I should probably preface this post by admitting that I haven’t been the most educated parent out there. I haven’t read every single book about brain development, and I am not up to speed on the latest infant literacy studies. I did read Brain Rules for Baby and loved it, but I am no expert in . . . well, anything, really.

If I had been reading all about babies and how they see and learn, I would’ve known that they love high contrast illustrations. Instead, I discovered that my baby seemed to be more entertained by Baby’s very first touchy–feely animals book than he was by any others. The back of the book said something about “high contrast illustrations,” so that got me to do a little Googling, and boom, I learned that I wasn’t imagining things and that he really did like looking at this book more than others.

I went to the library and checked out a bunch of high contrast board books, and we read them over and over again. He is seven months old now, so he is interested in all kinds of illustrations since his eyes have developed a bit more, but I figured I’d share our favorites for any moms of two– or three–month–olds out there who are looking for ideas.

Books by Tana Hoban

These sweet, simple books have great high contrast illustrations and are nice to look at together and talk about what’s on each page.

One of them even opens up like an accordion so the baby can look at it while lying down.

Look! Look! books by Peter Linenthal

These are really cute, and even though they’re full of simple sentences, they don’t have that grate–on–your–nerves quality some board books have.

Not a Box by Antoinette Portis

This book was a gift, and it became a fast favorite. The baby loved the illustrations, of course, and I loved the devotion to imagination. This is one he won’t outgrow for quite some time.

Any board book favorites? We are getting into the Baby Lit series pretty heavily over here, and while I don’t want to rush anything, I do look forward to the days of Little Golden Books.