Invite an infant to sit on your lap to read a book. Introduce the book by pointing to the cover and parts of the cover picture you name. Example: “Do you see the baby? The baby is smiling! Here are the baby’s fingers. Here are the baby’s toes! Our book shows pictures of baby fingers and baby toes!”

Use the following strategies to engage the infant in the book:

• Invite the infant to help you turn pages of the book.
• Use your own words to describe pictures. Spend more time on pictures that seem to be of particular interest to the infant. Example: “You are looking at the babies laughing in their beds. The babies are having fun together. Can you find the babies’ toes? Let’s point to them!”
• Describe and respond to gestures and/or vocalizations. Example: “You are touching your toes! You are looking at pictures of the babies’ toes. You found your toes! You have toes just like the babies in our book.”
• Help the infant connect book information to his/her experiences and understandings. Example: “This picture shows many fingers! We have fingers. Where are your fingers? Do your fingers look like the fingers shown in our book? Where are my fingers?”
• Use your voice to add interest. Emphasize the repeated phrase “ten little fingers and ten little toes.”
• Recognize the infant’s participation in the book sharing. Example: “We had fun reading this book together, Elijah. You looked at the pictures of the babies. We pointed to the babies’ fingers and toes. You found your toes! You have fingers and toes just like the babies in our book.”

Invite an older infant to read a book with you. The infant may wish to sit next to you or stand close while you read. Introduce the book and invite the infant to help you hold the book and turn its pages. 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 the picture on the book cover and to parts of the picture you describe. Example: “Do you see the smiling baby? Look at the baby’s hands. The baby has ten little fingers! Look at the baby’s feet. The baby has ten little toes! Our book is about baby fingers and baby toes.” Use the following strategies to share the book:

• Invite the infant to help you hold the book and turn its pages. You may wish to keep 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. Follow the infant’s preferences for how quickly or slowly to turn the pages. The infant may turn pages forward and backward, and return to a favorite page several times.
• Use your own words to describe pictures. Spend more time on pictures that seem to be of particular interest to the infant. Example: “This baby lives on ice. Look at the penguin! This baby lives in a tent. Do you see the chickens? Both of these babies have fingers and toes!”
• Invite the infant to point to objects that you name. Example: “Look at the baby swinging! I see little toes. Where are the baby’s toes?”
• Describe and respond to gestures and/or vocalizations. Example: “You said ‘kiss!’ The mommy is kissing her little baby on his nose.”
• Help the infant connect book information to his/her experiences and understandings. Example: “The baby is looking at his fingers. Here are the baby’s fingers. Where are your fingers? You have fingers just like the baby in our book!”
• Show enjoyment as you read the rhythmic, rhyming, repetitive text. Emphasize the repeated phrase “ten little fingers and ten little toes.”
• Recognize the infant’s participation in the book reading. Example: “You helped hold our book, Abigail. You turned the pages to look at the pictures. You said ‘kiss’ when you looked at the picture of the mommy giving her baby a kiss. You pointed to the baby’s toes. Then you found your toes! Thank you for sharing this book with me!”