How old should an infant be to be read a simple board book? A friend is having a baby in July, and I am wondering whether to buy some board books as Christmas presents. Six months? One year? Eighteen months? This is an example of the type of book I mean.
I don’t really think any age is too early. Even if the baby doesn’t look at the pictures, it might enjoy chewing on the book. But I think that babies start looking at the pictures pretty early – say 9 months to a year – and that that’s a time when they enjoy sitting on an adult lap, with the adult saying things like “Look at the cat – now there’s a dog” – even if they don’t really understand. It’s all part of the learning process.
And it’s better to give children things a little too early for them to fully appreciate them, rather than too late: it they come too early, the parents can just put them aside for a few months until the kid is ready.
Pretty much immediately, according to the Cult of Reading. The idea is to cultivate warm snugglies and good feelings around books. So even with a newborn, you pick a quiet time when everyone is warm and fed and you read to them. Theory says that they learn to associate this rectangular object with squiggles and pictures with nice pleasant feelings of safety and comfort, and they’ll love books as a result.
I have to say, I think it’s mostly bunk. I did it with my son, and he HATED reading for years and years - wasn’t until 6th grade when he’d read anything at all without threats, and 7th before he read willingly, for enjoyment, not just for school assignments. It’s bewildering. I’m a voracious reader, as is his father (both of them, actually). He’s always been surrounded by books and by people he loves reading books for enjoyment, and he wanted nothing to do with books from birth to age 13 or so.
With my daughter, I let her set the pace. She asks for a book, we read it. She gets restless, we stop. She’s only 2, so I’ll let you know how that goes. I think she started asking for books around 9-12 months. Right now, if she had to choose between a book and listening to music, music wins hands down. That’s fine with me. While I love books, I don’t think you have to love books to be a decent, happy person.
Go ahead and buy the books. It’s never too early to get a kid used to having books around.
As Giles said, the baby can enjoy the book as an object, if not a book. My nephew (about a year old) not only likes being read to, he loves opening and closing books.
My baby niece (going to be a year old in July) loves “bath books”. They’re like board books, only on some sort of waterproof material so you could take them into the bathtub. She likes to chew on them and point at some of the pictures while my sister reads to her.
Our baby is 18 months, and he’s liked books for a while. Thankfully, I think he’s finally getting tired of Goodnight Moon. 
His favourites are books crowded with lots of animals and objects, so he can point to something and you can tell him what it is; then, as he learns, you can ask him to point to things, and when he gets it right you can praise him.
My baby is 7 months and loves being read to. Board books are fabulous for children to hold and chew on! (Good Night Gorilla is a big fave with us!)
Although babies so young cannot follow a story, they are very attentive to voices and inflection, try and get stories which rhyme. I don’t have it in board book form, but Butterbaby loves to listen to Where’s my Teddy?
Many books come with a soft toy of the main character the baby can chew on as they listen.
As mentioned rag books , and bath books are also great options.
I think the trick is to realise not everyone is a reader, when the baby gets fed up, do something else. Otherwise, read away!
My 10 month old loves books. He loves to grab them out of my hands and open and close them, he doesn’t necessarily care about listening to the story. We read every night, but reading for us is giving him a board book to open/close/gnaw on while we read another book to him (usually a longer book like an Arthur book or a Frances book). He does seem to be getting interested in the stories now, but not for the whole book.
It’s never to early to expose them to books, and we’ve let him play with board books for as long as he’s been able to hold them - around 4 months or so. But some may be more interested in ‘reading’ them than others, and that’s totally fine.
I often give board books or bath books or even regular picture books as shower gifts: yes, the baby is far too young for them, but they look nice in a nursery and you get so much infant stuff–you drown in infant stuff–that it’s nice to give something that isn’t redundant.
I got that Rainbow Fish bath book for my niece- she loves it.
Karen Katz’s “Where is Baby’s Bellybutton” was my daughter’s favorite book at about a year. Its wonderful. I give it away all the time. The lift the flap books are particularly popular with the peekaboo set. (Around nine months).
Warning on anything more complex - like pop up books - handing a pop up book to a toddler is making expensive confetti. They LOVE them - they just don’t last.
My daughter didn’t really care about books until she was about 6 months old – we had them, and would read them to her, but they didn’t mean much.
At some point thereafter, though, the book cravings kicked in and she started asking for books to be read to her. Her first known favorite book: Charlie Parker Played Be Bop, board book edition.
Now, at 20 months, she loves being read to, and she’ll even read some to herself – at least, she’ll flip through the book and recite the words she remembers.
Oh my God that’s cute!
I don’t think it’s ever to early to read to them; if they get antsy then stop after a few minutes. Frequently I gloss over the words that are written and tell a simplified version of the story, if it is a book that is more wordy. At least having the books around will expose them to learning early on. I get incredibly sad when I hear about kids who get to kindergarten and have had NO exposure to books.
She is!
Also wanted to mention some good authors who have books printed in board book:
Eric Carle, Jez Alborough, Rod Campell, Allan Ahlberg, David McKee, Judith Kerr, Jan Pienkowski
‘The Rainbow Fish’ has a couple more in the series, children really love them all!