Baby books: *Birth to 6 months*

• Fave Rave: Yellow Book, Blue Book, Red Book and Green Book
• Honorable mention: Toys and Clothes

THIS MONTH'S FAVE RAVE:
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

HONOURABLE MENTION:
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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