BABY BOOKS I LOVE THEM BABY BOOKS I LOVE THEM

Baby baby baby books.. I looooooove them.

(sung to the unicorns I love them song from Despicable Me) No one will get this reference but this is how my brain works, alas.

We’ve had 3!? New babies in our lives this Spring. All nearing the 2 month ish mark and I feel that means it is officially time to start overwhelming their parents with board books. I joke!! Sort of.

In the world of all the baby crap and the ways people can be supportive postpartum, baby gifts can be more fraught/annoying/clutterful than helpful. Quick tips if you are gifting to postpartum loved ones (from my perspective and my perspective only!)

Food- always helpful. (groceries, bagels & fixings delivered to their house, Spoonful of comfort soup, a takeout place with an order of stuff you’ve had with them before,a gift card to one of the many delivery food service apps...)

Beyond that- I think books, while not helpful in at all the same way especially in the first year, are a solid forever fair game gift that won’t make your minimalist or multi child loved ones fighting clutter feel overwhelmed. And who knows, you just might give them a real memory making treasure of a book. If not, it is easy for them to regift it, pop it in a little free library or enjoy the duplicate because the baby chewed up the first one. Yay for books.

As a general overview: my favorite baby books tend to have:

POC, art I love, solid rhythm/text, are enjoyable for all ages (baby to toddler to adult reading them).

Below are a few of the ones I have been gifting this Winter coming into Spring season.

For your loved ones who refer to their pets as their baby’s siblings (this is not me, I’m sorry I just won’t do it, but we do love our pets and love these books)

Why: brown! Playful! modern/vibrant art. Spot on narrator voice and amount of text per page. Content is growable/applicable/enjoyable for all the ages.

Dog’s First Baby (cover pictured above)

Cat’s First Baby

For our friends who love music - my family gifts board books from each person in our family along a chosen theme. Our most recent favorite music related board books to our friends were the ones below.

Jazz Baby - fun, funky, genuinely jazzy

Woodland Dance - I never tire of this one. A lovely imaginative place to be taken to, great music vocab, great tempo and musical in itself.

Snuggle Puppy- we’ve made a lot of versions of this one in our house musically and it is just a jam, what can I say. Sandra Boynton is a classic for a reason.

For the soon to be 1 year old

Peek-a-Who? It’s simple, it’s fun, it has the right amount of text (read: barely any!) for how fast their little chubby hands turn pages without you being upset that you didn’t get to read the words before they turned the dang page! I’ve tested this one on many a pre/1 ish year olds and it lands. They dig it.

Hands On! -brown, single mama rep, perfect tempo, and just around where this age group is at. I love this one (if I was the editor I’d change the title and then it would be *chefs kiss* perfect).

For someone missing a morning book

There are so many bedtime books (and we LOVE those) but it is nice to snuggle and read a morning themed book sometimes too. Below are our current two faves in the morning.

Llama Llama Wakey Wake - again, tempo! I don’t love the art (just a stylistic preference, do love the scenes depicted), but I think otherwise this book is perfect.

Too Early - POC, sweet dad time, brown fam, a special slice of time, art nails it.

For spring time prepping

Planting a Rainbow - we are about to do this in my house and my little loves the colored pages at the back and I love the specific plant names

Leaves - found this at Goodwill and lost myself in it for the 1 minute read. It’s almost exactly perfect. If I were the editor I would get rid of the very last page and have the second to last page be the end. But it’s lovely all the same.

ABC Insects - I’m the person who takes my child to arthropod exhibits so for me, what a treat. But the pictures are big, it is a bigger than average board book (fun!) and we’ll grow into this one. I love reading about each insect and then going on my own rabbit holes later about them.

For the loved one who wants the book my 1 year old actually currently loves

ABCS Xavier Deneux- she flips fast, she touches the indents, she moves on. We like the Robot page best.

For loved ones pushing gender and its wonkiness

The Pronoun Book - great art, simple, joyful, brown, celebratory-- I honestly love just seeing it out of the corner of my eye- great colors.

For the mama

Mama Loves You So - nothing like a book full of I love you to bring peace to a mamas insides too.

Our next themed board book gift batch to friends with babies, theme: favorite board books about food!

Monster Food

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - they likely have it but it truly is a perfect board book. The flaps, the colors, the simple plot, the butterfly at the end. Bravo.

How We Eat - we’ve featured this one before but its so great.

I’ll never grow out of board books. All recs always welcome.