Startup! First 100 Words by Roger Priddy

Science tells us that babies begin to remember and sock away images in their memories from their first day, with Mom or the caretaker being one of the first to become familiar--baby's first chance to build a categories of remembrances.

In the new board book edition of his First 100 Words (St. Martin's Press, 2016) Roger Priddy offers twelve categories of things that babies encounter in their first year--Colors, Things That Go, Bathtime, Bedtime, Mealtime, Food, Myself, Outside, Clothes, Toys, Pets, and Farm Animals. In this substantial board book, colored and carefully edited photos of each category share a double- page spread. For example, the two-page spread on Food has both broccoli and bananas, while Clothes offers items from socks to sweatshirts. Pets includes pups and parrots, and Bathtime features both rubber ducky and bathtub.

Things that Go shows both tractors and trains, and Myself catches babies crawling and crying, and all the other things little ones do. This one also deserves some time beyond babyhood on the preschool shelf, because, with each item labeled in bold lower-case letters, this book also functions as a photo glossary of common words that can be recycled for emergent and beginning readers. Inexpensive and very sturdy, this one is a real bargain for babies and baby's first teachers.