a growing relationship with books

BB has always liked books, but it’s interesting to watch his interest develop over time.

At 12 months, he liked lift-the-flap books. He wasn’t that interested in the contents of each page; it was just another physical manipulation toy. He’d lift the flaps on a few pages at random and then be off to play with a different toy.

At 18 months, he had come to enjoy books as books, and would bring people books to read to him. He had lots of storybooks, but his favorite books were collections of interesting pictures, e.g. a picture of a fruit on each page, or (for a larger book) a page with all kinds of fruits. He enjoys it when you point to each picture and say the name, maybe with additional commentary (“It’s a strawberry! You had strawberries for breakfast. You like strawberries.”). With no narrative, he just flips to whatever pages he feels like until he’s done looking at fruits. Even with storybooks, he prefers if you chat with him about the pictures instead of reading the words on page, judging by how long he stays put before flipping all the pages and then leaving.

22 months was the first time I saw him enjoying a book for the story. He had a picture book with the following story: While running, Bunny trips and hurts his arm. Bunny bursts out crying (you gotta ham up this part). Put a band-aid on Bunny’s arm (this is all narrative, there’s no physical interactive element). Bunny is still sniffling, so get a tissue and wipe Bunny’s tears. At the end, Bunny gets up and is happily running again.

BB really liked this book. He wanted it read to him like a dozen times over the weekend. He would sit there while I read the whole story cover-to-cover (and did not leave in the middle or flip pages out of order). It’s a story simple enough for a 22-month-old to grasp. Most stories are still above his pay grade, but it’s neat he enjoyed that one.