I have three pic­ture books specif­i­cal­ly about babies (okay, one is about baby birds). Put them togeth­er and you have a the­mat­ic sto­ry time all ready to go! Make it an event, gath­er a group of kids (old­er sib­lings will def­i­nite­ly relate!) and have fun read­ing all three. Or snug­gle up with a child in your life and read one.

Smile Lily

Sweet Baby Lily is inconsolable—she cries “Waa! Waa! Waa!” Each mem­ber of her fam­i­ly tries to com­fort her with all the usu­al things: lul­la­bies, tick­les, a dia­per change, food, and toys. “But Lily keeps on cry­ing. Waa! Waa! Waa! Lily keeps on cry­ing. Oh, who knows what to do?” Final­ly Lily’s big broth­er smiles his biggest smile…and Lily grins back at him!

• Encour­age kids to join in on Baby Lily’s “Waa! Waa! Waa!” Point to the words as they do so—this is ter­rif­ic for pre-readers.
• Ask: “Will it work?” before each page turn
• Take the time to talk about oth­er ways to com­fort a baby—ask the kids what they would do to help Lily.

This is the Baby

One tod­dler who hates get­ting dressed, plus a moth­er who is deter­mined to dress baby…. This is a cumu­la­tive sto­ry (think “This is the House That Jack Built”) and young read­er inter­ac­tion is eas­i­ly achieved. The result, says one review, “is a laugh-filled strug­gle as this mom­my uses all her inge­nu­ity and pow­ers of per­sua­sion to get baby into dia­per, T‑shirt, sweater, and many lay­ers of win­ter cloth­ing. But just when she thinks she’s suc­ceed­ed, baby peels every­thing off and hap­pi­ly struts, naked once again. Yes! Yes! Yes!” 

• Notice and name all the items of cloth­ing on the book’s end papers before you begin. Have kids “read” the baby’s “No, no, Nooooo!” with you. Point to each new item of cloth­ing at the page turn and name it togeth­er. At the end, every­one will be able to name the items as the baby strips.
• It is hilar­i­ous for kids if the adult read­er takes big­ger and big­ger breaths each time to make it through the grow­ing sequence of clothing—have great fun doing this.
• Con­sid­er a flan­nel­board-esque activ­i­ty with this book if you’re read­ing to a group—you could dress the baby as you read.

Seven Hungry Babies

Sev­en hun­gry chicks cry for food and Mama Bird, flush with love for her young brood, swoops out into the world to get them some­thing to eat. That takes care of one chick…but six hun­gry chicks are left! So out she goes again…and again, and again…and with each return, the unfed chicks get loud­er and more demand­ing. Mama Bird becomes har­ried and exhaust­ed in her unceas­ing effort to keep her nest of baby birds full and happy.

• This is a count­down book—the num­ber of hun­gry chicks goes down right along­side Mama Bird’s ener­gy. Count as you read—the eggs, the full baby birds as they fall asleep, the still hun­gry chicks, etc. Notice togeth­er how mama bird is get­ting tired.
• Learn sign lan­guage for “bird”  and encour­age the kids to sign at the “Feed us! Feed us!” Refrain.
• Talk about how human babies let their par­ents know they are hun­gry. And how are human babies fed?