Engaging visuals help titles rise above others

The trick to picking out books for the youngest of kids is remembering that any title might turn out to be the one the child begs you to read 10,000 times.

So make sure that you love each book that you bring home.

For me, that boils down to two things: fun poetry to read aloud or an amusing angle to a story or photos.

Some of my favorite titles that have come out recently:

“A Band of Babies” by Powell author Carole Gerber, who has written about two dozen books for young children and older kids and who does high-quality work.

Gerber's newest tells the story of Benny, a baby who joins a sleepy play group and livens things up. Every line rhymes perfectly, and the rhythm makes me want to bop my shoulders and project when I read the story. This would have been a favorite for my daughter when she was young.

The illustrations, by Jane Dyer, show a lot of diversity and have a colored-pencil, sketched look that feels a bit throw-back.

A couple of things to note: The recommended age range is 4- to 8-year-olds, but I’d start reading it with 2-year-olds and expect interest to top out at age 5 or so. And the band of babies does go into a grocery store and get a bit wild. If your child has grocery issues, this book won’t help. But it's sure fun.

“Counting With Tiny Cat” by Viviane Schwartz, which shows an expressive cat playing with red balls.

A simple description accompanies each illustration, and the pages build from simple number scenes through “As many as you can get” (which doesn’t turn out well for Tiny Cat).” The amusing progression sends a nice message without saying much, and the illustrations are delightful.

“Before & After” (Phaidon, 40 pages, $12.95), a board book by Jean Jullien.

As with "Tiny Cat," the illustrations make the story here. In the first pairing, for example, “Before” shows an interracial couple standing with their big bellies facing each other; on the “After” page, the mom’s tummy is flat, and the dad holds a baby above his belly.

There’s also a child, whose sex is unclear, who goes from “Before” (long hair and a slight smile) to “After” (really short hair and an alarmed look) to “Way after” (long hair again and a satisfied expression). Fold-out pages feature a roller coaster and throw “During” into the “Before” and “After” mix.

I especially liked the low-key diversity included in this book.

My daughter — 7 years old, mind you, and too old for these books — laughed so much when she read it, she refused to pass it along to her babysitter’s children, the intended recipients.

These are all books I’d be happy to read over and over. And over.

And over.

“Counting With Tiny Cat” (Candlewick, 25 pages, $14.99) by Viviane Schwartz