Bobcat loves to read. Well, he doesn’t exactly read yet, and he won’t sit still through long stories I read to him either. But he loves being read to, especially if there’s more activity to it. Since he was about 1 year old, he loved lift-the-flap board books and touch & feel books with short stories. Mostly he likes to point at things and I read out what can we see: simple objects, colours, little songs. And numbers. Looooves counting. We take his favourite books with us when we’re going away, serving as a comfort object. He’s attached to them as other kids to a cuddly toy. To encourage his love of books and keep the flame burning I started to buy loads of books and whenever he favoured one, I just looked up the rest of the series and bought some more. Bobcat prefers bold drawings with sharp colours in books and I think that’s quite understandable. He’s not ready for smeary pastel drawings yet. I agree: a giraffe should more look like a giraffe and less of a paint splotch. So here’s our favourites:
- Maisy Mouse books. (By Lucy Cousins) It all started with Where is Maisy?, which was his first flappy book. He wouldn’t stop giggling and I had to read it about 25 times in one go. It’s sort of a peek-a-boo game: Maisy hides and we need to find her, so small toddlers and even babies will love it. Currently, his favourite is Counting with Maisy. He just loves the character. Read With Maisy
- Sasha and Olly books. (By Katherine Lodge) Very cute little stories, lots of things to point out on the pages, good size to handle for tiny hands. Bobcat’s first was Sasha And Olly Are Out And About Unfortunately, this is a small book series with only 3 books.
- This Little…. – touch and feel books published by Ladybird. Our first one was This Little Monkey and we learned all the body parts with the help of it. Then came This Little Kitten and This Little Snowmen and we counted ears, eyes, legs and pebble buttons 🙂 Great series indeed, there are a few more titles available. Ladybird Books: This Little Snowman
- Rod Campbell books. A real classic, I think. We started with Dear Zoo. Bobcat learned to identify animals he never actually met in real life: camel, snake etc. Campbell’s drawings are great: very sweet, perfectly clear and distinct. Find them here: Rod Campbell: Dear Zoo
- Spot books. (By Eric Hill) Great example again: once the child fell in love with the character, they are interested in other books with the same character too. Which is, in my opinion a great way to make them more curious about books. Spot has an extensive library: Fun With Spot and they are available at puffin.co.uk
