Buying Books for A Baby Shower

I buy books for baby showers.  All the time.  The last baby shower I was at, I bought for the parents-to-be, Ten Apples Up On Top and Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?.  I love these books.  I love them because my children love them.  They weren't ones I read as a child, they were gifts.  Seeing my kids love them makes me want to spread the baby bookish love. I've bought loads of different books for showers, The Paperbag Princess, Goodnight Moon, Goodnight, I Love You and so many more. I've even included Go the F*ck To Sleep so that new parents can get a warning about how difficult it can be to put their child to bed.  I want to add, I don't typically buy only books (though I had a friend tell me to only get her books and pick the ones my children liked best).  Usually the books go with toys or something on the registry or a cute onesie.

For an upcoming shower I purchased, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and The Cat In The Hat. They are classics and loved by children everywhere.  I was told by someone, who asked what I had bought for the shower - well I don't think the parents are readers.  They disapproved of my shower gift.  I might have been offended, I definitely got defensive.  My reply was something like, they better become readers. There are so many benefits to reading to your children.  I could angrily list them all here, but if you're reading this, you probably know what many of them are.

What I'm wondering is: would you NOT buy books for a baby shower if you knew the parents weren't big readers?  I guess I think books are classic, can't go wrong, loved by children, gifts....

Doing What You Believe In

This week, the Broke and The Bookish want to know who our Top Ten Rebels In Literature are. They can be characters or authors. So, like my Top Ten Reasons I Love Being A Book Blogger/A Bookish Person post, I’ve split this into two sections. They aren’t five and five like the last one, but I think they’re all great rebels, characters and authors. The list also isn’t as detailed as I normally make it, but hopefully the links answer anyone’s questions as to why I picked these particular people.

Characters:
1. Gale & Katniss from The Hunger Games trilogy (for different reasons).
2. Drizzt from The Legend of Drizzt series.
3. Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice / Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
4. Laila & Mariam from A Thousand Splendid Suns.
5. Elphaba from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
6. Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series.
7. Horton from Horton Hears A Who!

Authors:
8. Salman Rushdie: Bounty on his life.
9. Margaret Atwood: Oh no! A Feminist!
10. The Romantics: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, etc.

Hope you liked the list. Who are your favourite rebels?

Also, I hope I’m having a baby today. I’m more than ready. Ugh.

The Foot Book

The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss is one of my daughter’s new favourites. She sees it on the shelf (or where she last discarded it on the floor) and yells, “Foot, foot”. She begins the book herself, saying “Left foot, left foot” and waits [im]patiently for one of us to continue.

I really enjoy The Foot Book as one of the "early" books to read to my toddler. It’s a fun book that teaches, which I think is extremely important for a book at this age. The book reinforces lefts and rights. It also refers to different animals and positions. I think The Foot Book is great; it’s a book that toddlers should definitely have read to them.