baby faces

Generally speaking, Garrett does not yet have the patience required to sit quietly while I read him a story. Oh, he enjoys a rushed reading of Are You My Mother?, and, if Blake does the voices right, he'll giggle through Sandra Boynton's Moo, Baa, La La La!. And let's not forget how holding onto and turning the pages of the LDS Hymn Book makes sitting in cramped chapel pews all the more thrilling. But story time at our house, though it is most certainly an encouraged activity, is still in that early hit-and-miss stage.

There is one book in our children's library, however, that apparently has the power to calm a tantrum and replace a shrieking wail with a pleasant smile.


It's called Peek-a-Boo!, and it belongs in a board book series called Baby Faces by Roberta Grobel Intrater.

The book is simple enough. It's comprised of only a few words, but many large, close-up photographs of babies. Garrett, who, like most kids his age, finds that faces of other children are incredibly fascinating, can't seem to get enough.

Other books in the series, which we don't own ourselves, but which we have looked through on visits to our neighborhood library, include:

• Sleep,
• Splash!,
• Hugs & Kisses,
• Eat!, and
  
• Smile!.

Is this series great literature? No. But it doesn't seem to be a bad way to teach my son to appreciate that the contents of a book can in fact be more delicious to devour than the binding.