Moo, Baa, La La La: Baby gifts that don't get old

Title: Moo, Baa, La La La!
Author: Sandra Boynton
Illustrator: Sandra Boynton
Age Range: Baby - 2

My fourth year of teaching high school, a wonderful woman colleague in our English department got pregnant.  It was the first departmental pregnancy, as most of us were young, hip, and single, and not even married as of yet, but she was.  It was exciting to watch her body change and it made me wonder at the time, what it would be like when it was my turn.  In any event, the other 10 of us decided it would be fun to have a baby shower for her, and I agreed to host it at my house.

As a department, we decided that we wanted to start the baby out with a lovely library of books, so each of us was to bring one or two books for a child that we loved as our gift.  At the end of the shower it would mean that she would go home with a big bag of books to put on the new baby's shelf.  When I saw my friend and colleague take home a huge stack of books with a big smile on her face, I knew that I would always give books as baby presents, because I thought the idea so lovely and so wonderful.

And that is what I do.  Ask any of my friends.  They usually get a box of books delivered to them right after the birth of their child and on their child's birthday.  For a baby's birth present, I usually give between seven to ten titles, mostly board books, of things that I know the little munchkin would love. (Even if it is loving to chew on it.) This is one of the books that always makes it into my little box of books for a newborn.

This book invites you, the parent, to speak in "mother-ease" which is that sort of soft, high singsongy voice that we always end up doing with babies.  In it you will make sounds like a cow, a sheep and some pigs that sing.  The pictures are adorable, in that inimitable Sandara Boynton style, and the rhymes are fun.  (Incidentally, some studies have shown that early rhyming books for kids are very important, as they help later when kids begin to read.)

A board book, which basically means its a bit more sturdy.


The other one of her books which almost always makes it into a baby's first books gift.