Studies show it’s never too early to start reading the best children’s books to infants. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics notes that reading baby books out loud to your kids starting from birth strengthens your parent-child bond and gets your baby started on important language and literacy skills. And in truth, it doesn’t matter what you read to your babies: Just hearing any words will get them the foundations for a later vocabulary, and it’s the lap-sitting, not the book choice, that makes for good bonding time. You could read your to-do list for the week, and it wouldn’t matter to a baby.
But it does matter to you, because reading a to-do list isn’t that much fun. And instead there’s a world of fantastic baby books with wonderful illustrations, innovative interactive features, ingenious wordplay and great read-aloud rhythms, all available at your fingertips. You might even get to learn a thing or two about quantum physics while you’re it. Add the best baby books to your child’s home library, and get ready for snuggly story time. (Bonus: They also make for great baby gifts.)
At Good Housekeeping, we love our appliances, but Steven Weinberg just might love them more. His books — Dishwasher’s Big Job, Fridge and Oven’s Big Job and Washer and Dryer’s Big Job — are all love letters to the machines that make our homes run. And babies also love the googly eyes!
If you’re sick of seeing the same style of illustrations for the same fairy tales over and over, the Once Upon a World series is the antidote. It sets common fairy tales in specific locations: Rapunzel escapes from a tower in India, Snow White hikes through the woods of Japan, Cinderella attends a ball in Mexico and The Little Mermaid swims in the waters of the Caribbean.
Little Fish is hiding, and babies get to check under flaps to find him and his fishy friends. The brightly colored coral, shells and seaweed they conceal themselves in makes for a happy hide-and-seek book. It’s by Lucy Cousins, who delights preschoolers with her Maisy books.
Tummy time is hard for babies. This book folds out like an accordion, so you can stand it up in front of your baby for some extra motivation to pick that head up. The illustrations are a mix of high-contrast black-and-white patterns, images of smiling babes and mirrored pages so your baby can gaze at her own reflection.
For a delicious twist on a counting book, this board book lets kids count the offerings at a dim sum outing, starting with one menu. (Five egg rolls, please!) The words are written in both Mandarin and English.