A's Favorite Books {19 Months}

A loves to read. I wish I would have started doing this sooner, so I plan on back tracking through her favorite books during different stages of her development.

I will start with what her favorites are right now, then go back and post on ones at different ages to keep for reference with the new baby to see the differences and the similarities.

I always read to A from the time she was born. Every night before bed, I would read her a short story. As she got older, she started playing with the books. Then when she was old enough, she started bringing the books to me. Sometimes she would sit and let me read to her, but other times she was just bringing them to me for the sake of bringing them to me. I think they go through different stages and I believe every child at some point and time become very curious about books as long as they are within their reach and in their life.

Now that A is much older, she is loving her books. She will flip through the pages herself and just look at the pictures or she will bring them to me or Mr. Man to read to her. I love to watch her pick out a book because it shows what she is interested in that point and time.

Here are her most "go to" book right now.

"Where is Baby's Belly Button" by Karen Kate
This book is such a good book. At first A was not interested in this book. It is a lift the flap book so I thought she would be in to it earlier than she was. When she was 18 months, she recognized this book and always brought it to us. It caught her eye because it had a baby on it and she is really into babies. She has been knowing most of her body parts since she was about 15 months old. The basics like - ears, nose, mouth, fingers, toes, hair, tummy, heart, teeth and so on. But this book helped her to recognize her body parts as a whole and introduced her to her belly button. She now knows her hands, feet, and so on. She understands that her belly button is a part of her tummy.

"I took the Moon for a Walk Last Night" by Carolyn Curtis and Alison Jay from Barefoot Books
This is the first larger book that A has become interested in and will actually sit and listen to the whole thing. I really love Barefoot Books. I have bought a lot of books, and I have bought from several different publishers. Nothing will top the originals, but for more modern yet classy books every parent should check out Barefoot Books. This book is a story about a little boy who takes the moon for a walk before bed. It talks about where they go, what they see, and what they do together.

"I Wish I were a Pilot" by Stella Haskamp
This book is also by Barefoot Books. It is about becoming different things in life from a pilot to a race car driver to a cowboy and more. This book has been a favorite of A's for a few months now. It's small and a board book, but it is also interesting and big... grows well with them. A really loves transportation things, like cars, bikes, boats, etc. This book includes all that. The end of the book also shows all the things they discuss in the book. This is the first book where I tested her by asking her where each thing was and she surprised me by pointing every single one of them out. The weird thing about it is that they do not use the words for the pictures in the actual book. For example, it talks about traveling on sea. It shows a picture of a boat, but it doesn't actually say the word boat yet she knew it was a boat and found it in the last page.

"Eight Silly Monkeys" 
This book is the story of the monkeys jumping on the bed. It's not just about jumping on the bed. It uses eating, tumbling, dancing, and so on. It has a variety of versions, like with lady bugs instead of monkeys. We were given the monkey version and A loves monkeys. She also loves the song so this has also been a favorite. It introduces her to numbers, too.

"Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman
This book is her second book that is larger that she will sit through. It is also a hard back with regular pages. Not a board book. It is much longer than "I Took the Moon for a Walk Last Night". She loves it because of the bird and talking about his mother. I am surprised with this book because I really thought this would be one when she was much, much older. Again, it was a gift.