Books have a lot of colourful and noisy toys to compete with, to grab the attention of a baby or toddler. If they pick up a book and give it a quick chew and nothing happens, they’re likely to drop it and move on to something else. But if that same book is opened and someone starts pointing at pictures and making a noise, maybe even jumping around and pretending to be the characters, that’s really going to grab their attention.

And once you have their attention, make the book fun! This could mean the way you read, using different voices for different characters, exaggerating or adding bits in as you go along. Or it could mean just looking at the pictures, talking about what you see and adding sound effects - whatever works and makes the book a shared and fun experience.

Picture books are great for painting pictures in the imagination, the foundations of visualising stories. They use words and pictures together to tell a story, often using text in imaginative ways to blend in with the artwork, or leaving words unwritten for the pictures to work their own magic.



A dog eared book is a loved book, like a favourite teddy, it’s been pulled this way and that, by small inquisitive hands and probably chewed a bit too. Let children grab the book as you read it and help to turn the pages. First books are like toys, some of them are going to get damaged, even worn out.

Make books accessible in the same way as toys, scattered around among the toys for curious hands to pick up, handle and explore. Board books are a great place to start and will stand up to a fair amount of rough handling, as they’re opened and dropped and even walked on.

Read lots of different books, everyone has different tastes in books and not every book will hit the mark, while others will become favourites. Children will start to anticipate what happens next as the pages turn, and join in with noises, and, as time goes on will join in with the story.

Story time doesn’t have to be quiet time – story time can be whatever you make it…