Giving the gift of reading to your child is priceless. There are so many fantastic books out there.
I’ve just started out on my journey as a parent and I am already feeling the nostalgia for my love of reading as a child.
I’ve categorised them below so you can get started exploring these different types under which there are so many books to choose from. I’ve simply shared one example to help that we either own ourselves or has been recommended to us.
These books will help to stimulate, entertain and develop your little one. I look forward to sharing more blogs on this topic in the future so don’t forget to follow me to stay updated.
If you love reading as a grown up? Why not start your own book club.
7 types of books for you and your little one to explore:
1. Black and White
When your baby arrives they see in black and white initially. I found this incredible to learn. A black and white book is the perfect starter book for your baby.
We’ve got the one in the picture above by Tana Hoban. I enjoyed getting it out to show my little girl when I was changing her as it has an accordion style fold-out.
2. Hide and Reveal Felt Flaps
As your little one starts to grow, the hide and reveal books become an instant hit. My little girl loves these felt flap ones, and there’s a whole series of ‘Where’s X?’ to choose from. She will grab at the flap and get excited when revealing what is behind it. Of course my super excited voice also helps!
3. Squishy Squashy
A mum friend of mine had one of these super soft ‘squishy squashy’ books and I stopped in my tracks, ‘Where on earth did you get that?!’. Her little boy was gnawing at the tails and generally sucking the pages. It was the ideal book for those teething months. Easy to clean, bright and colourful too. Plus they can attach to the pram or the car seat for entertainment on the go.
You can find them at lots of places. We however got ours on Amazon.
4. Lift-the-flap
There are the felt flap books and then there are the standard hide and reveal ones. This one above (Dear Zoo) could also fall into the classic category, and I look forward to my little one getting into these. She’s still a bit too young to unfold the flap without tearing it but it’s a great read.
5. Classics
We can not forget about the absolute classics. The books you remember from your own childhood. These are great at any age, whether you’re reading it to them or they are reading it to you. I get quite excited about getting the books that I loved for my daughter, and ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ is one of them.
We were lucky enough to get a number of free classic books from a neighbour. This one above had a soundtrack with it as well.
Enjoy digging out old books or searching for the ones you love to add to your baby’s library.
6. Diverse and Inclusive
In the UK, there has been an ever increasing number of books that are inclusive. It’s a breath of fresh air and for a black mother like myself, I can’t wait to share these books with my daughter. It’s not something I grew up seeing, so it’s fantastic that children can enjoy books that look like them, or explore other cultures and perspectives through the books out there.
Young gifted and black is a book we received as a gift. It shares icons of colour from past and present in celebration of inspirational achievement.
7. Musical
These may not be the popular option for parents (who wants sounds on repeat after all!) but there are lots of books that make noises to bring the story to life. It brings back so many memories. We have yet to get one of these but they come in all sorts of styles and story-types. An example here is ‘Baby’s first noisy nursery rhymes’.
What other kinds of books are there that you’d add to this list?
Angela Beddard says
Other books which are great – bath books, touchy feely books (eg that’s not my…), rhyming books. And love all the types listed above!
Tanya says
Thanks for your comment, I will certainly look for the bath books. Sound perfect as I struggle to get bedtime reading in at the moment!