Reading With Baby: An Ode to Crinkly Books

I wear a few different children’s literature-related hats. I’m a children’s librarian. I’m a picture book author. I’m a book blogger.

And my recently (and most significantly), I’m a new mom.

I thought I’d tie all of these hats together into one great big hat (this analogy is swiftly falling apart at the seams) and start a new series on my blog where I chronicle some of my experiences reading with, and hopefully inspiring a love of reading in, my baby.

As I’ve quickly discovered, the advice I so glibly dished out to parents and caregivers at library programs in my childless days has taken on an entirely new meaning now that I’m on the other side of the table, and I’d love to share some of my experiences, discoveries, thoughts and ideas here on the blog.

I’m going to start this series off with a celebration of some of my baby’s favourite books – crinkly books. These books are typically made of fabric or plastic, and the pages are stuffed with material that makes a crinkly sound when grabbed. There might be a more official title for these kinds of books, but in our household they are simply known as crinkly books.

My baby loves crinkly books.

He really, really loves crinkly books.

He loves the way they sound when he smushes them under his feet.

He loves the way they feel when he crumples them with his hands.

He even apparently loves the way they taste, based on how slobbery they always seem to be.

Most of the crinkly books we have contain very little text, which really doesn’t matter all that much since he rarely actually looks at them so much as destroys them with his hands, feet and mouth.

Do these crinkly books help build my baby’s vocabulary? Do they develop his early literacy skills, and help prepare him for academic and personal success?!?

Probably not.

But they do make him smile and giggle. And in that way, these little books are hopefully helping this wee one associate books with happiness and enjoyment and help him build positive associations that will ideally translate into a love of reading as he grows older.

We read board books and picture books with baby every day, but often it’s a crinkly book that elicits the biggest smiles and loudest laughs. And that’s ok. Not every book has to introduce your child to classic literature, or quantum mechanics, or a third language, though those books can all be great, too. Babies learn with all their senses, and these little books offer opportunities to explore sound, touch, even taste, while also encouraging baby to think of books as fun, positive items – though hopefully they will outgrow the desire to eat and/or kick books as they outgrow the baby phase!

Did your child enjoy crinkly books as much as my child does?