Please help me pick out a birthday gift for my niece (she’ll be one). I would like to buy her some books. Maybe some of you parental dopers out there could recommend a few that are not so popular that her parents would have already bought it for her (I’m not too worried about it - the next book my brother buys will be his first).
Any ideas?
Thank you, and my niece thanks you - well, you know, she’s one. Give her a break.
Pash
Any book that has her name in it will become much loved over the next few years. For immediate use, most any book that has simple picture/word combinations will do.
The first book I bought my niece when she was one or two was “Guess How Much I Love You.” When my (then) wife read it to her, my niece looked up at her, clasped her hands together, smiled, and sighed. Melted my heart!
Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom by John Archambault, Lois Ehlert
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney (This one has hard pages so they can slobber on it with no harm.
Pat the Bunny byEdith Kunhardt Davies (This one is a touchy feely book.)
The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Harold and the Purple Crayon byCrockett Johnson
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Owly by Mike Thaler
If you give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Goodnight Moon
Go, Dog, Go by P. D. Eastman
You can buy a lot of kids’ classics in board book format now, including Goodnight Moon. Anything by Margaret Wise Brown & Eric Carle (Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear, etc.) are good bets. Clifford the Big Red Dog is also timeless.
I’ll second the vote for Eric Carle: my 19-month old son literally devoured The Very Hungry Caterpillar; the replacement copy is heading in that direction in very short order.
Also check out Goodnight, Gorilla (whose author’s name escapes me right now).
The SDopers before me have posted some excellent selections. I’d add to this list any “ABC” or counting books, just to have the child hear the sounds over and over (when read to by an adult over and over). Oh! Another goodie are the Richard Scarry “Busy Town” books! (Don’t let his name scare you away!)
Whatever you buy, board books (books with cardboard-like pages) will last much longer - being of more rugged material. Such books are often just right for her age range, anyhow!
I wanted to also add that books, like “Pat the Bunny”, are often textured so even the youngest of children will enjoy using their fingers to touch different textures while you read to them. Other books use various glittery materials to attract young readers to look at the pictures while you read.
Also of note, pop-up books (which always tear easily) seem to be getting phased out as the more-popular “lift-flap” books phase in…which seem to be better built to go the distance.
When she’s a little older, she may enjoy “Little Critters” books by Mercer Meyers and the series of “Berenstein Bears” books by Stan and Jan Berenstein.
Good luck!
Christian family? Veggie Tales. And they’re hard to destroy.
Thanks everybody for the great suggestions!
Pash
Where is Baby’s Bellybutton?
This was THE favorite of my daughter around age one. We wore it out. There are a lot of lift the flap books which are wonderful at this age.