I have shared posts recently about what activities and objects live on Frida’s work shelves, but I haven’t yet spoken much about books and reading. Frida loves books at the moment, especially with her daddy reading them to her after he gets in from work, or before she goes to bed.
We have put up a couple of long IKEA picture ledges in her room so that she can choose the books herself, and will rotate these with the rest of her books which live around our home in various baskets. She loves sitting by them, pulling books down and opening them, turning the pages and looking at the illustrations. She can’t really reach the top shelf yet so the bottom shelf is where all of her current favourites live.
Her particular favourites are:
Global babies. Happily this is also one of my favourites! This delightful card book features beautiful photos of babies from around the globe. Frida really likes turning the pages, sometimes lingering on the baby from Guatemala, or the baby from Peru. I enjoy that many of the babies are being worn by their mummies, just like Frida. The profits from the sale of this book also go to the Global Fund for Children. I would really recommend this book for any baby.
Rabbit’s nap. Frida is currently obsessed with this book, going straight for it over and over again, turning the pages, opening the flaps, bringing it to us to read with her. It is a sweet story about Rabbit who cannot nap as her friends are making too much noise. I like that the book has flaps as Frida is getting better and better at opening them – great fine motor skills practice. Frida has already enthusiastically torn off two of the flaps. One of my tasks for today is to buy sellotape to fix them – until they are torn off again…
The Gruffalo. My husband and I now both know this off by heart. She really, really loves it, and again will bring it to us to read over and over again. We also recite it if she is grumpy or tired and unhappy about being outside, or having her nappy changed, and it calms her instantly. It’s a nice story about small triumphing over big. My only gripe is that all of the characters are male! It wouldn’t have been so hard to have made a few of them female.
What books are your babies enjoying? I would love recommendations for other books with flaps as this seems to be a skill Frida is particularly wanting to practice at the moment. We may try and make our own with family photos – watch this space.
Ladybird do a range of Peekaboo books – we have Peekaboo Zoo and Peekaboo Moon, both have gone down really well. And Spot books by Eric Hill often have a lift-the-flaps version 🙂
Ooh, I’ll keep an eye out for them! X