A Care Package for New Babies

published in The Durham Herald Sun 6/02

When you need a present for a new baby, consider books to begin a family library. This year there are lots of good choices. Here is a list of some basic baby book needs and some recommendations.

• A record-keeping book. The most important book babies ever own is the journal parents write for them. Baby Grows Up with Peter Rabbit : A Record of Baby's First Year (Warne, $9.99) has pages for recording pictures and mementos. Beatrix Potter animals cavort through the pages which chart developmental changes and provide questions to stimulate writing. The space provided is neither overwhelming, nor limiting.

Parents kept busy with a baby might prefer jotting notes on Baby's First Year (HarperFestival, $9.95), a twelve month calendar. Illustrated with Clement Hurd's classic pictures from Margaret Wise Brown's, Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny, each month has prompts to inspire a quick scribble and there are fifty-six full-color Hurd stickers to note important events.

• Babies need the comfort of nursery rhymes and their parents learn to appreciate how rhymes can change moods. Jane Dyer, an artist well-known for her warm illustrations, selects and illustrates poems for three rhyming board books in A Box of Animal Crackers (Little Brown, $12.95; ages 0-4). There are familiar poems in Nursery Rhymes, soft, dreamy slow- down verses in Bedtime , and bouncy, playful rhymes in Animal Friends .

Looking for a classic style? Try Scholastic's padded collection of familiar rhymes in My First Real Mother Goose Bedtime Book ($7.99; ages 0-4)

• Babies need to hold books. Babies' good taste in books may begin as they chew on them. This requires books that are not expensive and will survive baby experimentation. Innovative Kids expands their Soft Shape series with rhyming stories like The Lily-Pad Race. These indestructible foam books with pop-out pieces have longevity. At the beginning they're great for gnawing and floating. Toddler will appreciate both the simple story and puzzles. ($9.99; ages 0-3).

Melanie Walsh's illustrations have the simple figures and uncomplicated backgrounds that babies appreciate. Now she's paired board books like Farm Animals (Candlewick Press, $4.99) with teethers to satisfy mouth and temperament at the same time.

• Songs are a great way to soothe and shift moods. Three previously released song books are wisely translated into board book format and come boxed with a tape in Sing-Along Songs (Little Brown, $14.95; ages 0-5). The three childhood favorites,Miss Mary Mack, The Lady with the Alligator Purse, and Skip to My Lou, are songs that babies can grow into and families can sing together. All are well-sung by Tracie Higgins and come packed to travel.

• Books to grow on. I'm always looking for stories that will get parents through difficult bumps of child-rearing. One of the most testy periods is potty-training. Playful, silly books are the way to go. Innovative Kids has a developmentally-appropriate matching book called Piggy and Bear in Their Underwear ($9.99; ages 2-4). The silly verses and underwear puzzle parts are perfect stress relievers.

It's hard to find sibling books for very young children. Jean Ashbe writes her second, And After That (Kane/Miller, $9,95; ages 2-4) Three "chapters" are presented with a jolly sense of humor and flaps for children to open. In her first chapter she lists three situations where "you know what comes next" like "After daytime/ It's night time". The second chapter shows "sometimes there's a surprise", like "After building a tower, / it falls down. Crash!). The third chapter builds on the first two to discuss sibling issues. The pictures and words offer continual reassurance.