Baby books: *6 months to 12 months*

• Fave Rave: Again!
• Honorable mention: My Day

THIS MONTH'S FAVE RAVE:
Again!, by John Prater
This is a happy picturebook for quiet, focused times with baby. 

Grandbear is looking after Baby Bear on a sunny day that begins with relaxation in a hammock and moves on to heavy duty play including building blocks, sandcastles, and watering the flower games which Baby Bear insists on playing over and over again, until Grandbear finally turns off the hose-pipe and goes back to his hammock, with Baby Bear, to read a story.

The repeated command "Again!" from Baby Bear cleverly continues throughout the story to the end when, after one reading of the story, Grandbear starts to fall asleep and Baby Bear gives him a kiss and cuddle. Grandbear dreamily repeats the word "Again", and Baby Bear answers the request by hugging the big old bear "again and again and again" as he sleeps. 

There are lots of things to look for in these soft pictures, suffused with summer.

Published by Bodley Head, £9.99

HONOURABLE MENTION:
My Day, by Debbie MacKinnon with photographs by Anthea Sieveking
Here's a pull-the-tab book with photographs full of impact about spending a day with a child. 

There's a good ethnic mix of children, who are shown getting dressed in the morning, eating their lunch, and having a bath. The clever, sturdy tabs start with a pair of stripy curtains that can be opened to reveal the sun rising. If you help your child to pull the tab on the next page, you¹ll see the boy's t-shirt drop over his head and arms. My favourite tab shows a girl drinking fruit juice from a bottle, and if you pull the tab together, the juice disappears.
Mum of a 10-month-old comments: "My younger son likes photographs, though the older one didn't. I think this book is good because it seems so real."

Published by Frances Lincoln, £5.99

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