Hectic Grandson is just over a year old, and he’s finally settled down enough that I don’t have to walk him to sleep. He’s starting to actually sit still and listen when I read to him, especially just before nap time. In all things, he’s got a pretty well-defined personality, and he expresses his likes and dislikes amazingly well for somebody who has a five word vocabulary!

These three books are at the very top of his list when it’s time to settle down and then pass out. As such, it seemed appropriate to feature them on the blog.

Night-Night, Forest Friends by Annie Bach

This is a board book, so it’s automatically going to curry my favor for the toddler set. Apparently it tastes pretty good too, as Hectic Grandson’s teeth marks will attest. This is by far his favorite book right now. There aren’t a whole lot of words, and the illustrations are fairly simple…both seem to appeal to HG’s sense of style. He helps me turn the pages, and the book is large enough (7.75″x7.75″ [19cm x 19cm]) that he’s able to turn the pages back and forth and they stay put. The binding has held up fairly well, especially for a board book.

The storyline is simple, each of the animals is putting their family to sleep. Two rhyming lines per animal family with the illustration spreading across two pages. Toadstools and stars grace many of the pages so there are lots of things to count. The colors are also very soothing. Finally, the illustrated animals are very large allowing my little man to put his finger onto them very easily when I say “where is the rabbit”. With the large size, he’s got a pretty good shot of landing on the rabbit with his still-developing motor skills.

The final positive of this book is that it reads find forwards and backwards. We read from front to back to start, then he picks how we’ll read by turning pages. He’s getting pretty good at keeping from turning two pages at once, so we get through the entire book a couple times before he beings to drift off. It’s much easier when you can just read the book backwards and it makes some semblance of sense.

What Is Black and White? by Susan Ring

Another board book, this one hails from the baby einstein Playful Discoveries series.  This book is a bit smaller in size, the but there is a lot more text on each page. The images of the animals are very high quality photographs. In fact, they are sufficiently high quality and accurate that when we had a skunk visit our backyard Hectic Grandson went and got his book, found the image and proceeded to vocalize enough to let us know that he recognized what he was seeing. Considering that the little guy is barely a year old I was pretty impressed!

The only real issue I have with the book is that the smaller sized pages, especially since this is a board book, prevents the book from lying flat. In fact, we have to hold the book open all the time. As the son of a former librarian, I have broken one of the cardinal rules of book ownership and tried to stress the binding so that the book will open flat. At this point, I still haven’t succeeded. If any of you tell my Mom that I was bending a book to force it to lay flat I will hunt you down and box you about the ears. She would kill me. You think I’m joking, but the whole librarian thing runs deep!

What Is Black and White? is a very easy read, and much more informative than I would have thought a toddler’s book could be. While I often tire of non-rhyming toddler tomes, this one is actually pretty fun to read. Hectic Grandson must think so too, as he’ll struggle to stay awake while I’m reading.

Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann is the third book in this group of Hectic Grandson’s current favorites. Our copy is not a board book, and as such has already received a couple of minor repairs where pages were ripped. There are some benefits to being the son of a former librarian…namely book repair skills! This book is very colorful and very heavy on the illustrations while light on the text. This is actually my favorite story and the illustrations make me laugh.

It’s a silly little book that is certainly growing on Hectic Grandson. Of course, part of that might be the fact that I’m so into the book. If you’re going to buy the book for a toddler’s use…seriously consider the board book. As I mentioned, the paper pages are having a rough time sustaining the energy of a toddler!

So there you go, three books that you should consider adding to your library. If you’ve already got them, be sure to add them to your rotation. They seem very appropriate for a 1 year-old and haven’t become totally disinteresting to this 50+ year old grandpa. I know that Hectic Grandson will outgrow these books eventually, but right now I can see us reading them well into the future. The text may even lend itself to being first reader quality. Frankly I wouldn’t complain if I had to hear these stories over and over for years to come!

Whatever you do, read to your kids and grandkids. Heck, if you don’t have any of your own, go find some. Kids love to be on the receiving end of stories that are being read. Eventually they’ll be the ones reading. What better way to help them learn!

Make it a great day!