Hi there! Katje here.
Today I’m going to talk about Baby’s First Book by Clare Beaton. (Currently discounted as part of our Winter Sale!)
A bit about the book: Baby’s First Book is a large book full of pages that go over basic concepts, grouping them appropriately. For example, there’s a page called “My Toybox” and it has pictures of the various toys one might find in a child’s toy chest. There are also lots of traditional nursery rhymes with illustrations and, down at the bottom of the page, instructions on the physical actions that go with the rhymes. The book covers concepts like different types of animals, weather, clothing, and much more.
What I think kids will get out of it, and why it’s special: The illustrations are bright and colorful, which is pleasing to young eyes. Very young children are attracted to bright, bold colors, and this book delivers in that aspect. I also really like that the traditional rhymes have instructions for the actions that go with them — I sort of vaguely remember rhymes that my parents did with me when I was a kid, but not well enough to effectively do them with my own future children. Having instructions nearby will help immensely.
This is a book to be read from parent or caregiver to child. It is not a book that’s intended for a child to read on their own. So a big thing kids will get out of this book is together reading time with adults in their lives. Being illustration-heavy, there are lots of opportunities for picture walks to happen on different pages, even if there’s no overarching story. You can spend a lot of time pointing out the pictures, associating words with them, and just having fun with the book.
This is the most important thing. The words in this book are very simple. The concepts are simple: weather, animals, clothing, vegetables. The point is, they’re bundled up into one package so it’s easy to spend a good chunk of time with this book going over these concepts with a child. The happy memories you’ll make reading this book to your child will help encourage early reading readiness and literacy. Reading this book with a child and talking about the content of the book are great ways to encourage literacy.
On that note, it’s Family Literacy Week right now, and it’s wrapping up tomorrow. To read more about Family Literacy Week and the different ways you can help build literacy in your own home, check out the website here.
See you next month with another Barefoot Book!
-Katje