Gear: Books

The final installment of the Gear series. If you don't want to read it, please skip to the bottom and post your favorite kids' books. What did you love to read as a child? What do you read to your kids? I'd love to know!


Books are our very favorite source of entertainment. I read to Elsie constantly. Elsie wakes up and gets on the potty, she wants a book. We have to forbid books at breakfast; her appetite for books is as voracious as her appetite for oatmeal. As soon as breakfast is over, more books. When she gets home from daycare, books. Bedtime? Books. Elsie LOVES to read.

And nothing could be better for her. Read your baby -- even your newborn infant. It promotes brain and language development, aides in bonding, and sets up a very healthy dynamic in which reading is fun! If your child will let you, read as often as you can.

You don't need a vast library. Babies and toddlers do tend to enjoy the same stories over and over again ad nauseam. But I want a vast library! So we have one. And it grows every few weeks when I sign onto amazon or drop by the local bookstore and splurge on more, more, ever-more books. If this seems inappropriate, there is always the library, a treasure-trove of reading!

Right now, we only read board books. I have a lovely collection of big-kid books just waiting for it's day. Elsie is a careful child, and with help, she could treat those books right, but with the wonderful world of board books, and all the fun she has turning the pages herself, we haven't yet diversified.

I'm just going to take you through our entire board book collection (or most of it). We read them all.

• Baby Faces -- This isn't my favorite. It's a little weird, but babies love it. Newborns fixate on faces, and Elsie was addicted to this book for the first years of life. There are many versions out there.
• Byron Barton's Transportation Series -- Barton's illustrations are great! Bold, colorful, simple. His text is extremely simple, maybe even over-simple to an adult, but it's just right for the short attention span of a 3-month-old. Boats was Elsie's first favorite book. I still love that one! She's into Trucks now.
• Sandra Boynton -- Books with a nice rhythm and cadence to them -- songs, even. These are fun. Barnyard Dance has my heart. Elsie's current favorite is Perfect Piggies or Snuggle Puppy. Boynton is cute, clever, and prolific. She's clearly a shrewd businesswoman, churning out book after book with simple (probably quick), comic-like illustrations, and making the best of her popularity -- but it is well-earned. She's great.
  
• Eric Carle -- I don't always love the text in Carle books (there are some stilted moments), but you can't beat his animal illustrations. The Brown Bear series is classic, as is The Very Hungry Caterpiller.
• Dr. Seuss -- And his knock-offs. I don't need to introduce him. You all know him, surely. He's clever in his rhymes and mythical creatures. Wocket in My Pocket is my pick. Elsie favors The Foot Book and Mr. Brown can Moo.
  
• The Snowy Day -- The best-written of all of our board books, hands-down. It has more words per page than some, so Elsie had to grow into it a bit. Now she loves it, and I'm so relieved to read a book in which every word and every comma is just perfect.
• The Owl and The Pussycat -- I love this poem. This edition of the book has such interesting and involved illustrations with tons of tropical island flora and fauna. Alas, there is no such thing as a bong tree, but I like the illustrator's imagination of it!
• Potty -- Very cute potty training book appropriate for early-starters. Elsie loves it!
• Karen Katz Books -- Vibrant illustrations from someone who is obviously a quilter (lots of texture and color and fabric is the inspiration for everything). Very sweet books. Lots of kisses and hugs and daddy/mommy/grandma specific reading. In line with attachment parenting, which is not what I practice, but might be good information for someone else. Katz is another one of those prolific illustrators who knows how to churn 'em out and is riding a wave of popularity. Sometimes I feel as though her books are all the same, so I don't need many more than I have. Elsie's favorite: Where is Baby's Bellybutton?
  
• Pat the Bunny -- Classic for the tiniest babies! Don't you just remember the way the scratch and sniff flowers smell? Elsie loved this, until she destroyed it. I wish they'd update the binding on it.
• Goodnight Moon -- Another classic. Great bedtime reading. We have it memorized. Elsie's in this stage where she likes pictures that have a lot going on. The big, color spreads of the great green room are her favorite.
  
• Goodnight Gorilla -- Very cute story with nice, bright illustrations. Not very many words in this one, but Elsie likes to look at the pictures whether or not we describe them.
  
• Freight Train -- Cool concept book. Classy airbrushing! Reads like beat poetry. Elsie is addicted to this one.
  
• Bear Hunt -- A chanting song, Elsie won't let me get through all the words, but the pictures are very cute and adventurous.

We have some other books, too, but I can't remember them off the top of my head. We inherited a collection of Engrish board books, hot off the presses in China and illustrated with clip-art. They drive me nuts. The counting book counts "6 Films." And shows cartridge film -- the kind you put in your camera back in, oh, 1992. And their numeral 9 is actually a lower-case q. Their 8 has a big gap on top, as though it's a c on top of an O. The shape book says, "Triangle" over a picture of a birthday hat that is clearly a cone, and "circle" over a basketball (a sphere). Oh well, I suppose it's good to have some knock-around books that I don't mind treating roughly. Elsie enjoys these despite their shortcomings.

I look forward to the days when Elsie's attention span for words is a little bit longer and we break into the growing collection of big-kid books! And then to the days when I get to read my own favorite chapter books to Elsie. I am not a very strong reader. I have committed most of Elsie's books to memory to avoid constantly tripping over them (as is the habit of a dyslexic). I fear that my poor skill will get in the way when I pull out the Narnia Sagas, but it's dreadfully important to me, so I must practice. For the time being, I just adore reading to Elsie, and she can't get enough.

What we don't use:

• TV for Babies -- Study after study after study shows that tv is detrimental to baby brain development. Brain-wise, it is dead time, a state of hypnotized attention, not engagement. Elsie does get tv at daycare, and we do pull up the occasional youtube video when she is sick and miserable, but for the most part, we avoid tv. Can a child learn things from the television? Of course, but does it improve her intelligence or development? No. Decidedly no. I understand that tv is a useful tool every now and again. It can hold your child's attention and free you up to do something important and urgent, but it should not be the primary focus of childhood entertainment.
  

On that little tirade, I'll wrap it up! I'm through with the gear series. Leave a message if you think I've forgotten anything important.

Share your favorite kids' books in the comments!