I feel very remiss not getting some Sandra Boynton recommendations up here sooner. She has earned herself a very respectable share of the real estate in the board book section at the bookstore. In fact, there are so many Boyntons, which ones should you choose?
In my opinion, every board book library should include at least these two:
The rhythm and rhyme work great in these two (some of the others are a little rougher, though still funny). Barnyard Dance sounds like a Square Dance caller, so you might find yourself adding a bit of Southern twang to it. It is really catchy. In fact, I think both Eliza and I have memorized it at this point.
We have also memorized Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs. It's got colors, feelings, opposites in it... Lots of fun. Now that Eliza is talking more I will often leave off words in the rhyme, and she will fill them in. It starts off like this:
Dinosaurs happy.
Dinosaurs sad.
Dinosaurs good.
Dinosaurs bad.
And, later on, it gets funnier:
Dinosaurs early.
Dinosaurs later.
Dinosaurs crammed in an elevator.
There a few other Boyntons I particularly like, namely Moo Ba La La La and But Not the Hippopotamus:
So, anyway, those are our faves!