes and Noble and just browse the board book section. We almost always leave with a book (or two, or three)! I think she inherited by book addiction!

My daughter loves any and all Sandra Boynton books. She also has always loved board books with flaps (but it's hard to make sure they don't get ripped) and textures she can touch. Spending time at the library to see what they have is a great option as well. Finally, I always find cute little board books at the dollar store, dollar spot at Target or even garage sales. I don't think a child can ever have enough books!

Hi G., I had a very large book of nursery rhymes with pictures,
ther was alot of material there
Have fun
KathyJoy

My DS has always loved "How do I love you" and the book version of The Little Drummer Boy. Any books that have a sing-songy rhythm. He also likes books where you can feel the animals: a sheep's wool; an iguana's scales...

G., i understand how that feels, we joined a book club, and got some dr seuss books, etc, and others, we also read the bible story book to them , it was filled with lots of pictures, our church has a really good one, and pretty accurate too, if you would care to have me get you one and mail it to you free , i would be glad to , just send me a message and i will. however, even with a book club, our kids had their favorite and wanted that one read over and over, so i would make the reading fun for me, expecially since they were so young, i would read the first line on every page, they heard the words and saw the page, and it was fun reading to me, it sounded funny to me, and i enjoyed it more, then when your bored with that, read just the last line, or the second line or first and second word, its not that your are reading, its mommmy and me time, and you are holding them and they hear your voice, and see pictures, but try it on a book and read just the first line, we used to entertain other adults who came over , and the child wanted us to read, and we really did not have the time, it works, and was fun, we got to read the whole book over and over, any way , contact me if you want one of the bible story books, i am glad to send one free of charge, (or to you the reader of this if you too want a good accurate bible story book, also filled with scriptures, so you can check it with your own bible, let me know, i have a good source, and its free) D. S

The Sandra Boynton books are great! Our sons also loved "Goodnight, Moon", "Chicka Chicka ABC", "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?", and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" They had many, many, great board books, but these were definitely the best loved (i.e. well-worn!)

Your local library should have lots of board books to choose from...take home a stack and see what she likes!

Anything by Sandra Boynton! Barnyard Dance, But not the Hippopotumus, Pajama Time.....just to name a few! Great rhythym and fun to read!
Enjoy!

G.,

My babies all loved the "Touch and Feel Animals" series by DK Publishing. There is an original plus Baby Animals, Farm Animals, Jungle Animals, Wild Animals, and Animal Colors. Amazon.com has them and lots of bookstores, too.

My babies also liked those cloth busy books where you could pull stuffed animals on string out of the pocket and velcro them to different pages. Ours came from a Christian book store and were about baby bible friends and Noah's ark.

Good luck,
S.