Reading to babies is a very important part of their educational and emotional health. These new board books offer more than usual in terms of imagination, action and fun.

"You Are My Baby: Ocean" and "You Are My Baby: Garden" by Lorena Siminovich; Petitcollage/Chronicle Books; 10 pages and $8.99 each.

With a little book nestled into the bottom of a bigger book, the innovative "You Are My Baby: Ocean" first introduces a parent animal in the top bigger book, and the baby animal in the smaller one. "You crawl on the sandy ocean floor" features a purple, smiling octopus, and "You are my baby, little octopus" features an adorable, green tot. Seahorses sway in the seaweed, gentle whales "jump through rolling waves," and their babies try to do the same.

"Garden" introduces snails, bees, birds and bunnies, and their babies are uncovered by turning the attached small book's sturdy pages.

Sun-washed colors and cozy, adorable graphics make these interactive board books must-haves for active babies.

"Cowy Cow (Thingy Things)" and "Crabby Crab (Thing Things)" by Chris Raschka; Abrams Appleseed; 24 pages and $6.95 each.

Though not a board book on the inside, this picture book is still small enough for handling by toddlers, who love Raschka's quirky paint strokes. "Cowy Cow" has 100 ideas, including No. 34: "If you chew grass long enough, it might taste like a gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookie." Though only two of Cow's ideas are here, the funny little book is a witty, short read.

"Crabby Crab" wants to do everything he can't — walk straight ahead and use fingers instead of claws. Tots will relate to his frustrations and will laugh at his grumpiness. Others in the series include "Lamby Lamb" and "Whaley Whale."

"Beach Babies" by Puck; illustrated by Violet Lemay; Duo Press; 22 pages; $8.95.

"Look out! Here come the beach babies!" and they are indeed a force, building sandcastles, crawling up and down a sand-buried daddy, and even learning shapes and words and sand sports like beach-ball lifting and lifeguard pretending.

A smart mesh of highly entertaining, active read and learning book, "Beach Babies" includes a page spread at the end with lots of tips about how to enjoy the book in different ways. Tots can trace fingers over the sand mound, point and name flag colors, and even search for a tent with an awake baby.

"Who Can Swim?" and "Who Can Jump?" by Sebastien Braun; Candlewick; 14 pages and $6.99 each.

Babies and toddlers love lift-the-flap books. These ask "Who Can Swim?" and "Who Can Jump?" with various animals doing just those things, as flaps are lifted. Penguins can swim, so can seals and even polar bears. Cats can jump, and so can frogs and kangaroos.

Gently colorful brush strokes paint appealingly modern backdrops, as active animals carouse about on the books' sturdy, foldout pages. Both offer guessing games that will start babies on a lifelong love of books.

"Smile, Pout-Pout Fish" by Deborah Diesen; pictures by Daniel X. Hanna; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 14 pages; $5.99.

"Smile, Mr. Fish! You look so down, with your glum-glum face and your pout-pout frown," begins this hilarious, relatable board book. Mr. Fish isn't glum for long, as a funny sea slug friend turns his frown upside-down with a smooch and a cheer-up wish.

Just the thing to make grumpy toddlers smile, Diesen's zesty little book is made even more personable with Hanna's big-eyed, crazy characters.

"Little White Rabbit" by Kevin Henkes; Greenwillow Books; 34 pages; $7.99.

Those enamored with "Goodnight Moon" and "The Little Red Barn" will love this instant classic, about a curious little rabbit who wonders what it would be like to be green like the grass, tall like the trees, still like a rock. But when he hops home to Mom, he encounters something he doesn't wonder about — her love.

A very sweet tale that offers a loving, gentle bedtime read and lovely, sweeping illustrations, "Little White Rabbit" is precious.

To find out more about Lee Littlewood and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.