Al wants to get Roo a nice book for her 1st birthday. We liked the idea of buying a classic every year for her to keep, but she will not sit still for us to ‘read’ so wanted a special age appropriate book.

Does anyone know of anything nice? No particular theme in mind, just a but different that she can keep

Jaz
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Are you Terry Pratchett fans? We got a fab book for Grace’s first called “where’s my cow”. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/038560937X/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1339969323&sr=8-1 . It’s a lovely interplay between a man and his 1 yr old son, incorporating lots of Discworld in-jokes and animal noises!

Angie

in my experience a book that is read won’t last especially one that they become to love.
if you want to keep them so they are special I suggest just a regular story book, buy 2 copies put one away and write something special inside it.
I decided we would buy a big special atlas for ds2 1st it’s a great book

I still got some of my books since I was little. I enjoyed especially Comtesse de Segur’s fairy tales; wonderful illustrations and stories. It had to be rebound for me, so it will last “forever”. It’s my most treasured book. Recently. I repaired another few childhood books, in preparation for reading them to Toby soon. I so much prefer old books; at a younger age, we seemed to have dealt well with books with more words than pictures; and the few pictures there were, were of great quality, so we appreciated it them.

I’m not saying there aren’t nice books nowadays too. I simply love this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Summer-Day-Kim-Lewis/dp/0744560098/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340003391&sr=1-1. It’s simple and depicts nature and people so well. Another favoiurite is Lost and Found (book and film). The Walker Books seem to have quite nice pics, and nice stories too. Happy reading, Bianca

Recently I saw these hardcover A4 sized illustrated children’s classics in Waterstones. Beautiful illustrations by Robert Ingpen, depicting some of the most well-known children’s stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Wendy and The Secret Garden etc. Really lovely, and nicer for younger children than just a text copy. I don’t think the text is simplified, I think it is the original story, just in a larger format. Here is one of them: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-Pan-Wendy-J-M-Barrie/dp/1840112506/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340006622&sr=1-3
At the bottom there you can see The Jungle Book, Treasure Island, The Wizard of Oz and The Wind in the Willows. I personally loved The Secret Garden as a story when I was littler, but judging by these covers, I like Peter Pan a lot!

Depending on how much you want to put in yourself, how about hand writing and illustrating one chapter of a special book each year for them, and then present it on their 18th? I’m doing this for Pixie and Ru of Alice in Wonderland (my ALL-TIME favourite children’s book *EVER*!). We’ve gotten family and friends to contribute chapters and artwork for it too.

jennifer - 17 June 2012 10:54 PM

in my experience a book that is read won’t last especially one that they become to love.
if you want to keep them so they are special I suggest just a regular story book, buy 2 copies put one away and write something special inside it.
I decided we would buy a big special atlas for ds2 1st it’s a great book

This is a brilliant idea! I still feel sad that dd2 ripped a book I’d had 30 years ago last week!

Special book is a great idea, my children have been given sets of books (Beatrix Potter and Winnie The Pooh sets) by their great-grandma, which are lovely to keep but ds’s is totally trashed because he loves it so much! My parents have given them their own little chairs each, other people gave them lovely books. We gave the girls a special teddy on each of their firsts, but dd1 had made a beautiful teddy for ds when he was born so we gave him a Myriad stacking train (which was conveniently offered as the half price toy that month!!) instead.

One thing I wish I’d discovered earlier was the idea of writing a letter to each child on each birthday - I’ve done one for ds for two years but lost the first one :( I think that would be lovely for them to keep.

Claire xx