I’ve been starting to think about unloading the board books from the shelves in Isabelle’s play room. Other than the Bizzy Bear books and the Priddy concepts books, she rarely looks through them anymore. She’s more of a picture book gal. And I guess that is expected since she’s inching her way towards three. (Though she’s not quite 2 1/2 yet!)
But something happened the other day that made me think she hasn’t quite outgrown board books yet. Review copies of Taro Gomi’s newest board books arrived at my doorstep in a box with some picture books I will most likely review for their writerly qualities on TWT. Instead of gravitating towards the picture books, Isabelle immediately grabbed Wiggle! and examined it closely since there’s a hole in the middle of the book. She opened the pages and wasn’t sure what to do. I initially indulged her by putting my finger through the die-cut to make a penguin’s beak peck or to have a seagull flap her wings. She giggled in sheer delight at the way I was able to make my finger move like animals’ body parts.
Another new favorite of Isabelle’s are seek and find books. She enjoys looking for the item on the page so she liked Gomi’s Hide and Seek since it forced her to look very carefully at each page to find the image on each page that was slightly different than the rest. As a parent, I like the way the page with text asks a simple question (e.g., “Which bird hides a cap?” or “Which turtle hides a scooter?”) since that minimizes me needing to say “Find the _____.” She knows exactly what she has to look for and she has to examine each page closely to find the hidden item.
As someone who wasn’t initially sold on board books, I’ve come to really enjoy engaging ones like Taro Gami’s since they make my child want to go back and “read” them again on her own. What’s better than that?
Raising Literate Humans 