Wherein babies become besotted with board books
Thursday, August 17, 2006

To the uninitiated, there’s not much going on in the heads of babies. They’re just cute little lumps who sit there drooling and staring as the world goes by. But mamas know better than that. The small set can be very particular. Mamakaze can’t count the times we’ve purchased things we thought Totakaze might enjoy, only for them to gather dust. Then, Totakaze will see a toy at playgroup that seems like nothing special to us, but which Totakaze absolutelymusthavethisveryminuteorelse!!

One thing that both Mamakaze and Totakaze agree on, however, is Karen Katz’ adorable lift-the-flap board books. We discovered these when Totakaze was but a wee thing of three months, and she quickly learned to anticipate the lifting of the flap and the revelation of whatever toy, body part or family member happened to be hiding behind said flap.

It’s not only Totakaze — the cheerful, sweetly illustrated books delight many of her wee friends as well. There’s just something little ones love about the sweet, brightly-colored illustrations of happy tots, the thrilling lift-and-discover routine, and the familiar faces and objects the roly-poly protagonists of Katz’ books uncover.

This month, we were delighted to discover the release of the “Baby’s Box of Family Fun” boxed set of four Karen Katz favorites. Along with Totakaze’s current favorite, “Where is Baby’s Mommy?” the set comprises the popular books “Daddy and Me,” “Grandma and Me” and “Grandpa and Me.” Although we already have several of the books in the set, Mamakaze is already thinking of several baby friends of ours who have birthdays coming up.

Of course every baby is different and there’s probably a tot out there who doesn’t enjoy a good game of literary peek-a-boo. But we haven’t met one yet! For upcoming birthday babes, we found “Baby’s Box of Family Fun” (that’s four books full of glorious lift-the-flap giggles) for a shockingly thrifty $12.97 at Amazon.com.