BABY'S FIRST WORDS

A brief introduction to items in a baby’s world, with simple, tactile effects.

Appealing to a baby’s sense of touch, this basic board book showcases 10 words that would largely be familiar in a little one’s world. Each two-page spread displays connected words and concepts. The opening layout of embossed pairs of “socks” and “shoes,” for example, describes them as “striped” and “spotted,” respectively. The images are bold and large, taking up nearly the entire page without busy or distracting backgrounds, making for easy viewing and touching. The textures are a nice addition to the illustrations, especially for little hands primed to touch and explore. The “leaf” has raised water droplets on its “green” surface that are particularly effective. The page featuring a smiling “spoon” says, oddly, “Let’s make a smiley face!” whereas all of the other images are accompanied by more logical glosses or engaging questions. The final two pages show all of the images together, providing caregivers an opportunity to make connections or to simply review words with their children. Companion title Baby’s First Baby Animals follows a similar structure, introducing 10 baby animals with tactile images and a recap layout at the end. By contrast, however, these two-page spreads don’t feature the same cohesion of description or inviting questions. Overall, Words stands out over Baby Animals for its integrity of layout, though neither does anything earth-shatteringly different from myriad board books about firsts for baby.

For settings that really, really need another first-words book.