Babies | Page 3 of 21

Extraordinary Animals, a durable, interactive, smart book for ages five and up

If six-year-olds were in charge of bathroom books then Extraordinary Animals would be on top of every tank. The basis behind a great toilet book is that it’s fun to read and can be consumed in nuggets. Granted, in some cases, those books graduate from the water closet to mingle with the books in the general library or for leisure reading. Ultimate Spotlight Extraordinary Animals is a book that falls in that category. It also combines interactive elements from two of our favorite series of books.

Ultimate Spotlight Extraordinary Animals melds the best parts of an interactive book, board book and STEM curio into one.

Interactive, stem-oriented books for the very young you seek?

Footprints Across the Planet is a soft picture book on life and impact

Did you hear about the dinosaur footprints in Texas that were exposed during a drought? I love that story because A. I love all things dinosaur and B. It reminds us that there are extraordinary things that might be just beyond our eyesight. Maybe it’s something that takes a little effort or it could be the everyday things that we simply may not appreciate as much as it deserves. Footprints Across the Planet is a picture book by Jennifer Swanson. Swanson is an author who writes non-fiction books for children, with this one being on the picture end of the teeter-totter.

Footprints Across the Planet is a picture book about the impact things make, softly demonstrated by animals and metaphors.

Jump on in, the pictures are great

Ride, Roll, Run Time For Fun!, big, geometric kids playing in the city

We recently got back from a weekend trip to the city. It felt odd simply calling it, ‘the city’ because there are thousands of cities and to give it such a distinctive article makes it seem like it’s special simply by its size. These are some of the random things that puddle through my mind. Ride, Roll, Run-Time for Fun! is a picture book that features bold, geometric shapes and a group of kids playing in a big city. This is rhyming picture book fun that’s going to hammer down enjoyment to pre-k kids through kindergarten.

Ride, Roll, Run Time For Fun!, a picture book for pre-k kids on action and movement, with a potentially mixed message.

Body positivity on kids movement with happy rhyming text

Words of the World, multilingual board book fun

In my opinion, one of the greatest keys to job security is being able to speak more than one language fluently. While it’s not bulletproof, it does assure you of having another channel from which to market whatever it is that you’re doing. The key to getting children primed to speak more than one language is immersing them in that second pool as quickly as possible. Words of the World is a series of board books aimed at those newborns through five-year-old kids. They have simple words in seven of the world’s most-spoken languages that are accompanied by collage artwork done by Motomitsu Maehara.

Words of the World is a series of multilingual board books that combing basic words to collage images representing them in six, go-to languages.

Board books with brains and without boarders

The Power of Yet, picture book fun-with something to say

I spent most of the 2022 school year in a classroom where “Yet” was in large poster board letters on the wall. Then surrounding that word were several short statements encouraging students like “I can’t do that”, which led directly to that large word. The Power of Yet is a picture book by Maryann Cocca-Leffler for pre-K through second graders that primes them to the power of that simple, three-letter word.

The Power of Yet is picture book greatness that teaches young kids about positive thinking, without being preachy

Making storytime great for pre-k and K kids

Clever Publishing’s My First Spanish board books have a long life

We go to the dentista and read a revista. For some reason, my wife and I still remember that sentence from an early learner illustrated book that taught basic Spanish words. I don’t even remember the name of the book or anything else from it. It was cute and a book that resonated with our oldest child for a season or two. That was an illustrated book, and by its design was intended to be experienced in its totality. It’s not like a reference book where young readers are intrigued enough to open it to any page and thumb around. Clever Publishing has a trio of My First Spanish Books that hit the bilingual nail on the head for a couple of reasons.

Clever Publishing has a trio of My First Spanish board books that are smart enough for sixth or seventh grade, and young enough for crawlers.

This board book series extends through seventh grade for second language peeps

Mermaid Dance, a well built interactive board book that moves and charms

Who is the king of interactive board books? It’s not like there is a fiefdom of illustrators and authors battling it out for supremacy a la Survivor. There is no tattooed ringleader with their arms outstretched asking the world whose house this is. These are interactive board books, the kind that toddlers, crawlers and pre-K kids love to paw over, pull their levers, wonder how the object on the page moves, and try their best to make the book unusable for future generations. Mermaid Dance is by the husband and wife team of Matthew Van Fleet and Mara Val Fleet. Matthew is the #1 New York Times Best Selling Author, behind Tails and Dog, as well as the Oscar the Octopus, Chomp Goes the Alligator, Dance, and more.

Mermaid Dance is an interactive board whose quality and durability is equaled only by its enjoyment by those young readers.

hardened souls who dislike all, Resistance is futile to this book

Doctor Strange and The Mighty Thor Marvel Books deal in classic comfort

Board books can take on many forms in children’s literature. These are the feel good, comfort food books that crawlers will learn to love. My Mighty Marvel First Book Doctor Strange, as well as My Mighty Marvel First Book The Mighty Thor are two board books that are loaded to the gills with classic art, blazing action and thick pages for those kids to chew on….if they need to.

My Mighty Marvel First Board Book The Might Thor and Doctor Strange, classic art from Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby with board book smarts for crawlers.

Enter the Marvel comics world, young true believer