4 Tips for Choosing the Right Childrens Book

When you're looking for a book to grab your child's attention, consider what they love most. The best way to get your child excited about a book is to choose one related to something they already enjoy. For example, if your child loves dinosaurs or yoga book, pick up a yoga book and tell them when you read it at bedtime! If you want to encourage your child to read more and not just as part of a bedtime routine, try picking up books related to their current interests. You might even find some new attractions along the way!

Choose books that meet your child's developmental needs.

How can you make sure the book you choose for your child will have a real impact? As a reading therapist, I recommend that parents and educators pick books that help the child develop emotionally, socially, and educationally.

So what books fit this criterion? Books that are age-appropriate, interesting, and engaging to children. They are suitable for the child's reading level, of course. And they should also be fun!

Think about the book's language, illustrations, and tone

• Think about the book's language, illustrations, and tone.
• It is important to remember that young children have a limited attention span. If the story's language is too complicated, they will get frustrated and not enjoy reading it. If the sentences are too long or if there are words that they do not understand, they may lose interest in continuing to read.
• The illustrations should also be simple enough for young children to understand. Too many pictures on a page might be distracting and will add confusion to their understanding of the story.

Consider how the book might relate to your own life and experiences.

All of the previous tips have been a bit technical. Here's something more qualitative that you can use to assess the suitability of a given children's book: consider how it might relate to your own life and experiences. If it's a story about a boy and his dog, but you don't like dogs or have never had one, this isn't the book for you. This is especially important if you're planning on reading with your child. The text should be relatable for both of you—you want this to be an enjoyable shared experience! You'll find that personally meaningful books tend to lend themselves well to fun interactions during the reading time because they spark lively conversations between parent and child.

Finally, remember that children aren't just growing up around their parents—they have siblings, classmates, friends, relatives...the list goes on. The best children's books can engage with some aspect of the many worlds their readers inhabit: they appeal to your young one and those around them!

You can pick a good Children's Book for your child.

Our favorite book, which we read to our son regularly when he was a baby, is "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown. The classic little story of going to sleep is written in simple terms that any child can understand. We loved it because you could read it repeatedly. Every time it would be different—because the moon changes its position for every reading and because the sweet little bunny appears and disappears at other times, as does his mommy. I wish we had thought of that when we were looking for books for our firstborn!

We also suggest picking up some picture books with rhyme and rhythm so your child will enjoy experiencing these soulful sounds. One of my favorites is "The Monster at the End of This Book," by Jon Scieszka (Random House Children's Books). It features end-of-chapter riffs on what happens next in each chapter and colorful illustrations that kids love to point out.