Bookshop's Favorite Infant Books

Noi lives with his father and six cats in a cottage by the sea. His father, a fisher, is gone all day, coming home in the evening. Noi, often accompanied by a kitten, is lonely. Until (with a light touch of magical realism) he finds a baby whale in distress on the beach, puts it in his wagon, trundles it home, establishes it in the bath, feeds the whale a pale of fish, and regales his guest with stories of life on the island. Noi’s dad returns from a long day’s work, finds his son with his new friend, comforts Noi with a hug, and then father and son row out in the night sea to return the young whale to its element. In the following pages we see Noi and his father together: painting, cooking, enjoying a beach picnic, and whale watching. The book’s endpapers are of an adult whale and baby whale moving through a depth of blue. The illustrations are rich, round, and reminiscent of Leonard Weisgard’s Caldecott winner Little Island. Grades Pre-K–K.

A young Inuit child tests her mother, something that children do not infrequently whether they live in Alaska or Santa Cruz. What if, she asks her mom, I behaved in a less-than-admirable fashion: Would you still love me? The mother’s answers are wise and, indeed, loving. Striking watercolors and a rhythmic text charm in this new-at-last-in-paperback edition. Ages 2–5.

“A series of kindly acts comes full circle in this heartwarming, yet never saccharine story from Stein (Interrupting Chicken). Because Amelia smiled, coming down the street…Mrs. Higgins smiled, too. She thought of her grandson, Lionel, in Mexico and baked some cookies to send to him. Lionel’s reaction to his grandmother’s gift spurs one of his students to become a kickboxing instructor; her video makes its way to England, inspiring virtuous acts in Israel, Paris, Italy, and back around to Amelia in New York City. Stein’s spreads are dense with colored pencil and crayon lines and crammed with visual information. Lionel can be seen in his second-story apartment in an unnamed Mexican city, but Stein draws Lionel’s whole neighborhood, with its tiled roofs, food cart, starry night sky, a dog—and that’s just one spread. Night and day, light and shadow, groups of old and young people spending time together: it’s a satisfying portrait of the feast of life. Even youngest children will grasp the idea that good deeds and positivity beget more of the same.” —Publishers Weekly. Grades K–3.

This artful “first colors” book introduces children to 9 basic colors and 20 shades of each, but any art-lover, designer, or Pantone geek (like myself) would likely agree that Pantone Colors is so charming and smart, it’s appeal is universal. Have fun perusing greens—from clover to lizard, forest to pickle—and get lost in the variety of dark, light, and in-between tones of the rainbow.

Yolen and Karas’ gorgeous midnight-blue volume of bedtime poetry includes a counting-sheep rhyme murmured by a sleepless shepherd: One ewe/One ram,/Two sheep,/One lamb,/Three sheep,/One flock,/ Four gates,/One lock,/Five folds,/One light,/Good dog,/Good night. Like Goodnight Moon, this is a comforting world with a wash of mystery.Preschool–kindergarten.