What we are reading - New Board Books November

While visiting Isle of Wight over the weekend I found this gorgeous book, If I Were A Whale. It has all the things I love in children's books, it is rhyming, has beautiful realistic illustrations, it's factual and it's just wonderful. It is perfect for toddlers, the language is simple but it is also educational, it actually tells you a little about each kind of whale. It's the best board book I've found about whales, we really love it.

Another new board book that we've been reading is A Picnic with Monet, it's from the Mini Masters Series. It's not as engaging for toddlers, I find at this age they like books about animals or transport, but as it contains images of paintings by Monet, it is really beautiful. I didn't know before ordering, it has a short story, that almost talks you through the paintings, it is brief but I just want to mention that it does have words. It's like early art appreciation and it's worth having in our collection!

The Little Book of Garden Bird Songs is a new board book that we are enjoying. However, we've had The Little Book of Night-Time Animal Sounds book for a while and for toddlers - I actually like it better. The Little Book of Night-Time Animal Sounds has a variety of animals like fox, hedgehog, owls and they are easy for the young child to tell apart. The Little Book of Garden Bird Songs contains only birds and for the toddler, they are difficult to tell apart. You still have birds like the crow and robin which are very different and it's still a very educational and entertaining book. With this series all the animal sounds are real and the images are all photographic. I believe the birds in this one are British, US readers might prefer The Little Book of Backyard Bird Songs which contains birds from North America.

Kids love lift-the-flap books but I've struggled to find one that I like. This book (Otto is reading below) is Who's Hiding on the River? It has too many words for Otto (14 months) to sit through but he loves to look under the flaps and I will often read the facts on the back of the flap. It includes lots of interesting animals like beavers, otters, coots, and newts. I love that it contains lots of facts that are fun and useful. It has 2-3 flaps on most pages so it's very interesting/entertaining for children to sit and look at!