Soft Cloth Books

I have always enjoyed reading books and can still remember the excitement I felt going to the library with my mum when I was a little girl to choose my next book. I am sure my love of books was kick started by my mum reading bedtime stories to me from a young age and so when Lily came along I was keen to introduce her to the world of books as early as possible.

Lily is already a member of the local library and I made it a priority collecting her first set of books in the Bookstart incentive from here (these are also available from your health visitor or visit www.surestart.gov.uk for more information). While these free hardboard books are great to read to Lily, she can't really interact with them. She can, however, with soft cloth books which is why I would highly recommend purchasing a few for your new arrival.

Lily has three cloth books and each has proved to be a hit with her. At first she was mesmerised by the different colours and would impatiently want me to flip the page to see what pictures and colours were next. As her hand-eye co-ordination has improved she now holds the pages – even seems to flip them over at the appropriate time! She's keen to explore the different textures on each page with her little fingers and is equally excited to hear mummy read her these simple little stories.

As she is now at the stage where pretty much every toy ends up being explored by her mouth, it's a plus point that cloth books can be cleaned easily (we tend to use a soapy sponge but would give the books a good soak if needed). At least the books are soft so I know that she is not likely to hurt her little gums by putting these books in her mouth. I guess once her teeth start coming through the hard backed books will end up having a good gnaw!!

Another plus point of these books is that they are obviously nice and light, so are great to pop in the changing bag when going out and about or for an overnight stay at nanny and granddads. With all the other paraphernalia I have to take with me, anything that's not going to take up much room or add to the weight of my bag has got to be a bonus!