Books for Baby

onlyroz

The textured books like the "That's not my..." series are great for littlies. For slightly older children I'd recommend anything by Julia Donaldson. Another great book is "We're going on a bear hunt" by Michael Rosen.

I'd stick to board books until the kids turn two - otherwise you're just asking for ripped pages. I'd also avoid the flap-type books (e.g. "Where's Spot") for a while because young kids will just rip the flaps out.

There are also some great Vtech electronic books like this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/VTech-Winnie-Slide-Learn-Storybook/dp/B0007A5HJW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1305916798&sr=1-3

madtrekker

I've got a 16-month old bookworm who was introduced to books from week one (literally). Here's a few of our favourites:

From birth - 3 months

Babies of this age can't see colour very well so anything high-contrast, black and white is especially good. We liked:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Touch-First-Focus-Book/dp/1409305163/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1305915915&sr=8-4

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Animals-Babys-First-Cot-Books/dp/0746098154/ref=pd_sim_b_1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Shapes-Books-Mobile-Set/dp/1903275520/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1305915915&sr=8-15

From around 4 months

Around this time, my LO started showing an interest in the "touchy - feely" type board books which have different textures. These were all popular:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thats-Not-Monkey-Fiona-Watt/dp/0746093365/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305916188&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thats-Teddy-Usborne-Touchy-Feely/dp/0746085176/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305916188&sr=1-5

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Touch-Farm-Ladybird/dp/1846469104/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305916213&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Babys-First-Touchy-feely-Usborne-Touchy/dp/1409508501/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305916238&sr=1-9

From around 6 months

At about this age, we got some "buggy books" (little board or cloth books on a tie-one thingy to keep on the pushchair / highchair / car-seat) and introduced bath books. Again, these were popular:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Touch-Feel-Buggy-Buds-Buddies/dp/0333781201/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305916356&sr=1-8

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Touch-Hello-Buggy-Book/dp/1409301915/ref=sr_1_28?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305916397&sr=1-28

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00008O0Y9/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0013K7OYQ&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1P9YS1X7KSTRMM4YEDF2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quack-Bath-Books/dp/1409527395/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1305916692&sr=8-12

Around 9 - 12 months

By this stage, my LO was very interested in books that showed familiar everyday objects and also books that were a bit "busier" with things to spot and talk about. She liked pointing out things she recognised. She also enjoyed "lift the flap" simple stories. E.g:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Words-Roger-Priddy/dp/1843327880/ref=dp_ob_image_bk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Animal-Hide-Farmyard-Tales-Touchy-feely/dp/0746055757/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305916856&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Animals-Hide-Seek/dp/1409505901/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305916856&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dear-Zoo-Rod-Campbell/dp/0230747728/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305916905&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wheres-Spot-Eric-Hill/dp/0723263663/ref=pd_sim_b_1

plumpmouse

Guess how much I love you is one of my favourites for reading to children

My DD (9months) loves Dear Zoo pop up version.

Not sure how much you want to spend but these were loved by my ds

100yoga

As a Health Visitor the types of books that I recommend as first books are books that have high contract colours. The baby will not be able to see pale colours very well. The best type of books are ones that have black and white pictures/patterns in them. They don't look very interesting to an adult but babies will stare at them for ages! Examples of this are:

Amazing Baby Black and White Book (board book) avaliable on Amazon for about £4

Spots and Dots by Art Baby (board book). They also do 'Hearts and Stars' and others in their range - again on Amazon.

I bought my nephew 'Spots and Dots' and he was always transfixed by this. I would HIGHLY recommend this book.

Amazing Baby books are generally very good.

Also 'Guess How Much I Love You' is delightful. 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' do a board book version and this is lovely and bright.

meeps

there are some pretty orla keily board books coming out soon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Orla-Kiely-Colours-Board-Books/dp/140525856X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305923006&sr=1-2

you can get board book versions of the very hungry caterpillar, guess how much I love you, we're going on a bear hunt, peepo, each peach pear plum etc

a range we love are the oliver jeffers books

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Catch-Star-Board-Book/dp/0007324618/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305923122&sr=1-10

and miffy. I think we had a nice cloth book that was a maisy story..

-how about getting a nice little bookcase and then you'd be able to get books to fill it up each birthday and christmas..

pinkshoes

My DS (6 months) LOVES books!

I'd go for either some black and white books, which are great for very young babies, or a cloth book that they can chew and play with when a little older but still far too young for words.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazing-Baby-Black-Emma-Dodd/dp/1904513794/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305923437&sr=1-1

SkintGypsy

My daughter got a set of The Gruffalo and three other books by the same author for her christening when she was one. She is now five and they still get an outing regularly. Baby is one tomorrow, and they will be some of his favourite too I'm sure. I would definitely put an inscription in one too, so that they have a lovely momento from you as they grow. Perhaps seek out a book that you loved as z child, to make it a bit more personal.

shy-but-need-help

Ohhh coming back to this, as a book for parents to read as they get older "Five children and It" has an absolutely lovely poem in the front of it as a dedication- my oldest daughters Godfather bought it her for her baptism and the little poem at the front is very sentimental. It's a nice "keeper" type book.

I have to say kids can have the effect on adults of encouraging them to read- my mother, by her own admission, had never, ever completed a book in her life (wasn't a very studious person at school) until my oldest child showed an extreme interest in reading and so my mom began reading the same books as DD1 to give her something in common with her as she grew older and wasn't so keen to play with granny anymore (I think my mom feared losing touch with her as she grew up) As a result my mother has recently finished the Twilight Saga and is presently reading the Vampire Diaries... she also found she actually does quite like to read and found genres of her own to read and enjoy.

chickywiggle

I realllly hate "baby" books - the one word per page ones.

my "must have" list is:
- The Gruffalo
- The very hungry catterpiller
- each peach pear plum
- peepo
- owl babies
- any of the "hairy mclary" series
- the "little bear" series - e.g. can't you sleep little bear
- the "large family" series - e.g. "peace at last"
- thomas the tank engine
- the "are you my mummy" series
- the "thats not my teddy/ dinosaur/ tractor" series

Spendless

I think the 2 books I used and appreciated the most when mine were very small were a Nursery rhyme book and a Traditional fairy story one. Both books had more than more than one rhyme/story in it, so you never tired of it. I've only recently got rid of the nursery rhyme books (youngest is 8) and still have the fairy stories.