Family Favorite Books + a giveaway

One of the early lessons we learned in reducing baby clutter was to ask for diapers and books, books and diapers, lots of books, and did I mention diapers? Our friends and family delivered! We didn't have to buy diapers until Behr was almost six months old, and we are still discovering new books as we rotate our collection. Among the books, a few stood out early as family favorites. Here are our top five(ish).


Just Because You're Mine This book is the story of a father's love for his son, not because he is fast, brave, or anything he could do on his own, a beautiful reflection of our Father's love for us. The author, Sally Lloyd-Jones also writes our favorite children's bible. This is a wonderful gift.

Little Blue Truck Little Blue Truck teaches his friend the lesson of being kind and helping others. The illustrations are beautiful, and it is fun to read aloud the sound effects. Behr carries this book around the house with him. This book has worked its way into the home of nearly every friend who has had a baby since Behr. (Seriously, I just bough 5 more last week!)

Barnyard Dance! I am not a huge Sandra Boynton fan, but this book is hard to resist. Every time Behr picks it out, he stands next to me and reaches for my hand so he can "spin with the chickens...not cluck, cluck, cluck!" This book gets us dancing and giggling every time.

Little Pea, Little Hoot, Little Oink (a set of three, but I am counting them here as oneish). These cheeky books again teach lessons with a bit of irony, a pea that doesn't eat his veggies, a pig that doesn't like dirt. The whit and humor keep us reading these again and again. Much like Little Blue Truck, we give this book set to everyone. I even embarrassingly emailed a blogger who reference the book and a different gift giver in her vlog...only to realize that we had given her Little Blue Truck instead. My cheeks are still red from that one!

Snuggle Up, Sleepy Ones a sweet and simple book of how the jungle animals say good night. Behr brings us this book often. The illustrations are serene, akin to the colorful skies in the movie Lion King. And while there isn't much that makes this stand out, it has given us a family phrase, "a big hippo hug!" to replace the more common idiom, "bear hug," because that might get a bit tricky some day...



We love these books so much, we keep our house stocked with these for baby shower, birthday, and baptism gifts. We are always ready! And now we want you to be ready too. Win your own Little Blue Truck board book.

to enter:

you must be a follower of this blog via google friend connect

leave a comment sharing your favorite book and why you love it so much

p.s. be sure to leave your email in the comment too!

this could be a the book you read last week, from your childhood, that you read to your own children. etc. note, it doesn't have to be a children's book.

this giveaway closes monday, may 28

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ooh, don't forget, this is the last week to ask me questions anonymously.