Eebee's Adventure Series

When Graham was a baby I spent hours and hours reading to him, watching intently to see if he showed any interest at all in the pictures and stories that I took great pains to animate.

He didn't really. I know he enjoyed our time together but I think any enthusiasm he showed was a reaction to the sound of my voice or our closeness and the attention being paid him, as opposed to any of the wide array of books that we worked our way through.

When he reached the age of one or so it became difficult to continue reading together. There was no way Graham was sitting still unless I could hold his attention, and words on a page were not cutting it. Anxious to keep on reading I tried out a ton of big, clunky, interactive books designed for young toddlers, but none of them held his interest.

It's too bad I wasn't asked to review books from eebee's adventures series back then.

A few months ago the folks at eebee's asked me to take a look at their series of interactive cloth books which are designed to help babies and young toddlers explore words, sounds, textures and imaginative play, as well as exercise their fine motor skills.

That might sound like a tall order for a series of books but eebee's adventure series are actually books and toys all rolled into one.

For example, eebee's Laundry Time, which recently won a National Parenting Publications Award, has activities for the young reader on every page, including taking towels out of the laundry bag and putting them into the washer, spinning the peek-a-boo washing-machine wheel, hanging eebee’s pajamas on the line and putting them away in the drawers.

All of the books in the series are similarly cool and much more interesting and carefully designed than any of the books I tried to interest Graham in when he was at that in-between age... too young to appreciate a story or characters, too old to be content sitting still and listening to my voice. I really think any parent with an older baby or young toddler will enjoy reading and playing with them together.

You can learn more about eebee's adventure series of books and other eebee products at www.eebee.com. You can also win a series of books just by leaving a comment below - I'll have Graham pick the winner's name out of a hat next weekend.

Good luck!