Baby books: Birth to 6 months
Yellow Book, Blue Book, Red Book and Green Book, by Ian Beck
   
Here are four books whose silky, coated board pages are soothing to the touch, and
whose inside pages treat us to scenes of an idealised world that you can't resist stepping
into.
The images depict objects, actions, and landscapes with large text labels set against a
white background. You'll find some that don't appear in most first word books - which is
very refreshing for parents and carers! A picture of a child on a hill, for example, has
the label 'stand still' and where more common words are featured, the pictorial
interpretation invariably gives a fresh angle. The word 'sheep', for example, is
illustrated by a child riding a huge sheep sheep-back style, and 'bed' is a three-storey
sculpted bush with a cradle balanced precariously on top, and a child climbing up a ladder
to reach it.
Published by Scholastic Press £2.99 each
Toys and Clothes by Fisher-Price
 
Designed to fit on the side of a pram or highchair, these small board books feature
photographs of children inside brightly-coloured borders. The word labels (which in Toys
include 'beads' 'ball' and 'telephone') are large and clear and the photographs of the
objects are crisp, and animated by a good multicultural mix of children. I'm intrigued by
the final image in the Clothes title, where the little girl in her pyjamas is either a
brilliant actor or genuinely asleep! There is a washable fabric band attached to the
spine, with a coloured ring whose ends can be separated easily to attach to the frame of a
pram or highchair.
Dad of a five-month-old comments: "My son loves looking at other children. He was
fascinated by the faces in these books. The photographs make everything seem more
immediate."
Published by Reader's Digest, £2.99 each
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