For decades, I’ve been set in my reading ways. I like literary fiction; I like it to be playful and experimental, though I’m as easily seduced by a great traditional narrative as the next guy; I like reading about characters whose life experiences both differ from and overlap with my own, which means I like reading women from a broad swathe of cultures, whether in book or audiobook form.
2023 has been a different kind of year for me, however, and although I have read (and listened to!) some brilliant works of literary fiction, like Nancy Jooyoun Kim’s What We Kept to Ourselves (mesmerizingly narrated on audio by Jennifer Kim), Lauren Groff’s The Vaster Wilds, Yiyun Li’s Wednesday’s Child, Cleyvis Natera’s Neruda on the Park, and Alyssa Songsiridej’s Little Rabbit, what I have read the most, and over and over and over, is children’s literature, and more specifically, board books.
The board book strikes me as a particularly under-appreciated format in publishing, given how essential it is in the first years of a child’s life. I’ve come across lots of gorgeous, poetic, thought-provoking children’s literature in translation, for example, that would make for amazing board books, but either the publishers don’t realize the value of this to families or don’t think it would earn them a profit. I strongly suggest to all publishers to rethink this approach and to set the price point a little higher if they need to—in my experience over this past year, a single great board book can take the place of dozens of okay toys.
So: these are my favorite board books, by which I mean, these are the board books my twins, who turned one this summer, have grown fondest of, have learned words and feelings from, laughed with, and found, time and time again, stuck between cushions or hidden behind other titles, in order to hand them to me in anticipation of further delights.
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown (author) and Clement Hurd (illustrator)
This is a classic for a reason, namely, it is completely spellbinding, or rather, it is, quite simply, a spell. It ought to come with every new and every used crib the same way hotels stick a Bible in the drawers of their nightstands. It would be horrible not to have this book.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and A Day on the Farm with The Very Hungry Caterpillar by The World of Eric Carle
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is similarly ingenious, and our daughter now cackles at the sequence of fruit with holes through the center, followed by what we assure her is vegan salami and sausage. Carle was a pioneer of creative formats that engage even children who aren’t automatic readers (which our son is and our daughter isn’t). Our most attentive babysitter brought us A Day on the Farm, a newer, vastly simpler title that features the beloved caterpillar, and it’s stayed in our diaper bag ever since. Its brightly colored tabs featuring different farm animals are attractive to tiny hands, and the illustrations invite shouts of, “Flower!” “Bird!” “Cat!” It’s been empowering to our twins, and I’d recommend it especially to parents of infants.
How to Dress a Dinosaur by Robin Currie (author) and Alycia Pace (illustrator)
“Oh, no, you turned into a dinosaur!” this book begins, launching an awesome struggle between a toddler boy who refuses to get dressed and his patient and beautifully creative mother. “Be a triceratops and stomp your back leg into this tar pit,” she councils the boy as she cleverly slips on his pants. “Now be a brontosaurus and crash your other foot through the jungle.” I feel this book actually rewards both children and adults on repeated readings, a rare thing in the toddler world, and the illustrations are soft and sweet and appealing, but just fierce enough to be sure to keep young people’s attention.
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
The first time we read this book, my husband and I experienced the extended tale of a young llama in need of its mama as sheer torture. Dewdney prolongs their reunion until the reader truly cannot take it anymore, as little llama stomps and pouts and jumps and shouts and moans and weeps and wails—until finally, at last, thank heaven, here she comes. But then we noticed that our babies were rapt. The torture excited them, amused them, scared them just enough for the payoff at the end to be truly cathartic, release enough that often they would drift right off to sleep when we were done. And we realized that this is a great book by someone who really gets baby and child psychology in a way that we didn’t yet. Now this is our go-to bedtime adventure.
In the Wild You Might See… by Lisa M. Gardiner
This one seems to be out of print, but get a used copy for children under two. Like A Day on the Farm with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, this book is really fun for kids who are learning their first words, which in our family have mostly been related to animals (if not food). This book elicits roars from our son when he comes across the smiling faces of big cats and squeals of, “Monkey! Monkey!” from our daughter.
In My Flower by Sara Gillingham (author and designer) and Lorena Siminovich (illustrator)
This features a bright orange cloth butterfly at its center that can flutter as a finger puppet as you read. The text is simple, suitable for infants as well as for toddlers. Our daughter requests this one a lot.
Cat’s First Baby by Natalie Nelson
I’m in awe of artists who can illustrate and write, and this, like Llama Llama Red Pajama, is a great example of that. The text is simple enough for an infant with a cat to follow, and the pictures are beautiful, meticulous, and vivid. This is the perfect book for a family with a cat, and we found it helped our twins develop their empathy for their feline siblings, easing the occasional squabbles over tail access that had plagued our pre-Natalie Nelson period.
If you have a dog, you might check out Nelson’s first book, Dog’s First Baby.
Little Feminist Board Book Set by Lydia Ortiz and others
These books are little four-inch squares featuring very brightly colored portraits and a large black font that stands out against particularly thick pages. Its design makes it perfect for infants to explore on their own. Same goes for other sets in the series, like Little Scientist Board Book Set and Little Artist Board Book Set.
In addition, some very recent acquisitions that have gone over well so far (and that I personally really like) are: You Can Be by Elise Gravel, Be Boy Buzz by bell hooks (author) and Chris Raschka (illustrator), and Being Brave by Cindy Jin (author) and Ashley Dugan (illustrator).
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