How my children’s book collection grew, and what are my top picks

Besides diapers in a variety of sizes, bringing your favorite children’s book to a baby shower is such a brilliant idea. It all started for me with a baby shower for my oldest–who is eight today and reading on his own. Because we were expecting him, my children’s books collection began to grow! And I’m going to enjoy sharing our beloved ones with you and why we love them.

The Shower

Way back in 2017, some sweet, sweet friends opened up their home to us to stay in and host a whole baby shower party. When we came to town (we had moved away a few months beforehand) the house was all decorated, stocked, and simply magical.

At the time, since I honestly never dreamed that I would actually have a child, let alone get married, I never had vision boards for these events–but I knew I liked Peter Rabbit, and my friend ran with it.

Thus began our children’s book collection.

Full Shelves = Full Hearts

In my kids’ room, there are four square shelves full of books. And I’m going to share just one small stack of them with you today. These are the most loved ones, the ones that I was “required” to read every night. And they are so precious to me. Sniff. Sniff. I began reading the majority with my oldest, but as the others came along, we’ve branched out a bit and have fallen into other sweet rhythms.

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site is precious. And yes, be warned, it will put you to sleep, too–especially if you dramatize every yawn and sigh in the storyline. I always yawn with this one. I learned from a education student, at the time, that this book was intentionally written to calm a child and whatnot. Genius.

The kids’ aunt gave that to my oldest when he was about 2 or 3 with a bulldozer toy. So fun. I love the illustrations and how each truck has its own personality.

This one is a classic. Not only have we read this nightly, but we’ve even gotten to enjoy different versions of this one, such as the Christmas and Valentine’s editions and the one about a traffic jam.

In my copy of the book, the inside back cover suggests a website to get info on throwing a Little Blue Truck-themed party. I just love that idea. I’m just not creative in that way at all to pull it off, alas.

I LOVE this one. First, because the stories are incredible. I’d read it cover to cover and even really enjoy the ones that make my tongue go into “slips and back flips.” And second, this book was given to my oldest at nine months old from the hospital where he was admitted for a few days. I read the book all the way through as I sat next to his monstrous crib. He and I bonded deeply during our stay. While I am so glad that time is behind us, I am thankful for the sweet time we shared. And this book is our “souvenir,” if you will.

To be honest, I am not sure I recall who gave us this book. But I have it memorized in my heart. Caeden loved it, and even Evvy. I don’t think I have brought it into our rotation with Greyson–so maybe I should remedy that tonight.

The lines are so easy to read and memorize—even the kiddos pretend to recite them.

Oh my goodness… the first time I read this was in our first house here, the one we had built. My son had the sweetest little room. He had a spot for the crib, a comfy chair, toys, and room to play with them, and I experimented with how to display his books. We used to have a tiny bench of sorts that held our whole collection. And it worked!

But I was in that very room, I believe Daddy was there, too, when I started reading this book for the first time. Until my throat closed up with emotion. It got me real good in the feels. While I closed it quickly and reshelved it then, I’ve read it many times since, and it still hits.

This one is just so brightly colored and wholesome. All three of my kids have enjoyed the clear pictures and especially love the alligator brushing all this teeth.

Okay, this one is from my childhood, if you can believe it. It was my favorite. When I was a kid, I’d spend hours staring at the pictures, and I even remember tracing them or trying to sight-draw them. Many times I was lost in those pages, and I was thrilled to find it packed away and hand it over to my very own kids.

Remember the shower I mentioned in the beginning? This was one of the treasures from that very day. A sweet lady from our church, she’s a mother to two grown boys, gave this book, with a note saying it was a favorite of theirs. The pictures are bold and if I was any younger I’d be tracing and whatnot those pictures, too. The back cover suggests a couple others in the collection but I have yet to hunt them down at the local library.

This was one of the ones Daddy picked up on a Sam’s grocery run, and it was such a hit. I love how much my kids love books. There’s a couple favorite ones in there, like the one where they unexpectedly brought home a puppy, the road trip one, and more. Classics.

Oh my stars. This one is precious. A sweet friend who taught kindergarten for a while brought this for my oldest–or my second? I can’t remember that so well now. But as you can see, it has been loved. A couple pages have torn–but I taped them back together! Because I am not getting rid of this book! The illustrations are stellar and the poetry so sweet. It’s a keeper all right.

All right, this one gets long since you’re practically reading the whole story twice–first when he is disagreeable and then again when he realizes he does like it simply because he tried it. But it’s still so fun. I remember reading to my oldest and skipping to the positive half–mainly because I had a whole stack to get through before I fell asleep myself!

My daughter was so precious with this book! For a while she was so into watching the Netflix show, Green Eggs and Ham (I recommend!). Whenever it was on, she would sit there on the couch or the floor with her snackie and water, and there the book would be placed gently beside her, facing the tv. So adorable.

One my sweetest friends gave me this book in a big gift bag full of thoughtful momentos. I still read this book practically every night, and the kids refer to it as “Eaters.” I love this book so much, it’s not even funny how much I do! It’s so relatable and I feel so seen as the poem and the images reflect a sweet little mother gradually growing unhinged with the addition of each. But she loves them dearly. The story is done so well and ends so beautifully. Her devotion to them came back to bless her in the end. This one gets five stars although I wasn’t rating any of the other ones.

This is my all-time favorite version of The Night Before Christmas. The illustrations are top-tier and the poem itself is just music to my ears. For some reason it gets me emotional at one spot but I can’t quite recall which. (Maybe I need to add it to the stack tonight!)

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Guys, these are my top kid-lit recommendations for now! Which of these books do you also love? What else would you add to the list??

Believe you me, there are so many more books to share with you about–so stay tuned for part two!

Oh, and in case you were wondering why I called it “The Kids’ Night Library”? It’s because we do all our reading at night before bed. It’s our favorite.

Thanks for reading along!