10 Best Parenting Books For Newborns
Updated on: March 2023
Best Parenting Books For Newborns in 2023
What to Expect the First Year
Newborn 101: Secrets from Expert Nurses on Preparing and Caring for Your Baby at Home
Raising Baby: A Pocket Guide to Baby's 1st Year
Baby's First Year Milestones: Promote and Celebrate Your Baby's Development with Monthly Games and Activities
Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, 7th Edition: Birth to Age 5
My Child's Health Record Keeper (Log Book)
Heading Home With Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality
Newborn Care Basics: Baby Care Tips For New Moms (Positive Parenting)
Understanding Your Baby: A Week-By-Week Development & Activity Guide For Playing With Your Baby From Birth to 12 Months
The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind
Baby Board Books You Can Sink Your Teeth into (literally!)
Reviews several board books for babies.
My eighteen month old wants books that can be experienced quickly.
I have an eighteen month old who, until four months ago, lived in an orphanage in another country and, as far as I can tell, had rarely experienced a book before. They fascinate him (one of his first words was ook!) but his attention span is about two minutes at best. Because of that we've been adding to the collection of board books we started when his older brother was a baby. My newest one has little patience for plot or characterization nor does he care about great illustrations. He wants books that can be experienced quickly, have little or no plot, and are very interactive.
(For parents of babies and toddlers, no explanation of the words "board book" is necessary, but for the rest of you, a board book is a book of very few pages that is made out of hard cardboard to stand up to ripping, stomping, and chewing. Especially chewing).
Animal Kisses, by Barney Saltzberg (Harcourt, 0-15-202340-2) is one of our new favorites. Each spread invites the baby to kiss an animal, and each animal has marvelously textured lips. The cat's lips are scratchy, the bear's lips are fuzzy, and the pig's lips are squeaky. My son loves to kiss and lick and scratch the animals in the book. The only downside is that you really shouldn't give it away when your child outgrows it. Too much slobbery loving for that. It's a one-owner book.
Another book along the same theme is Counting Kisses, by Karen Katz (Simon amp; Schuster, 0-689-85658-X). Katz is the author of Over the Moon, one of our favorite books about adoption, and this book shares the bright, bold illustrations that characterized that earlier book. In Counting Kisses a tired baby is kissed to sleep - first her ten toes, then her feet, then her chubby knees, all the way to the top of her sleepy head. As I read this book to my son I follow along with the pictures, kissing my son's toes, his knees, etc. Pausing to name and kiss each body part helps to keep his interest, although I have to admit that the end result for him is not sleep. He wants more loving!
Also by Katz is a lift-the-flap book, Where Is Baby's Belly Button? (Simon amp; Schuster, 0-689-83560-4) This book is great fun although not as indestructible as the other board books as the flaps are thinner cardboard and could be easily ripped off by an enthusiastic reader. Where is Baby's Belly Button invites the reader to play peek-a-boo with the babies in the pictures. Like Katz's Kisses book, lively illustrations coupled with interactivity proves irresistible.
Finally, My Big Animal and World Book (for kids who really love animals and the world) (Priddy Books, 0-312-49202-2) is a super sized baby dictionary, chock-full of photographs of animals and plants and locations and anything to do with the great outdoors. There are probably lots of books like this one on the market, but this particular one has given both my boys hours of enjoyment. When we unwrapped it on Christmas morning I saw it as a way to build my little one's vocabulary. I pictured myself, cozy on the couch, baby in my lap, enriching his language skills while providing important visual stimulation. That's not what happened. He puts up with Mommy naming each animal or place or vehicle one by one for a little while, but his favorite thing is to find the pictures of the tigers and lions and growl. Now that's interactivity.
