a top-10 board-book list

Here are some of Claire's current favorite books. Many of them are thrift store finds.

The touch-and-feel books are the lightest on the literary scale, but she really likes the extra tactile elements.

Some enduring classics are: Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann-- I'd like to see this in a larger format since the pictures are very detailed --it doesn't have much text on the pages, so leaves the parents free to ad-lib. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle -- she likes several of his, but this one has tactile features. The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown has a very catchy rhythm to its rhyme (1948), and the pictures by Felicia Bond are warm yet sharp (1989). Linda Bleck's illustrations for A Children's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes are retro-cool reminiscent of the 1960's.

Honorable mention goes to Fuzzy Bee and Friends which is a floppy cloth book, one of her first, and still a favorite. I couldn't find it for this photo--probably in the car with Mom who is away at a Lady's Advent Tea.

--Mark