I'm pregnant!
Come December, I will have an adorable baby girl! I'm excited beyond belief. This is going to be my first baby and I can hardly wait.
I think it's time to start compiling baby's library. What are your favorites--for small children, older children, little girls, etc.?
Wow, Emily! A very big, no, an enormous, congratulations! How exciting for you and your husband! I can imagine you've been having fun picking names, gathering clothes, planning her room, etc.
ReplyDeleteAs for books, my favourites are The Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome, and The Finn Family Moomintroll series by Tove Jansson. Favourite picture books include Harry the Dirty Dog, the Curious George books, Angus and the Ducks, Corduroy, and anything by Helen Oxenbury. I'm not sure if you've seen my Children's Book Blog but you can find a master list of books here: http://cleoclassicalchildrens.blogspot.ca/p/childrens-classic-master-list.html It's overwhelming but it has LOTS to choose from. I plan on adding a category based on ages, but right now I'm working on one based on chronology, so it might be awhile.
Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful news with us! I can't wait to "meet" her.
All the best,
~ Cleo ~
Thank you!! What wonderful suggestions, and I've been following your children's book blog too so I will have to peruse that further!
DeleteThat is wonderful news -- congrats! I love that you're already building her library. I remember reading Chris van alsburg and Angelina Ballerina when I was "little, little" and Little House on the Prairie and Roald Dahl after that. Although I'm sure whatever you decide to include will be wonderful!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
ReplyDeleteHow exciting!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think you need to get your baby acquainted with the classics ASAP:
http://www.mycozyclassics.com/books/
(sorry if this is a repeat, but I tried twice to comment, and it keeps messing up!)
Congratulations! This is BIG! I wish you and your baby girl good health! :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats!
ReplyDeleteFor teensy people, there's a great board book series of "intro to classics" books -- we have the "Pride and Prejudice" counting book, and there are various other titles too. I think the series is called "Baby Lit." There are oodles of them :-D Even though I don't have a baby right now, I really want the Sherlock Holmes "sounds primer."
As a mother of a toddler, here's my advice:
ReplyDelete-For the first couple of years (at least), you'll want mostly board books. Books with paper pages will have to be kept out of the baby's reach most of the time or they'll be destroyed. And even the board books will get chewed and bent the wrong way and damaged.
-Books with lots of pictures of items or animals are good for babies to develop their vocabularies and learn about things in their world. But those books are boring for adults! When you're choosing books, remember that you'll read them possibly hundreds of times. I like Dr. Seuss, Sandra Boynton, and the Sheep books by Nancy Shaw. Rhymes are fun to read.
-For babies, look for books without a lot of words per page. Babies like to look at the pictures and turn the pages. Storylines come later.
-Books that make noise are fun if they don't drive you crazy. If you get those, choose ones with noises that a child can activate by herself. Otherwise, you'll have to help your daughter push the buttons every time she reads the book.
-Interactive books (with flaps, textures, etc.) are fun. They're also easy to damage. Do you want to tape the flaps back on several times a day?
My son has loved the Sandra Boynton and BabyLit books since he was born. Although, his first month, I was mostly reading Jane Austen and Lemony Snicket to him out loud... :P He is two now, and his favorite books are a few by Quentin Blake (I think he's most well known for the illustrations he did for Roald Dahl's books) and nursery rhyme/song books. He's very inquisitive now, too, so he likes the big "Look and Find" books and his encyclopedias of dinosaurs and animals. My favorites series as a kid started with Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola. You definitely want board books for the first year, but my son stopped chewing on and tearing at his after that. I'd say once they've finished teething, it depends on the child's personality how torn up the books will get. The best advice I got on this topic was to take my son to the library and read him a few books while we were there. That's how I found out he liked Boynton, and then I found a bunch more of hers at my local bookstore! Good luck!
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