Early Literacy Collection
Board Books
Ages: Infants to age 2 years
What: Board books are constructed of heavy cardboard, making them durable, and providing babies/toddlers hands-on experience without worries of tearing pages. The pictures are primary telling the story and the books usually contain few words.
Why: Board books caregivers the opportunity to read to the child and/or allow the child to play with the book and “read." They are a first introduction to physical reading skills (fine motor, reading left to right, etc.) and increase word development.
What parents should know: While it might seem inviting to a board book as a toy a child to play with independently, sharing books with children is the first step to building a lifelong love of reading!
Picture Books
Ages: Age 2 years to approximately 3rd grade
What: Picture books are typically 32 pages long with illustrations that tell the story, and most cases and 50 to 1,000 words. These books are often meant to be read aloud while the listener looks over the pictures.
Why: Picture books offer exposure to a high word content (building vocabulary) with the diversity and nuances of language and provide the foundation a lifelong love of reading.
What parents should know: Picture book topics can serve as an introduction to life lessons and situations that children navigate their and new situations. It’s a to skim through the book reading it to a child to ensure that the language or subjects are appropriate their attention span or understanding. book will be of interest to every child, and not every subject will align with all family values.
Easy Readers (Also called Emerging Readers or Beginning Readers)
Ages: Kindergarten through 3rd grade
What:Easy Readers are children starting to combine letters into words, words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs. For readers ready for advanced reading, this collection includes beginning chapter books. Such books are characterized by having slightly larger print, pictures and shorter chapters than books for older readers.
Why: Easy Readers are for children beginning to read on their own. The books controlled vocabulary and scattered illustrations.
What parents should know: Moving from picture books to beginning readers a child is ready to how to read can deprive them of the rich language and vocabulary development provided by picture books.