Invite an infant to sit on your lap to read a book. Introduce the book by pointing to the cover and encouraging the infant to look at the picture with you. Example: “Look! Do you see the brown bear? Our book is about different animals. I wonder what animals we are going to see in our book!”

Encourage the infant to turn book pages with you. Share the book with strategies, such as the following:

• Point to and name objects pictured. Example: “This is a green frog. Here is the frog’s pink tongue. Look at the frog’s feet! These feet help the frog hop. What else do you see?”
• Describe what the infant is looking at. Example: (Point to each object as you speak.) “You are looking at the white dog. The white dog has a red collar. Do you see the dog’s ears? Look! Here is the dog’s pink tongue!”
• Pause and talk about the pictures that seem to be of particular interest to the infant. You may wish to provide additional context or information. Example: “You are looking at the teacher. The teacher has brown hair. She is wearing glasses, just like I do! What do you think the teacher is going to see on the next page?”
• Describe and respond to gestures or vocalizations. Example: “You are pointing to the blue horse. This is a silly picture of a horse! Do you see the horse’s blue tail? Where is the horse’s mouth?”
• Help the infant connect book information to his/her experiences and developing knowledge. Example: “You are pointing to the purple cat. You have a cat that lives at your house! The cat in our picture has a long tail and a pink tongue. Does your cat have a long tail?”
• Use your voice to add interest and enjoyment. Infants may enjoy some of the repetitive text read in a sing-song voice. Emphasize the repeated phrases.
• Follow the infant’s cues as you read the book. Turn the pages as slowly or as quickly as the infant seems to prefer without compromising the purpose of sharing a book. Watch for an infant’s signal that may suggest it is time to stop the book reading.
• Recognize the infant’s participation in the book reading. Example: “We had fun reading this book together, James. You looked at the pictures of different animals. You touched the picture of the blue horse. You smiled at the picture of all the children! I think you liked this book!”

Invite an older infant to read a book with you. The infant may wish to sit next to you or prefer to stand close while you read. Introduce the book and invite the infant to hold the book and turn its pages. You may wish to keep all of 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 the picture on the book cover. Example: “Look! Do you see the brown bear? The brown bear sees different animals in our book. Would you like to help me turn the page to read the book?” Some infants may help you turn the page, or turn the pages independently. Use strategies, such as the following, to share the book with the infant:

• Point to and label objects in the pictures. Example: “This is a blue horse. The blue horse has a long tail. Do you see the horse’s ears and teeth? I wonder what the blue horse is going to see on the next page!”
• Invite the infant to point to objects that you label. Example: “This is a yellow duck. The duck has orange feet. Do you see the duck’s feet? You can point to the duck’s orange feet!”
• Describe and respond to gestures or vocalizations. Examples: “You said ‘woof, woof!’ You are looking at the picture of the dog. Dogs say ‘woof, woof.’ What do you think the dog is going to see next?”
• Help the infant connect book information to his/her experiences and developing knowledge. Example: “Look at all the children! The children are looking at the animals. Do you see the children’s eyes? Where are your eyes?”
• Show enjoyment as you read the rhythmic, rhyming, repetitive text. Emphasize the repeated phrase “what do you see?”
• Follow the infant’s cues as to how quickly or slowly to turn the pages. Some infants may turn pages forward and backward, and others may want to return to a favorite page several times.
• Recognize the infant’s participation in the book reading. Example: “You helped hold our book, Asia. You pointed to the purple horse. You said ‘meow’ when you looked at the picture of the cat! You turned the pages to see what was next. We had fun reading this book together!”