Monday 14 November 2011

A child's first library

I recently had some lovely news that my friend in Birmingham had given birth to a little baby girl. So when it came round to getting them a present I went as usual to the shops to buy some clothes. I'm not sure why but this seems to be my default present for a little one. And then I stopped and thought, actually why not give the baby a selection of books that will be suitable for the first year and beyond? And so this is what I bought:

First up for those developing eyes and to help stimulate the senses I bought the Ladybird First Focus Cot book. Perfect to use in the pram as well. It's really good fun to use this book with a newborn since you can really see them getting excited by it!



Next I bought the Baby Touch Rhyme book - also from Ladybird. This can be used from around three months and with some lovely classic rhymes it's a great one to use with young babies. Nursery rhymes can really help with speech development since the lilting rhythm and the babbling nature of them are perfect for those little ears.



Then I also bought Where's Spot by Eric Hill, I know I've already written about this book but it's just great and should definitely be part of any first library!



And finally Each Peach Pear Plum, possibly my favourite children's book ever. It's the combination of brilliant text, lovely illustrations and the melding together of nursery rhymes and fairy tales in the cleverest way possible, it's practically perfect! But I shall be doing a blog post on it later so I won't go on too much.



So there you go. They're probably not what everyone would send and maybe a little safe and traditional but they are what I decided on. I hope the recipients like them!

1 comment:

  1. Nice selection Ruth. Loved the First Focus Cot book and have a great pic of my oldest aged about 2 weeks staring intently at it. Love Peach, Pear, Plum but Peepo has to be my favourite of the Ahlberg's books. Lovely detail in the illustrations, great for playing a quick game of 'Can you find' and talking about what things were like in the 'olden days'.

    Can I also add The Very Hungry Caterpillar (board book) by Eric Carle to the list?. Days of the week, counting, food and the life cycle of a butterfly all explained in just under 200 words. Genius!

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