READING is the best thing you can do for your children, even from the earliest days.

Countless studies have shown how reading can improve everything from vocabulary to early literacy skills a few years later, when they’re ready to head off to school.

It also does wonders for their imaginations and can help establish that most important of things when children are very young: routine.

Setting a time aside every day can help you connect with your one-year-old, and will start to signify to them that sleep will follow the post-bath snuggle in bed, which always involves a book. Or several.

One-year-old children can already be avid readers. Of course, their love of reading often involves exploring the book itself: pawing at it, chewing it, throwing it around – this is why board books are such a hit with the infant crowd.

The most popular books for this age range tend to focus on characters they know and recognise (hello, Peppa!), animal figures (this is why The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Gruffalo are such hits), easy numbers, colours and shapes and anything to do with themselves.

By two, lots of kids know their own name and love hearing it – and shouting it – frequently, so age one is a good time to get them their first personalised book of adventures. Happy reading!

This article and featured products have been independently chosen by Sun journalists. It contains links which are ads, and if you click a link and buy a product we will earn revenue.

1. Best personalised book for one-year-olds

This sweet bedtime book is a gorgeously illustrated countdown to sleep featuring your child’s favourite thing in the world: their name. Perfect for bedtime bonding, this rhyming book also has charming animal characters and comes in hardback or softback versions (the hardback is an ideal gift for a baby).

‘The child’s name in the title of the book makes a world of difference!’ writes a fan, and, as any parent can tell you, constant repetition of their child’s name might just be the secret to success when it comes to creating a lifelong love of books.

• Bedtime for You, for £19.99 on Wonderbly – buy here

2. Best buggy book for one-year-olds

Jellycat is renowned for its ultra-cuddly soft toys and this Jungly Tails book is a playful choice for young readers who will enjoy the textures and sounds, with crinkly pages and a jungle sound button. It’s also ideal for bringing with you on the go and has an attachment for the buggy.

‘They are bright, interesting and extremely hardwearing so perfect for first-stage reading, exploring and play. The children love them and so do we!’ writes a grandparent.

• Jellycat Jungly Tails Book, for £13.50 on JoJo Maman Bébé – buy here

3. Best flap book for one-year-olds

Nosy Crow is a charming indie publishing house for little ones and their early-years selections won’t disappoint. The latest addition to their lift-the-flap animal series features the animal-of-the-moment, a narwhal, as well as felt flaps and a mirror. It’s a classic hide-and-seek story and there are plenty more animals and people, from ladybirds to Santa Claus, to find across other books in the series.

‘My almost 18m old absolutely loves this book. It’s hardly been put down since we got it. She will spend an hour with me reading it over and over and loves the brightly coloured animals and kissing herself in the mirror on the last page,’ notes a happy parent.

• (AD) Where’s Mr Narwhal? (Felt Flaps) Board book – 6 Jun 2019 by Ingela P Arrhenius, for £5.24 on Amazon – buy here

4. Best imaginative book for one-year-olds

This board book is a total delight that takes your child on an interactive adventure where they ‘push’ the buttons and shake and tilt the book to find that extraordinary things happen when they do. Since it’s more about action than text, it’s also a great book for anyone in the family who doesn’t consider themselves a natural read-aloud reader (and it will also keep little ones occupied in restaurants).

Fans say it’s an ‘absolutely brilliant book!’, ‘such a good introduction for small children to really engaging with a book’ and an ‘absolutely genius book that teaches young children cause and effect in a fun way.’ Older kids love it, too.

• (AD) Press Here : Board Book Edition, by Hervé Tullet, for £5.24 on Amazon – buy here

5. Best learning book for one-year-olds

By around 18 months, most toddlers are saying around 20 words (this goes up to 50 by age two), and this colourful book helps bring those words to life with actual photos rather than cartoons. It also follows a one-year-old’s interests (emergency vehicles, animals) and day-to-day life (high chairs, babies, bedtime routine, etc).

• (AD) First 100 Words (Soft to Touch Board Books) (First 100 Soft To Touch) Hardcover by Roger Priddy, for £3.99 on Amazon – buy here

6. Best noisy book for one-year-olds

One-year-olds ADORE Peppa Pig: they jump in every puddle they see, they laugh at Daddy Pig’s antics and they shout ‘Dinesaw!’ along with George.

This book has all of their favourite characters, plus 18 sound buttons one-year-olds will love pressing as the story goes on (and will press continually even when you’re not reading). Purchasers say it’s ‘great value for the price’, ‘the story is fun and engaging’ and the buttons ‘offer a range of exciting moods, laughs and silly sounds’.

• (AD) Peppa Pig: Peppa’s Super Noisy Sound Book , for £9.35 on Amazon – buy here

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This article and any featured products have been independently chosen by The Sun journalists. All recommendations within the article are informed by expert editorial opinion. If you click a link and buy a product we may earn revenue: this helps to support The Sun, and in no way affects our recommendations.

A resilient 105-year-old woman thinks there’s one special homemade remedy that helped her beat the coronavirus: gin-soaked raisins .

Lucia DeClerck, the oldest resident of her South Jersey nursing home, found out she had contracted Covid-19 on her 105th birthday in January. She is one of 62 residents to have contracted the virus, four of whom died, and got the positive test after receiving her second dose of the vaccine.

“We were very concerned,” her son Phillip Laws told the New York Times about receiving the news. “But she’s got a tenacity that is unbelievable. And she’s got that rosary – all the time.”’

DeClerck credits her old age to prayer and healthy eating, but told the Times her specific tradition of eating gin-soaked raisins each morning helped her in the battle against Covid. After being diagnosed, she was quarantined and showed a few symptoms, but returned to her room within two weeks.

READ MORE: Woman wants more awareness of brain condition on the rise due to Covid-19 How the Queen used her profile to champion the new polio vaccine in 1957 At 106, early Covid-19 vaccine recipient in Brazil still remembers Spanish flu Covid-19: World’s second-oldest person survives coronavirus at age 116

“Fill a jar,” she explained. “Nine raisins a day after it sits for nine days.”

Gin-soaked raisins are just one of DeClerck’s rituals, which also include drinking aloe juice and brushing her teeth with baking soda.

“We would just think, ‘Grandma, what are you doing? You’re crazy,’” her 53-year-old granddaughter Shawn Laws O’Neil said. “Now the laugh is on us. She has beaten everything that’s come her way.”

This isn’t the 105-year-old’s first pandemic, either. After being born in Hawaii in 1916, DeClerck survived the Spanish flu, multiple wars, as well as the death of three husbands and one of her sons.

“She is just the epitome of perseverance,” O’Neil said. “Her mind is so sharp. She will remember things when I was a kid that I don’t even remember.”

DeClerck is one of the oldest people to have beaten the virus. Her large family of kids, grandkids, and great grandkids is now bestowing a new title on their Grandma Lucia: “The 105-year-old badass who kicked Covid.”

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BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

A 61-year-old woman Mrs. Stella Omoigui, has demanded N50million compensation for her 11year- old-son, Master Osasu Omoigui who was allegedly hit by a stray bullet on his genital during #EndSARS protest.

Mrs. Omoigui, a petty trader yesterday in Benin,  told the Edo State Judicial Panel of Inquiry for victims of SARS and related abuses that her 11year son was hit by stray bullets from the police officers who were dispersing the #EndSARS protesters when running an errand for her.

She added that the incident happened along Old road, Sapele Road, Benin City, when he asked the said Osasu, a primary three pupil of Maria Christian Academy to go and give his father ripe plantain.

She said her son was later treated and discharged from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH

She said ever since the incident, she has been spending her little resources on him.

She said the little Osasu can only pass out urine through a fixed pipe on his abdomen, a situation that has forced him to always be on wrappers instead of trousers.

She said the condition has also forced him from going to school.

She however pleaded with the panel to grant her son the sum of N50 million as compensation for the pains being suffered by him and also take care of his medical bills and that the panel should do all in its power to see that he could have his life back.

On the part of little Osasu, he said he would like to be a medical doctor when he grows up.

“I want to be a medical doctor by the time I grow up and finished my education, please, the government and every spirited individual should help me”, he said.

Being touched by the condition of the 11-year- old Osasu, chairman, Judicial Panel of Inquiry, Justice Ada Ehigiamusoe (rtd) said the child’s condition must be treated with prompt attention.

“I have a medical doctor in my team, looking at the young man, is about 11 years old, he is unable to dress properly like normal human being, we found him to be wrapped in wrappers and the medical doctor in my team, examined him and found that he is badly damaged in his genital region and we have reviewed that this calls for an emergency intervention.

“We will do the necessary things that will be required of us just like the state government has always done, matters of this nature be treated promptly. If you recall, we have similar matters of about two of them, deaf and dumb, more than that and promptly, the state government intervened.

“They did not even wait for us to make our final recommendations. So, I sure with this, look at the condition of the boy, so pathetic, and it is not the police, it is a stray bullet.

“It is one of those things, the consequences of that protest, we can’t really lay our hands on anybody but we will try our best to make the adequate recommendations.

“So, we have reviewed instantly, and we have reviewed, that all of us, we have the combined view that it is meritorious, deserving compensation, he needs urgent medical attention. So, that is our stance”, she said.

Justice Ehigiamusoe also led panel members to raise money for him and which was immediately given to him.

Vanguard News Nigeria

CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) — Prosecutors have announced a death penalty indictment against a man now accused of having killed not only his girlfriend but also her 3-year-old child, whose body has never been found.

The Hamilton County prosecutor said Wednesday that 21-year-old Desean Brown is now charged with two counts of aggravated murder as well as abuse of a corpse and evidence-tampering.

READ MORE: 16-Year-Old Girl Dies, 13-Year-Old Boy Hurt After Falling Through Ice; Police Officer Also Dies

Brown was earlier charged with having killed 29-year-old Nyteisha Lattimore on or about Dec. 5 in her apartment in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati. Her body was found about a week later near a bridge in downtown Cincinnati. The county coroner said she died of stab wounds.

The body of 3-year-old Nylo Lattimore was never recovered despite a search of 180 miles of the Ohio River by police and volunteers. Police say the child’s blood was found on a blanket recovered with his mother’s body and his stroller was found in the river nearby.

READ MORE: Pennsylvania GOP Meets To Discuss Whether To Censure Sen. Pat Toomey

“He chose to kill Nylo in an incredibly barbaric method,” Prosecutor Joe Deters said at a press conference Wednesday. “I still have nightmares about this.”

Court documents don’t list an attorney for Brown, who pleaded not guilty earlier to charges in the case.

MORE NEWS: Butler County Republican Committee Votes To Censure Sen. Pat Toomey Over Impeachment Vote

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