Sharing books with your child
Getting started
Babies can join the library at any age. You will receive your first Bookstart pack containing free books for your baby and advice about reading with them at your baby’s 7–9 month assessment.
Sharing a story and talking about it helps your child gain confidence in talking and in discovering new words and meanings.
There are all kinds of books to choose from. Books with flaps, simple stories, board and puzzle books, counting and ABC, traditional tales and rhymes, and stories about new experiences such as starting school and a new baby in the family. Babies love bright colours and pictures of familiar objects and other babies.
Choosing library books
Children’s fiction books in libraries have been organised in three levels – shown by traffic light coloured stickers – to help parents to pick books for a child beginning to read.
- Ready (red car)
Bright simple story books to help children take the first steps into reading
- Steady (amber car)
More words and lots of pictures to take children further with reading
- Go (green car)
Longer stories for children to read independently
Don’t worry if your baby chews a library book. Under eights don’t pay charges for late, lost or damaged books if they have an Elmer the Elephant library card.
Get ideas for books with our children’s booklists and book of the month.
Reading to your child
Get comfortable so you can both see the pages. They will soon find that sharing a book is a good excuse for a cuddle.
Try to find time when you are relaxed and your mind is not on other things. Turn off the TV or radio so your child can concentrate on your voice.
The more entertaining you can make it, the better. Use different voices for different characters, add sound effects, and sing songs and rhymes together. Your child will love it and the more you practice, the better you will get.
Ideas for keeping stories fun:
- put your child’s name in a familiar story or make up a brand new one about their adventures
- look at photo albums and tell stories about the pictures
- treat books as toys – buy a bath book and keep board books in a toy box
- listen to stories together – you can borrow talking books on cassette and CD at your local library, or join one of our rhymetimes and storytimes.
How to help with reading
You can help your child learn to read by:
- asking questions about the story and pictures
- following the words with your finger
- letting your child pretend to read and tell the story themselves
- teaching them how to hold books and turn the pages gently.
Find out more
There are some really useful websites on developing your child’s reading:
Bookstart
Booktrusted
ParentsCentre 0–3 years
ParentsCentre 3–5 years
Talk to your baby
