Your favourite book for a baby…

[Thefaceofboe]

My friend is having a surprise baby shower and we have been asked to bring a book with a message inside instead of a card

What book did you love for your baby? I’m thinking of ‘Guess how much I love you’ but wanna see what other people suggest

I'm not a fan of the Ahlberg books at all. I find them twee.

Finding the right book for a person's taste is a tricky job, especially when they'll be stuck reading it for a good few years!!

Nick Butterworth - lovely books - Percy the Park Keeper series and One Snowy Night.

Each peach pear plum or peepo are both gorgeous.
Owl babies
Meg and Mog
Mog the forgetful cat
the tiger that came to tea
we’re going on a bear hunt

A selection from Martin Waddell. Glorious, funny, poignant classics with lovely pictures that are less well known now and which you can keep reading until they are at least 5-probably older.

I second Sandra Boynton. Great books for toddlers, they are written with a great sense of humour and have wonderful illustrations that makes them fun to read aloud.

https://amzn.eu/d/eMMjhKk

The Bear Family and The Large Family books by Jill Murphy are also good fun.
My kids loved the Preston Pig books by Colin McNaughton (particularly 'Suddenly' which was read and reread till it fell apart) and my son was obsessed with 'The Bear Under The Stairs' by Helen Cooper and would join in the 'wham, bam, thump' motif.

Julia Donaldson The Singing Mermaid. Not a Christmas book but a great read.

Goodnight Moon or any of the Usborne sound books (night sounds, jungle sounds etc) they are really lovely.

I second this! Lovely book and I love the illustrations too.

Ten little fingers and Ten little toes
Wow said the owl
I love you to the moon and back
Were all big hits

Goodnight Moon was recommended as a good book to read to a baby when establishing a sleep routine.

The ‘That’s not my…’ series is good for first books.

So many fabulous picture books for slightly older kids/toddlers. Love Giraffes can’t dance.

If I was getting a book that they could keep until older I’d get The Magic Faraway tree series.

Ten minutes to bed series is a big hit in our house. I think the original one which is ten minutes to bed little dinosaur is the best. They’re a favourite with DC and we don’t mind reading then night after night.

DC also loves tiger who came to tea and Bear hunt but we both find those more annoying (especially we’re going on a bear hunt).

The snail and whale is still my favourite children’s book.

Peepo
Or anything by Shirley Hughes
Wow said the owl

Go the fuck to sleep. It’s hilarious.

Black and White baby books. The contrast is best for their eyes and the Mum will remember the first books forever.

Day Monkey, Night Monkey for toddlers

The Going To Bed Book, Sandra Boynton.

I’m so tempted by this

The Night Before Christmas is my favourite Christmas book

The Baby's Catalogue.

A little bit dated but in a really charming way. Still a bedtime choice for my 5 year old at times. She likes talking about the different families and looking to see who's related to who and which pets belong to which family etc. As a baby it was a lovely book to look at together without too much talking, a lovely calm time book!

As a parent it helped me to realise that so many aspects of parenthood are universal.

birthday letters to my baby - it’s a journal to fill in - lovely gift. Also Oi Dog and Oi Frog! And the Usbourne Bedtime Baby Book - it plays classical music really soothing unlike most musical books which are a racket!

Also Oliver Jeffers 'Here we are - notes for living on planet earth'. It's like a letter to a new baby all about the world - it's lovely.

The Way Home for Wolf by Rachel Bright

It's a beautiful wintery book about a little wolf getting lost and being helped to find his family.

Spot the dog

Once there were giants is a great book: https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/martin-waddell/once-there-were-giants/9780744578362#NGR9780744578362

For a Christmas one, I love Lucy and Tom’s Christmas. But it’s more for an infant school aged child.

Another vote for once there were giants, I can barely read it without crying it's lovely!