Invite an infant to sit on your lap or next to you to read a book. Introduce the book by pointing to the cover and encouraging infant to look at the picture with you. Explain there is a picture of a face on the cover of our book. Open the book and begin looking at the pictures and reading the text, using the following strategies:

• Invite the infant to help you turn the pages of the book. Be flexible about this arrangement. The infant may skip some pages. The book does not offer a plot and it is easy to move around pictures. The infant may turn some pages more quickly than others.
• Point to and name what’s in the picture, including its parts. Example: “This is a cat. The cat has a tail. Here is the tail. The cat also has whiskers. Look at the cat’s long whiskers! Here are the cat’s eyes. I am pointing to the cat’s paws.”
• Pause and talk about the pictures the infant shows particular interest in. You may wish to provide additional context or information. Example: “You are looking at the moon in the sky. Look at all the stars! The sky is dark because it is nighttime.”
• Describe and respond to gestures and/or vocalizations. Example: “You are touching the picture of the race car. You are smiling! I think you like this picture of the race car.”
• Help the infant connect book information to his/her own experiences and developing knowledge. Example: “These are hands. There are fingers on the hands. Let’s look at our hands. I have fingers on my hand. You have fingers on your hand!”
• Use your voice to add interest and enjoyment to the book sharing.
• Recognize infant’s participation in the book reading. Example: “We had fun looking at the pictures in this book together, Carter. You touched the picture of the race car. You smiled at the children! You helped turn the pages!”

Invite an older infant to read a book with you. The infant may wish to sit next to you or stand while you read. Encourage the infant to hold the book and turn its pages. Provide assistance if needed by keeping all the pages in your right hand except for the page to be turned. This will help the infant to turn one page at a time. A standing infant may want to use one hand to help turn the pages. Once the infant is comfortable and ready to read, point to and describe the face shown on the book cover. Use the following strategies to engage the infant with the book:

• Point to and name objects in the pictures. Example: “This is a sun. The sun has a face! Here are the eyes. Here is the nose. Look at the smiling mouth! The sun looks happy!”
• Invite the infant to point to objects that you name. Use objects and names that you anticipate the infant knows. Example: “I see a picture of a moon in the sky. Do you see the moon? You can point to the moon!”
• Describe what the infant is looking at and provide additional information. Example: “You are looking at the pictures of the flowers. The flowers have something called petals. Here are some petals.”
• Describe and respond to gestures and/or vocalizations. Example: “You said ‘night night.’ You are looking at the picture of the moon in the sky. Yes, it is nighttime!”
• Encourage the infant to connect book information to his/her own experiences and developing knowledge. Example: “This is a car. We have a toy car in our room. You like to play with our toy car.”
• Follow the infant’s lead in how quickly or slowly the pages are turned. It is fine if the infant skips some pages. The book is not organized by a plot.
• Recognize the infant’s participation in the book sharing. Example: “You helped me hold our book, Maya. You pointed to the stars in the sky. You turned the pages to see what was next! We had fun reading this book together.”