Ten Must Have books for Babies to start the reading journey

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The world tells us that we must start reading to our child, but when we actually come to it the biggest dilemma is what books must I buy for my baby. Because for a new mommy it is so difficult to judge what will work with a small baby. I am sharing here 10 must have books for babies based on my experience with my daughter and our reading journey. I am crazy for books so I bought a lot many but when I meet friends who are not so happy filling up their house with books, this is what I generally suggest. When I say for babies, these books are not just exactly for babies. Some of these we even enjoy at 5 years but yes these are what you can pick for your child when you are just starting.

I am making this small list for my mommy friends to help them start the reading journey with their kids. I have already spoken about the multitude of benefits of reading to children, and our preferred reading time is bedtime. Do read my post about why bedtime reading is something we absolutely love, yes we – it is a favourite with both me and my daughter.

https://ruchikasandell.com/blog/bedtime-reading-why-we-love-it-and-you-should-too/

1. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See

This is a very beautiful, colourful book that small children just fall in love with. On each page is a new animal and the book talks about the colour of the animal. Somehow small children love anything that relates to animals and nature. My daughter loved this book and very soon you will see your child is able to tell you in advance what is coming next such is the simplicity of this book. Perhaps this helps in language and speech development. You will see them calling out the names of the animals in their baby monosyllabic language. This as per me is a must have on your little babies shelf.

2. Where’s Spot? (Spot – Original Lift The Flap)

In this little book Spot’s mama is looking for little Spot. His food is ready but mama cannot seem to find where spot is. In this lift the flap book Spot’s Mama looks behind curtains, under the table, behind the door, under the bed. And somewhere she finds a lion, or a hippo or a snake. My daughter would giggle and laugh each time we found a scary animal instead of Spot.

3. Moo, Baa, La La La (BOYNTON)

Books by Sandra Boynton were an absolute favourite for us for a very long time. This was the very first book that we read by her. Again a very simple book very appropriate for small babies. It talks about animal sounds and since they are so simple your baby would be copying these very soon. This is a lovely book for small kids

4. A Pictionary:

The one we bought was spot,s big book of first words, which is not currently available. We also bought this one and this was really nice. It has beautiful pictures and the quality is very good for small children to handle.

5. Touch and Feel Books:

This is another category of books must have for small babies. It gives them various textures to touch and feel. They alo have a mirror embedded in them and the kids absolutely love to look into it. We had a couple of them and I am sharing them here. You can choose these without apprehensions as they are approved by my baby 😉

6. The Very Busy Spider:

Most of the Eric Carle books are very popular with kids. But for us our favourite was this one. The book is multi sensory. The child can actually feel the spider,s web grow across the ages. The lovely rhyming across the book is what perhaps attracts the kids the most.

7. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt:

This is another very favourite book of my daughter and this holds true even today at 5 years of age. The rhyming and repetitive language makes it popular with kids very young and as the child understands it more, they love it even more.

8. Are You My Mother?

Another very beautiful book. A small baby bird comes out of the shell when his mother is not around. He has no idea what mama looks like and goes about asking everyone form cow to dog ” Are you my mother?”. My daughter absolutely loved it.

9. Goodnight Moon:

This book is mostly on the top of all reading lists. It was not my favourite but my daughter loved it. I could not really understand what attracted my child to this book. But bestsellers are bestseller for a reason :). Undoubtedly the rhyming is good but I wish the graphics especially the colours were different. Anyways you can surely buy this one. it is baby approved after all!

10. Counting Kisses: Counting Kisses (Classic Board Books):

This is is an awesome kiss along book. You start from the toes and 10 kisses and go upto one kiss on the head. As you count and read you kiss your adorable child and it feels so wonderful. My daughter would just lie down waiting to be kissed all over when I read this book. Given all that kids really need from parents is love, this is loved by every child I am sure.

I have kept my list at 10 books to help you start your reading journey in a simple manner and not overwhelm you. But this is definitely is not an exhaustive list. There are so many more books that we totally loved reading. I shall definitely list more soon. But for someone who is just starting these are the 10 must have books for babies in my opinion. As you start falling in love with your reading time together I am sure you shall soon be searching for more and it is an investment worth every penny.

And if you are looking for books for older children, this is a video I shared here some of our favourite books. These are the books that I have been reading with my 5 year old. Many of these we started reading as early as 1.5 years, but they still fall in our favourites.