Luke (like most children!) loves any book he can interact with. Whether lifting flaps to discover various species of birds, sliding a finger to move a puppy’s ears and tail, or unfolding flaps to discover opposites, that’s what most of these December-January favorites have in common: an element of interaction. Enjoy, and let me know in the comments below what you and your little ones think of Luke’s faves! Happy reading!
- Hide & Slide: My Little Puppy Luke asks for this book, again and again. The story is very simple, but the illustrations are adorable, and Luke loves putting his finger in the circular cut-out on each page and sliding his finger up and down the track to make the puppy move (which often reveals a hidden picture!). For example, you slide your finger down the track to move the puppy’s ear back and forth over his eye (puppy is waking up), to move puppy’s head up and down (as if he is digging up a bone—and revealing a worm and bee in the process), or to stick puppy’s tongue in and out. I also espied a cat version of the book at the library and am excited to take that one out whenever it becomes available.
- Can You Say It, Too? Tweet! Tweet! This is another simple book, but the flaps are lots of fun to lift, and there are many creatures and features to look for and point out on each page. This book is a great introduction to several different species of birds such as sparrow, dove, woodpecker, crow, and even peacock. This book is part of an entire series, so I’m excited to order more of the titles from the library!
- Where Do Speedboats Sleep at Night? We love this series. It is clever, beautifully illustrated, and contains lots of vehicles of various kinds (whether diggers, trains, steamboats, etc.) which will especially appeal to many boys! Luke especially loves to find the mouse on each page. 🙂 We love Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night (the OG in our house, also featured in Luke’s Top 10 Board Books: 1-16 months), and I love this speedboat one just as well (I personally am not as keen on Where Do Steam Trains Sleep at Night and Where Do Jet Planes Sleep at Night for whatever reason—perhaps some of the wording/ideas feel like they are getting over-used—but I doubt that little lovers of trains and planes would care 😉).
- Opposite Surprise. Each page has a flap that can open halfway (to reveal the first half of the pair, like “short” and then fully unfold, to reveal the second half like “long.” Another highly interactive book, and a great introduction to opposites, expanding beyond some of the more common comparisons to include ones such as “Empty or full?”; “Straight or curvy?”; “Hot or cold?” and “Clean or dirty?” . It’s fun to see how the illustrator created each picture to flow from the one flap to the whole spread. Most of the illustrations are good, though there are a couple that frustrate me a bit (for example, the picture of “big” makes for a rather odd-looking truck).
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