This could be a very long post. So I'll just talk about 4 for now. And dive right in.
Calling All Animals is a very basic book that I found in board book format at my library. Perfect for my 1-year old! the drawings are simple and a little quirky and simply put is animals and their "groups". My favorite? A flamboyance of flamingoes. It's also good for focusing on the concept of one and many.
Doreen Cronin's books are so adorable and hilarious! Both books operate under the concept that the animals have learned how to write (or type) and are using it to their advantage. And what the animals want is to be a little more pampered (don't we all?). I particularly like that they choose to watch The Sound of "Moosic" in Giggle, Giggle, Quack. It's fun to read about them pulling the wool over their farmer's (and his brother's) eyes. (haha)
Finally, Graeme Base has some of the most detailed, amazing artistry in his children's books. His stories tend to be a little long for my girls -- they're more in line for the school-age set, but we have and love this one -- Animalia. It's an animal alphabet book BUT each page is entirely devoted to that letter. What does that mean? It means that the description of the animals for that letter is all written with the letter A, or B, or C or so on. And everything -- EVERYTHING -- in the picture starts with that letter. These books are almost I Spy or Where's Waldo like. You're not searching for anything specific (ok you can -- he always has a little twist at the end), but you can spend so much time looking at the all the detail of each picture. Sometimes I have to get out a dictionary to figure out how a particular inclusion starts with that particular letter! This is a MUST HAVE because checking it out of the library is simply not enough.
