Books! Books! We love books!

We love books in our house.  LOVE THEM!

One of the first things I did when I was getting Finn's room ready was to go through my stash of children's books and begin building his collection.  I've limited his books to board books for the time being because he likes to chew on them.  I keep a couple of books in his toy box and when he's playing on the floor he's always got at least one book pulled out among his toys that roll and make noise.  To keep him occupied at dinner time, we put a book on his highchair and if we're going on a long car ride, I usually have a stash of two or three books in his diaper bag.

Finn's current favorite is Olivia, by Ian Falconer.  I'm sure it's no coincidence that the colors are red, black and white, which make it easy on little eyes, but we also like to look at all of the silly outfits that Olivia tries on every day.  Some of the writing (which is very witty) is more adult-geared, so that makes reading fun (and funny) for the mama, too.  He also has a stuffed Olivia, who sometimes joins in the reading of the book.

It's never too early to learn about the ABC's and the nice thing about Click, Clack ABC by Doreen Cronin, is that it has minimal words.  Since Finn still sometimes suffers from goldfish brain (his attention span can be pretty short), books with a few words, lots of colors, and fun pictures tend to be our best bet if we're going to get through the whole book with minimum biting interruptions.  The quicker he can turn the page, the more fun he has and engaged he tends to be.

One of the most fun books to read is The Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton.  I found it in one of my boxes at my parent's house over Christmas break; I have no idea when or where I purchased it, but it was a nice surprise.  Not only are the pictures super cute, but it's pretty fun to say, "Be-Bo!"in a high-pitched voice and poke Finn's belly button.  He giggles every time.

Occasionally we'll read some of our paperback books, like the Froggy books by Jonathan London or Chewy Louie by Howie Schneider, but Finn has a tendency to put things in his mouth and two little teeth marks and lots of slobber are not agreeable to the longevity of paperback books at this point.  I like for him to be able to hold the books and help turn the pages and I feel as though it defeats the purpose if I have to keep pulling the paper out of his fingers so he doesn't rip the pages.

What are your favorites?  I'm always on the look-out for new books - especially books that have great illustrations, and I would love to know what's in your collection.