My niece told me she is reading to her baby in utero. I’m all for it. We know that children as young as infants benefit from hearing the sounds of parents reading or singing. The cadence of reading a book is soothing to young ones, and if the same books are read over and over, even before birth, then those books become familiar. Board books are a bit different. They are not written for the cadence or the pleasurable experience of reading out loud, but rather for the purpose of looking at the illustrations and enjoying the text. In these board book series, each group of board books has a special feature that makes the books important and ones that youngsters will enjoy.

From Peter Pauper Press comes a series of beautifully created lift-the-flap books that toddlers really love. They love the brightly colored illustrations, and they love getting to lift the flap to see what hides beneath. In “Peek-A-Bo Rainbow Colors” Bo, the adorable dog who is the main character, gets ready for a walk. It’s raining outside, but the cute pup goes into his closet to get his (red) rain gear. Then he heads to the cupboard to get (orange) dog snacks. His friend arrives for their walk, and behind the yellow front door, we see the other dog in his yellow coat and boots. The book ends with the sun coming out and, of course, a rainbow behind the cloud. In “Peek-A-Bo Bedtime” we see the same dog, Bo, getting ready for bed, with cabinets that open to reveal toothbrushes and dresser drawers that “open” to show their contents. One thing that must be mentioned is the quality of these books. The pages are sturdy, but so are the flaps. The colors are bright, and some of the books have gilt edging on the illustrations. I appreciate the text with declarative sentences followed by a question. It’s never too early to teach children the difference between a statement and a question!

In addition to the board books about colors and bedtime, there are two seasonal books, one for Christmas and one for Halloween. Young children won’t care that it may not be the right season for those books. They will just enjoy lifting the flaps. The artwork is really exceptional on the whole series, with the expressive dog (and cat) faces, the shiny glittery ink, and the many flaps to open. Two more books in the series will be released in the Spring of 2025.

Another delightful series specifically for very young children, infants and toddlers, is the series “What Does Baby See?” It’s part of the series “A First High-Contrast Book,” featuring board books in black and white. Research has proven that infants don’t see clearly, especially distances. They can focus best on objects that are between eight and fifteen inches away. That’s the perfect distance for showing them a book while reading to them! And while newborns prefer to look at faces over other shapes, they also see in black and white. They develop their color vision slowly at around four months. Since black and white contrasts are what infants want to focus on, books with that high contrast will help encourage brain growth as the baby’s retina sees the contrasting colors and sends visual signals to the brain. Combine that with the spoken text, and you are stimulating several areas of the baby’s brain effectively. This series promotes image recognition, word recognition, speaking skills (by hearing the words read), and motor skills (when the baby is old enough to help turn the pages).

The first book in this series is “What Does Baby See?” and it’s cleverly done, with not only each drawing in contrasting shades of black and white; each two-page spread features one page with a black background and a white and black object next to a page with a white background and a black object. There is a frog, a kitten, a flower, and an apple. One of the companion books, “What Does Baby See? Baby Animals,” shows different baby animals and has more text. The first question is, “Who does baby see in the jungle?” And then there is a tiger cub (with beautiful black and white stripes) and a gorilla baby. For “who does baby see in the Arctic?” we have a “penguin chick wobbling,” “a baby seal swimming,” a polar bear cub and a snowy owlet. The last book is “What Does Baby See? At the Sea,” and we not only have the same high contrast images, we also hear the sounds that might be heard at the ocean — the “Squawk-squawk” of the seagull and the “gurgle-gurgle” of the clownfish, to name a few of the sounds you’ll share with the baby.

All of these would be great gifts for new parents or grandparents.

Please note: This review is based on the final books provided by Peter Pauper Press, the publisher, for review purposes.