bear's favorite books: one year update
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Fashion & Style
When I wrote about Bear's favorite books when he was six months old, I mostly focused on some classic books that I loved to read with him. Our little guy loves curling up with a book in mama's lap (and I love it too!) but at six months, I'm not sure it was really possible to distinguish between "his" favorite books and mine.
Fast forward eight or so months, though, and it's a totally different story! He points at pictures and can pick out a specific book that he loves from a stack, and reading has become one of his favorite things to do. It's less reading to him, now, and feels more like reading with him, which makes it even more special for both of us.
So I thought I'd write about a few more that we've enjoyed! We're still primarily reading board books (the thick cardboard-stock pages that a baby can't fold or rip), but we've just started introducing paper books in the last month or two. It's still a challenge to make sure he's gentle with them, and most of our copies have a tear or two already, but he's learning!
This time around, I wanted to focus on a few more under-the-radar authors. Here are some of Bear's favorites!
Kadir Nelson: Chad picked up our copy of Baby Bear when he was on a work trip for very obvious reasons -- how was he supposed to resist a book called Baby Bear? But when we read it for the first time, it was completely clear to me that he'd stumbled onto a treasure. The book is about a bear lost in the forest trying to find his way home, and the story is so beautiful that it's more like reading an illustrated poem than a children's book. And Bear loves it -- when he was a baby, it was one of the first books that he had a "favorite page"! There's a page where Baby Bear meets a salmon, and Bear would always grab the book and kiss the salmon! It was so adorable, and one of my favorite memories of reading to him so far.
Nelson's second book, If You Plant A Seed, is maybe even better. It's about a rabbit and a mouse that plant a garden, and what happens when they're approached by some birds and have to decide whether to share. The illustrations are breathtaking, and I say that without a whisper of exaggeration. Bear calls this the "Grow! Grow! Grow!" book and it's the first book he ever referred to by name. Of all the books in our nursery, this one is my personal favorite right now.
Giraffes Can't Dance: Oh my gosh, you guys, this book is so cute. It's about a giraffe who's too self-conscious to participate in the Jungle Dance, and it's darling. This book is exactly what's great about books for kids -- it has sweet characters, a lot of vocabulary words, fun illustrations that Bear can point to, and a sweet, meaningful message. We have the board book and have probably read it a hundred times.
Little Blue Truck: This is another really sweet story, and one of the first books that made us realize that Bear was really absorbing the stories we were reading to him! We read this book every day for weeks, and suddenly, out of the blue, he started pointing at the birds on every page. It was like a light flipped in his brain, and he could point to the birdies! And then, a few weeks later, he knew most of the farm animals on each page. It's crazy to watch them learn right in front of your eyes!
One Yellow Lion: This is Bear's most recent favorite. He loves the fold-out pages and all the animals, and it's great for teaching counting, colors, and vocabulary. Some of the learning-oriented books aren't as fun for parents as they are for kids (yes, kiddo, it's amazing, but I already knew that alligators are green), but he loves them. I couldn't write this list without including it!
The Teddy Bears' Picnic: This is an old book of mine that Bear has fallen in love with. (Want to know how old? It comes with a record of Bing Crosby singing the song that it's based on.) It's a really sweet story that Chad and I sing to him as we read it, which he loves. If you don't know the tune, you can hear it on YouTube! Technology is crazy.
Finally, I have to round out this list with some classics! Goodnight Moon, Brown Bear, and Pat The Bunny are a few other well-loved favorites that you guys already know about, but that Bear has been really into at this age!
Whew! That's a much longer list than his six-month update. I was a big reader as a kid, and I'm really happy that Bear seems to have inherited that from me. If you guys have any others that I should try, please let me know. I usually order a few books a month for him so he always has new stories to explore, so I'd love to hear your favorites!
Photo Credit: Kate Robinson