Child's Play, boardbooks, £3.99 each
Forming the Baby Gym series, this set of books provides an excellent selection of rhymes, with actions detailed alongside and snippets of care and development advice to parents and carers at the bottom of the page.
All of the rhymes are traditional, and while some are well known ('Round and Round the Garden'), many are unfamiliar ('Criss-cross, apple sauce, Spiders crawling up your back'), providing welcome additions to any nursery's perhaps stale collections of songs.
Inspired by research showing the benefits of exercise and massage for babies, the books provide delightful ways to stimulate a young child's senses and encourage interaction between parent and baby.
This is a wonderful set of books, ideal for inexperienced early years practitioners who may be struggling to engage with children under the age of three and in need of a good repertoire of interactive rhymes.
They will prove invaluable, too, for early years centres working with parents who are speakers of English as an additional language or who need help and advice on bonding with their child and discovering the delight and value of rhyme in their baby's development.
- I Love Korky illustrated by Cristiano Sorrentino with storyline by Teddy Slater
Boxer Books, hardback, £11.99
Welcome to 'hug-able', 'tug-able', 'snug-able' Korky, a puppy who loves mischief and excels at making a mess, but is always forgiven as he sticks by his little master and remains his very best friend.
No surprise that this adorable little pooch was inspired by Sorrentino's family dog. Children right through to the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage will delight in this story of puppy love, with its bold and well-defined textured drawings.
- Beep! Beep! Peekaboo!
Dorling Kindersley, boardbook, £4.99
Lift the flaps with baby to find out where the digger, fire engine, boat, train and plane are hiding. Offers lots of opportunities for peekaboo fun and playing with onomatopoeic words like 'Brrrm! Brrm!'
- Blast Off! by Rebecca Finn
Campbell Books, board book, £6.99
Get ready to blast off into space on a great galactic adventure. Pull the tabs, turn the wheels and push the levers to bring this interplanetary mission to life.
