Building Library for Baby

bntfroggie

Okay second time moms, what are must have books for baby's library?

jenniferamcooper

Ohh we have a legit children's library already, my in laws are retired elementary teachers so we massed a lot of books when they retired.

My 2 year old's favourite books varied by age.

The ones he's always loved are:
Eric Caryle - brown bear, brown bear. Polar bear, polar bear and the hungry hungry caterpillar.
Sandra Boyton - all of them. Snuggle puppy is his fav.
Robert Munch - all of them, we have most of his collection but his fav is Mortimer and Thomas' snowsuit. Which we had to buy in board books.

His current favourite book is The cranky bear, we read it multiple times a day.

When he was little he loved any books that had finger puppets built in like bunnies, bears, lions. And now he loves any pop up books. We need to buy board ones because he rips regular ones.

Edited to add: we're big readers and we read all the time to our little guy when he was 0-4 months (and even older) but we read our regular chapter books. Or my husband read physics journal articles (he's a PhD student) we weren't trying to go for a super baby just that reading is important, especially if it's animated and we got tired of reading baby books over and over again and wanted to kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

smount2011

I have a massive library.  In my 7 years as a preschool teacher I've spent probably about $400 on Scholastic books.  When I left I took all the books with me. 

Out of my collection, I LOVE Pete the Cat!  https://www.petethecatbooks.com/  When you order the books they either come with a cd of the book reading or you can download a copy on the website.  The stories are cute with very neat morals learned at the end.  I have about every book, and I even have the stuffed toy that I used as a traveling friend- I would send a backpack with Pete and one of his stories home each evening with a student, and their job was to read the story with a parent/family member and Pete, then complete their own story page, and bring him back the next day.  When they were done I compiled all their story pages into a class book.  I always did "I Love my White Shoes", and the kids would tell me what Pete stepped in and what color it turned his shoes . 

Oh, and ETA:  Since Pete sings songs in his books a lot of the books are repetitive sing-a-long, with very catchy tunes

cmerribury

Bear Snores On
King Jack and the Dragon
Sandra Boynton (all)
How Does a Dinosaur... (series, all are awesome)
Three Ninja Pigs
The Napping House
Black Dog
Peter Rabbit (full collection)
The Goodnight Train
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site
Rex Wrecks It
The Monster's Monster

I'll think of more and share. DS has about 200 books...we LOVE to read!

skruhmin

All of the Llama Llama Red Pajama books, Dr Seuss, Sandra Boynton books, Little People flap books (for toddlers and up of course)

jenniferamcooper

Best thread ever! I've been wish listing a lot of these books.

irenewslee

With DD, I first started with more touch and feel books, "Lamaze Peek-A-Boo Forest Soft Book", first 100 words (with big pictures).  And then slowly we started getting flappy books like "Where's baby's belly button?" and "Dear Zoo", and other board books like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".  We also have Dr Suess, Little People Flap Book, Peter Rabbit, Guess How Much I Love You, etc.  

You can definitely do some research on Amazon and read the reviews (that's typically how I pick my books).

Once DD got past the stage of putting everything in her mouth (she still does on occasion), we also started going to the library to get books there. 

JLaVO888

Ah all great suggestions from PPs.

Here are some of my favs:

Goodnight Moon
Caps for Sale
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie


There is also one book from my childhood that I LOVE and made sure to get but will not be a good pick until she is older. It is called The Gift of the Tree by Alvin Tresselt (not to be confused with The Giving Tree). It is my favorite children's book and has the most beautiful illustrations.

Lastly, a book I had never heard of but my mom bought for DH called Daddy Hugs. Supper cute.

tJaffe

FTM but 1st grade teacher.... Any books with rhyming and especially nursery rhymes are SUPER great for LOs literacy! It's very important to read to them from day one. They're soaking it all up even if you don't realize it. Their little brains grow the most from 0-5 so do all you can to help them!

soxfan9968

Two of my favs are the The Pout Pout Fish and The Rainbow fish.

Knottie59802221

Great thread! FTM but planning on reading just my regular books until the baby is old enough to understand. I'm still building the baby library, but I stop in at Goodwill and other thrift stores and pick up whatever they have. Also, for Christmas, I went to Put Me in the Story and ordered a personalized book from my husband to our daughter, so they can read it together. He was so happy, he cried (although he said not to tell anyone, so shhhh).

JessKo08

Baby might not care a lot but "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstien is enough to make any hormonal momma cry.

Sconesy..Cider

We're separated from a bunch of our books right now, but since we live with my ILs, we've inherited the cousins' book stash. DS is 2, but for about a year, he's loved these Step into Reading Disney Pixar readers from Random House. The sentences are short, some vocabulary is introduced, and the pictures go along with whatever I'm reading so he can point and follow along. The best part is they weren't like a follow-up since he read the stories and got introduced to the characters before seeing any of the movies.

His favorite books we have that are meant for his age range: "Goodnight Moon," "Are You My Mother," and "Biscuit Goes to the Pumpkin Patch." These stay out because he wants to read them over and over.

ecwk

Wooooh love this thread!!! Love all the suggestions!! My parents just bought us the Glenn Doman "teach your baby to read" kit, the same one they used with me when I was little! I can't wait to look at it, it literally just got delivered like 5 minutes ago! Eeep!

bntfroggie

ecwk said:

Wooooh love this thread!!! Love all the suggestions!! My parents just bought us the Glenn Doman "teach your baby to read" kit, the same one they used with me when I was little! I can't wait to look at it, it literally just got delivered like 5 minutes ago! Eeep!

I was Hooked on Phonics ha ha.  I definitely had trouble reading so I want to make sure baby loves to read.

amaniupendo

Love snuffle bunny, press here, and goodnight construction site. Anything illustrated that you can ask questions about and/or is good. The conversations you can have are constructive. Like pointing things out and counting is just as important as reading the text.

There are so many books I loathe like goodnight moon.

jnhuri

I grew up on the Berenstain Bear books. I know they aren't aimed for the infant audience but I will be reading these to LO from day one! I remember my mom reading these to my sister and I before bed ever since I can remember. Luckily, my mom kept all of our old books and gave them to me to read to my LO.

Sconesy..Cider

amaniupendo said:

There are so many books I loathe like goodnight moon.

I'm not a super fan of goodnight moon either, but it's good at night time for us because I have it memorized and can "read" it while my eyes are closed. It's kind of like Baby's first "I Spy" book.

Stormiewinter

Dh and I are obsessed with books. I am a first grade teacher so we have tons of children's stories. We started reading with Ds from day one and I second what pps said about reading your own things out loud as well as kids stories. The baby doesn't know the difference. Ds gets 3-4 stories a night now and he loves to pick out his books. Try not to worry too much about "age appropriate" pick stories you enjoy and eventually they will too. I like to mix in some more challenging stories for exposure. When Ds was little he wouldn't sit for a whole story but I would continue to read aloud while he walked or played in the room. Some or his favorites are: Otis the tractor, skippy Jon jones (needs a little longer attention span), the monster at the end of this book, give a moose a muffin, and anything touch/feel/lift/flap. We buy the majority of our books at library book sales. Most libraries will hold annual sales and the kids books usually sell for 25 cents - 1$. It is a great way to stock your library without breaking the bank. Also on the last day many have bag sales where you pay 3-5$ and can fill a reusable grocery bag with as much as it will carry. We have gotten so many books this way!!

soxfan9968

Someone gave dh "go the f@&k to sleep." He thinks it's hilarious and can't wait to read it to baby. **face palm**

ceds07

I can't do justice to the unbelievable amount of books we received as presents when DD was born. It was *awesome* just mentioning cause it might be better to wait to buy them for holidays and such after the baby is born to see what happens first. That being said some personal favorites:

Ten Little Ladybugs
Any of the Sandra Boynton books
Karen Katz's "Where is Baby's..." (pumpkin, beach ball, love, etc.)
Brown Bear Brown Bear
Peek A Who
Jellycat "If I Were A... (Lamb, Lion, Cat, Dog, etc.)"

*edited to add I totally screwed up the names... It's Karen Katz - she was one of our favorites!

smushi

We love Sandra Boynton books.  Short rhyming books are great.  Cardboard books tend to survive better.  DS currently really loves Spot the Dog books by Eric Hill.

Karen249

(Love this thread-lurking from Feb 16)

"Ooo snuggle puppy of mine. Everything about you is especially fine." Right on @jenniferamcooper! My daughter loves, loves, loves it! All the books you said (maybe minus the physics one -lol) we use daily.

I would add and highly recommend "That's How Much I Love You" by Julie Rudi and illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke. So cute! Borrowed it from library and then HAD to buy a copy. We literally read it every night before bed. But I can recite it now by memory which I love. Check it out!

lcq5504

We started with the basics: letters/abc's, numbers/counting, simple topics & subjects with everyday words, and DD has absorbed it all!!! I've been an avid reader since childhood and it looks like she's on the same track! She also loves my kindle for reading fisher price learning books with nursery rhymes and small stories. The cool thing about the kindle is that it has more interaction - she taps on the itsy bitsy spider and watches it climb up the water spout as we're reading or singing it.

oceanchild

Pretty much everything already mentioned, plus Nancy Tillman's books -
On The Night You Were Born
Wherever You Are (my love will find you)
The Crown on Your Head
I'd Know You Anywhere My Love
You're Here for a Reason
It's Time to Sleep, My Love (this was our first!)
Tumford the Terrible
Tumford's Rude Noises
Her artwork is *stunning* and the rhyming stories are so very sweet. The last two are fun, with a lesson.
Another fun book we love to read over and over is Huck Runs Amuck; we checked it out from the library once and after we renewed it about 13 times we just bought our own copy. And always get one for whoever has a birthday or something coming up. It's hysterical.
There are so many more. “I'll be back …”

eivaska

Love all these ideas! Thanks ladies. We are asking everyone to bring their favorite children's book to my baby shower instead of cards. I thought that would be a great way to start her library

cmerribury

Oh, Room on the Broom! Such a good one.

FutureMrsCaesar

I'll add Where's Spot and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! Definitely board books for the first 2+ years.

jilloboe

Guess How Much I Love You (see if you can read it while pregnant without tears streaming down your face)
On the Night You Were Born
All Sandra Boynton
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Brown Bear, Brown Bear
The Little Cloud
The Mixed Up Chameleon
10 Little Ladybugs (a fave in our house--first birthday party theme for our second!)
Counting Cockatoos (hasn't been mentioned! I found it at a thrift shop, and we still read it!)
Velveteen Rabbit (find a short version)
The Giving Tree
All Shel Silverstein kids books
All Robert Munsch (more tears with "Love You Forever")
Winnie the Pooh

What a great library you'll have if you have all these suggestions from everyone!!

The nice thing about reading to newborns is you can read your own books, too.

diablesse

Great lists on here.
Would like to add -

The little blue truck
The splendid spotted snake

Those were my son's first favourite books.

oceanchild

For a little older child, I love Will's Quill. It's about a goose lends Shakespeare a feather so he can find in one of his plays. One of my childhood faves.

EmeraldSea

all of Chris haughtons books: oh no George, shh we have a plan and little owl lost. My 2 year old is obsessed and they are fun to read

oceanchild

*finish ^ that should have said (not "find in")

i keep meaning to come back to this and getting sidetracked, but anyone in the US, UK, CA, AU - check out Dolly Parton's Imagination Library! they send a free book to your child every month from birth (or whenever you register) until the 5th birthday! we have done it with each of the babies so far, and have a nice collection of books for them (have had a few duplicates that we donated to local schools/shelters since two of the kids were very close in age). it is a wonderful project to inspire an early love for reading/books, and the kids love getting something in the post!
https://imaginationlibrary.com/

aashbiez

This thread is great!
I'm a book buyer for a toy store (among other duties, but this part is my fave), so I've been having fun ordering books I plan to buy!
Always been among avid reader and hoping I can make baby girl love books, too

Some of the best "collections" we have so far:
Dr Seuss 
Eric Carle
Beatrix Potter 
Shel Silverstein 
Baby Lit (cute books based on classic novels)

I've been getting quite a few books from the thrift stores. I just make sure they aren't all marked up inside. I've gotten some good hardcovers for 60-99 cents that look brand new!

J234

Harry The Dirty Dog
Olivia
Little Blue Truck series

The biggest thing is to find books you enjoy reading over and over again.  I wouldn't stress about having too many books, IF you can get to your library!   

katy0990

Love You Forever is one of my favorites. I also love On the Night You Were Born.

amyid

So glad Pete the cat was mentioned here... I've never heard of it before until I saw it advertised in the window of Barnes and noble as I drove by this week... My husband is called Pete and hates cats so I figured I'd buy these just to see how much he would hate them ! 
My must have books are totally due to me being English/Mexican and now living in the USA, I'd love my children to know some of the stories I grew up reading - I grew up with Peter rabbit and Beatrix potter, the very hungry caterpillar, funny bones and ofcourse the amazing Snowman ( Christmas film that you MUST show your kids) ... I'm really really interested in making sure my library is bilingual though so I'd love to see any Spanish language suggestions here. 
Received, on the night you were born at my shower - it's a favorite amongst many it seems. 
In not sure if it's been mentioned already but if not - those wanting to build a nice library could start that baby book chain that has been popular recently (atleast here in Utah where I live)... You send a book to one child and then the address gets passed onto someone else in the group... The idea is that you end up with 20+ books each for sending one book out... I'd be up for doing that if anyone is interested ! 

katy0990

I love Pete the Cat. You can download the music to go with it free online.