We have been incredibly blessed by friends and family during this pregnancy and showered with gifts. Our nursery is in fantastic shape, just waiting for us to bring our little man home in a few days.
Except for one thing, that I’m really only realizing now with all the parenting and baby care stuff I’m reading. (My reading material has shifted from pregnancy-related to labor/delivery and now to ‘how the heck do we take care of this thing?’ type titles and magazines.) We have like NO BOOKS for the little guy. Apparently we’re supposed to start reading to him nearly immediately – and seriously, we have like two books! (Including Goodnight Moon.)
So, friends and family: suggestions please! We’re huge fans of Amazon, but the selection is so overwhelming when I go to look at kid’s books. I need guidance! What do you have fond memories of reading to your children? What books do your babies/toddlers/kids love? What book will you go all Van Gogh on yourself if you have to read aloud one more time? I’ll probably just build a huge wishlist to whittle down with all your suggestions, so all types of books are welcome – stuff to read to baby, stuff to let baby actually get his moist little hands on: all of it!
Thanks in advance once again for your help, everyone. I cannot believe that the little critter that is kicking me on the inside as I type this will be on the outside in a matter of a day or two.
Oh, don’t you worry. Books will accrue. I’m looking at Kara’s voluminous downstairs bookshelf as I type this. She’s got most of Seuss, a bunch of the “Touch and Feel” series, some pop up books, and the VERY important Monster At The End of This Book. Offhand I know her upstairs bookshelf has If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Thomas the Tank Engine stories, and a box of Pooh stories. Oh, and a MUST – the Indestructibles series. There are three of em, and they are printed on Tyvek, and are made for babies to chew and gum and drool on – they are literally indestructible.
We love chicka chicka boom boom, all of the little critter books, i love you as much, stellaluna, berenstain bears, the eric carle books, busytown/richard scary books … just to name a few. lol btw sorry for no caps, typing on my itty bitty phone keyboard. :)
You really can’t go wrong with Dr Suess. I still have big chunks of Fox in Socks memorized. My sis-in-law Lori Ries writes super cute kids books (Super Sam, Aggie and Ben and a few others) you can find them on Amazon. Seriously my fondest childhood memories are of my dad and oldest brother reading me novels. I read the Wizard of Oz books to both of my kids when they were toddlers. Nick could only sit for a few pages a night since he has autism but we worked up to a chapter or two a night. Then we read the Harry Potter books until they were old enough to read them on their own. We also read the Hobbit (Lord of the Rings was too boring, I found out later that my dad skipped the boring parts when he read it to me).
I bet you can read him anything you like! Nursery rhymes, Douglas Adams, organic chemistry! You got at least one of those in a package!
You’re right! That’s why we have like TWO books! :)
I LOVE kid books! Richard Scarry, Dr. Seuss, the Babar books, Ferdinand the Bull, and Shel Silverstein (LOVE!) are some of my favorites. I get all teary-eyed when I read these books now! =)
I gave Paul an inscribed copy of The Giving Tree as a wedding gift.
That’s one of my all-time favorite books! It’s such an amazing story.
Ryan liked Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book) by Dorothy Kunhardt, and I Love You Through And Through by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak and Caroline Jay Church. He liked the David series by David Shannon also.
Several I can suggest. “Oh, the places you’ll go” is a must! “Love you forever” by Munsch is excellent, but be prepared to cry Buckets every time you read it. Anything with “The Pooh” and “Goodnight Moon” is wonderful. Books will appear, and you and your little one will find the PERFECT book for you. One that years from now, he’ll read to his little one. Love you much.
Love you forever and the very hungry caterpillar come to mind. I took a literature fo children class w/ lots of suggeations but won’t be able to look at the list/book/notes til I’m home (and the list/book r paccked so that will be a while later. Love u forever is one of my faves…I cry everytime I read it and my mom read it (sang it) to me all growing up. I bought it the week I found out I was pregnant for my child. :)
Hi Guys,
Here’s to the beginning of your adventure! Boys are great, just wait until Legos. I hope you guys enjoy parenthood as much as we have so far. The first few days will probably be a blur. Someone IS manning the still AND video cams, right?!?? PLEASE SAY SOMEONE IS RUNNING THE CAMERA. Ok, whew, I’m sure you’ve thought of that, and the batteries and extra storage.
Kidding, kidding. But seriously, from our family to your newest one, here’s wishing you all the best.
~Terry & Carol & Mason
PS: Regarding books, I have 2 words for you: Library Card
Check out the local library. There will be tons of classics and other types to choose from and FREE! Plus you will never run out of books to read to the little one <3
Read him the “how the heck do we take care of this critter?” books out loud. Or the newspaper. Early on, it doesn’t really matter WHAT you’re reading — it’s just the talking/interacting. I also tend to just talk to mine throughout the day and tell them what I’m doing. And if you’re wearing him quite a bit, he’ll be right there near your soothing voice as you talk to other grown ups (hopefully) or hang up on telemarketers.
When he gets a bit bigger, Goodnight Moon is a good start. Pat the Bunny is another good one (it’s a touchy feely book), and Guess How Much I Love You is one of my personal favorites. But as everyone has said, books have a tendency to multiply like rabbits in the dark, so I fully expect to read a blog post from you in a couple of months about the book shelf you had to buy to hold all the thousands of books for your little guy :)
In the way of board books, we LOVE the Boynton books – our all time favorite is “The Going to Bed Book”. A must have. Skadi loves “The Belly Button Book”. Leif still cracks up at “Red Hat Blue Hat” (I think that is the name). Also “But Not the Hippopotamus” and “Pajama Time” and “Snuggle Puppy”.
And I bought the kids each their own copy of “Tails”. Both interacted with that one from an early age.
Me and T both loved Maurice Sendack’s Little Bear stories (not sure if i’m spelling his name right).
Anything with a cadence to it at least in the beginning -well really any reading at all but the rhythm makes it special so, Dr Suess Alphabet book is a good one- not that you are teaching letters just the rhyme of it and Hand Hand Fingers Thumb from the same series
– this said the earliest books that my babies responded to were “Miffy” books because of the simple faces that are identified by babies at 5 weeks and Jan Pienkowski again for the simple faces but also for the brilliant colours.
I was going to tell you to go get the same exact books Juanita said for you to get, so ditto to her post! :)
Definitely need to add “Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch! I read this book to all three of my babies and get teary eyed to this day! It is a great book about the relationship between a baby (boy) and his parents.
“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always. As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be”.
I just remembered: The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear. It’s really cute and has beautiful artwork.
Oh, and there’s always Tiny Titans. It’s a monthly comic book for little kids. It’s insanely cute. http://www.artbaltazar.com/tinytitans