Book Corner: Help build the learning superhighway in your child

As the Director of Youth Services at Central Rappahannock Regional Library, my thoughts are often on the youngest children in our community and what the library can do to help set them up for success. The first five years of life are critical for brain growth and development, and the experiences offered to children at this time can build the learning superhighway in their brain that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

Early literacy skills lay the foundation young children need before they learn to read. By reading to their babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, parents and caregivers help their children develop early literacy skills and contribute to that critical brain development. To help parents and caregivers build those skills in children from birth to age five, Central Rappahannock Regional Library offers nearly 30 storytimes, opens a new window every week in library branches, plus Grow a Reader Kits, opens a new window and hundreds of board books and picture books to check out. As an additional way to help parents and caregivers on this early literacy journey, throughout 2026, my contributions to this column will focus on early literacy skills and practices, easy ways that adults can help their children develop them, and picture book recommendations that support the skills and practices.

Today’s focus is on Print Awareness,, opens a new window the understanding that printed words have meanings. Adults may take for granted that children innately know that the lines and squiggles that make up words on a page mean something, but they don’t--this is knowledge that must be developed. Understanding that the lines and squiggles on a page have meaning is Print Awareness.

Parents and caregivers can help children develop Print Awareness by doing simple things that draw attention to words while that word is being said:

While reading a board book or picture book, point to a word on the page as you read it: “Cow.”
Point to a word on the page as you ask a question with that word: “Where is the cow?” “Where is the duck?”

This can be done not only with board books and picture books while you are reading to a child, but with anything that has print you can point to: cereal boxes at breakfast, shampoo bottles during bath time, and signs in the produce section of the grocery store while shopping.

The best way to build early literacy skills and practices into your child’s life is to make reading part of your everyday routine. Make it fun by snuggling up in a cozy spot. Let your child participate by turning the pages. If your child gets squirmy or isn’t interested at that moment, let it go and be done. Reading should be an enjoyable experience, so only read to your child for as long as they are enjoying it.

Any book with words can be used to develop Print Awareness, but books that are especially helpful are those that have fewer words so it is easy to point to a word and draw the child’s attention to that word. All of the books below are examples and are available at Central Rappahannock Regional Library. Stop by any branch to read to your child in a comfortable library chair, or check out some books or a Grow a Reader Kit, opens a new window to take home.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, opens a new window by Bill Martin Jr.

Found, opens a new window by Salina Yoon

Froggy Gets Dressed, opens a new window by Jonathan London

Go Away, Big Green Monster!, opens a new window by Ed Emberley

Goodnight Moon, opens a new window by Margaret Wise Brown

A House, opens a new window by Kevin Henkes

It Looked Like Spilt Milk, opens a new window by Charles G. Shaw

Jump, Frog, Jump!, opens a new window by Robert Kalan

Last Stop on Market Street, opens a new window by Matt de la Peña

Little Penguins, opens a new window by Cynthia Rylant

Rosie's Walk, opens a new window by Pat Hutchins

Rumble, Rumble, Dinosaur, opens a new window by Katrina Charman