Jen’s Five Books That Micah Loves at Age One

Micah celebrated his first birthday at the end of February, and he now has a bunch of new books to try out! So I took a moment before the influx to record his then-current favorites.

Peek-a-Who? by Nina Laden (Chronicle Books, $6.95)
This was the book that taught Micah to turn pages! Also, we got to see him turn the book over and over, comparing the picture on the back with the picture on the front, which was an exciting development. Excellent cut-outs to peep through. Silly rhymes.

In My Tree by Sara Gillingham and Lorena Siminovich (Chronicle Books, $8.99)
Another board book with cut-outs, this time with an owl finger puppet peering through. The “In My...” books are simply and excellently illustrated, and they follow a lovely progression through the activities of the protagonist, all ending up at home “with my family!” (And the families are nicely non-gender-marked.)

Global Babies, a Global Fund for Children book (Charlesbridge Publications, $6.95)
I switch back and forth when reading this book: sometimes the inspiring text, sometimes just the names of the countries that go with the different babies. Most recently, Micah has begun pointing to their mouths or noses or brightly colored clothing as we go.

Cat by Matthew Fleet (Simon & Schuster, $16.99)
Micah’s first word was “cat”. His second word was the name of one of the cats. His third word was the name of the other cat. Three months later, he’s still working on “Mommy” and “Mummy”. He ... likes cats. And he loves this “multisensory” thick flap book, though it has some fragile bits. He’s allowed to pet the fur and turn the pages, but not to pull on the fold-out flaps.

Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton (Simon & Schuster, $5.99)
We get to practice our nonhuman animal sounds with this book! That is, Nif and I do; Micah’s not there yet. He gets a kick out of hearing us, though! And I particularly like the singing pigs. (Which reminds me that I need to get a copy of the Grunt: Pigorian Chant book and CD. It’s my birthday too, and Sandra Boynton is awesome.)

Jennifer Sheffield, March 2012