Story Summary
Baby Love is a collection of quick peeks at a baby’s day through the eyes of love. Simple text and big pictures make Baby Love an easy-to-share book with the baby you love.
Talk Before Reading
Even with the youngest child, starting the story with a brief look at the cover is a worthwhile practice. Why?
Stopping for a look at the cover introduces this practice of strong readers:
Strong readers start thinking about the story before beginning to read.
After all, would you expect to begin eating a meal without first taking a look at the food on the plate? Probably not!
Pausing for a look at the cover before starting to read also helps a young listener learn to focus his attention.
The baby on Baby Love’s cover welcomes readers by waving hello.
Where’s the baby? Can you find him?
Take your child’s hand and touch the baby. Hello, baby love!
Where’s the dog? Can you find the dog? Hello, little dog!
Help your child touch the dog.
Talk While Reading
Action Talk: When reading Baby Love, model the words of the story with gentle touches to touch your baby as you read:
Rosy cheeks.
Button nose.
Little fingers.
Tiny toes.
After a few readings of Baby Love where you’ve consistently connected the words of the story to his own little fingers or tiny toes, you may see your child anticipate the action with a wiggle or wave of his fingers or toes at the time you read the text.
Picture Talk: While the dog on the cover isn’t mentioned in the text of the story, he appears in most of the pictures. Your child may enjoy looking for him.
Let’s find that dog. Where is the dog on this page?
Talk Later
Taking a phrase from a story and pairing it with your child’s name is a great way to link back to a story after reading. Use your child’s name to create a simple baby love chant to mirror back this phrase from the story:
Baby love, baby love– little Emma is our baby love!
Use this chant during the routines of the day–diaper changing, washing hands, or bath time, etc.
Book
Baby Love. Written by Anglea DiTerrizzi. Illustrated by Brook Boynton Hughes. Beach Lane Books. 2015.
