Favorite things to read and bite
Plus: my favorite book that no one else has
I know I’m not the only adult that likes children’s books. Children’s books are allowed to cover random topics like bees, socks, and why things are wet. They get to take completely illogical narrative turns. And they have pictures.
I love re-reading Where the Wild Things Are, any of the Frances books, When We Were Very Young, and Jane, The Fox, and Me.
But baby books are a little different. I knew a baby wasn’t going to enter the world ready to sit through Where the Wild Things Are, but I don’t think I really knew.
So the last year has been a journey in finding out what makes a book appealing to someone who wants to eat dog food, what books are my favorites to read to someone like that, and what kinds of books we both enjoy. Here’s what I’ve learned:
Growing up, it seemed like my mom only liked books with round awards on the covers, so it’s a little embarrassing that two of these have them. But I can’t help it if they give awards to the real good ones!
Boaz introduced me to Little Fur Family, which I didn’t read growing up. The first sentence raises about five questions, and the book answers none of them. I’m obsessed.
“There was a little fur family, warm as toast, smaller than most, in little fur coats, and they lived in a warm wooden tree.”
It takes the strangest turns and the little fur people have the most lovely haunted faces. Boaz was doing more reading about it the other day and according to Wikipedia the furst first edition was wrapped in real rabbit fur.
I Am A Bunny feels like the birthplace of these memes:
I wish I had a teeny copy of this book, that I could keep in my bag and flip through instead of looking at my phone. We all need a pocket-sized book of rabbits standing under mushrooms.
I also love All The World, but the baby will only sit through it if he’s already fallen asleep. And for some reason sometimes I cry while reading it. Maybe our copy has cat hair in it.
The next bit is just for paid subscribers, for regular subscribers I’ll be back with a new comic next week. Now onto the baby’s favorites, the books we both love, and then each of our very top picks, including one book no one else has: