Got a Baby? Get a BOARD BOOK!

Board books are not exactly picture books, and yet they are, in a way. They also have very specific qualities that are NOT like picture books. My role as a round-one panelist is to choose the Cybils 2018 finalists in both fiction picture books and board books categories. They are each evaluated according to distinct criteria. 
For board books, the guidelines are:

• Written for children aged infant to two years old;
• Cloth, vinyl, or paper construction [read: cardboard];
• Have a short page count, with a close picture-to-text ratio; and
• Sized for infants and toddlers to hold

There are additional eligibility criteria related to publication dates, etc.

I'll admit that I haven't examined board books closely or comprehensively for several years, and I seldom review them on this blog. Being a panelist has been a welcome chance to study and handle more than sixty nominated board books. This has reminded me how very special this category of books is as an infant's first introduction to literary life. 
As I quickly recognized particular ways in which I viewed these books, I found myself sorting them into subsets: 

• Stories (a smaller proportion of this type than you might think)
• Concepts (colors, shapes, numbers, etc.)
• Word play (opposites, labels, even homonyms/synonyms, etc.)
• Science (everything from biology to botany to earth science to nature)
• Special topics (or the junk drawer of categories, "other")

Within each content area there are interactive books (manipulating parts, spinning wheels, tracing patterns, folding pages out, up, down, and otherwise), made of varied materials, illustrated with wide-ranging art styles, and they are durable to a greater or lesser degree. Most have at least some text. I find myself noticing not just the words, language, and messages, but also the choices of font, size, color/contrast in relation to background, and placement on the pages. 

So, in this first of several posts, I'll take these categories one at a time and note some board books I've been evaluating and found to be very special. A click on the title will take you to Indiebound.org in case you wish to purchase something, and a click on the Goodreads link will take you to my comments about that title. During the holidays, do some thinking about the tots in your circle of family and friends, and even think about those little baby bumps as "coming soon" attractions. You just might find some books that will be perfect shower and welcome-to-the-world gifts. 

Have fun checking them out... I did!

The "story" category is heavy on bedtime books, but even those have a version of the beginning-middle-end format and some even use a goal/obstacle/resolution/twist sequence. 





THE MISSING BOUNCY BALL: A FOX AND GOAT MYSTERY by Misti Kenison
You can find my thoughts about this book on Goodreads, HERE.

BUT FIRST, WE NAP by David Miles and Darya Dremova.
I shared some thoughts on Goodreads, HERE.

BEDTIME, TED! by Sophy Henn.
Check my Goodreads comments here.

WILL SHEEP SLEEP? by Hilary Leung 
Check my comments on Goodreads HERE.


If any of these interests you, pull out your library card, check them out and try them out on a toddler during holiday gatherings. My guess is you'll be as charmed by them as the tots are, and surprised by the many variations with so few words and pages.