Im pregnant and want to read to my baby. He obviously doesn’t understand but I still want to start reading to him nightly. But I want to read something I can enjoy and be into, but that is also appropriate lol I’d appreciate any recommendations. Preferences are something positive, happy, loving, peaceful, or funny. But honestly open to suggestions 🙂 just want a good read.
by yarnz0
16 Comments
For this precise reason I bought a big book of classical folkloric stories from my country. A beautifully illustrated book with not very known short stories that could interest me and make good “background noise” for the little one. Ended up hating all the chauvinistic materialistic stories. I have learned to cope with reading the same few good books that we both like 50x times now. Hope you’re better than me at this haha.
The Moomins!
Mostly happy, always loving, very peaceful, often funny!
I re-read all of them a while ago – just for myself, without any child present – and found them very enjoyable. Many of the stories, especially the later books, have a fun, cute layer for small kids and a deeper layer for adults. In fact, the first publishers were unsure how to market them and asked Tove Jansson to clarify her target audience (which she never did).
“The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster
Lots of wordplay and puns. A positive message at the end.
One of my standards for picture books is that I have to be able to enjoy them too. This usually means they have to have one or both of two characteristics. The first is that it has to be funny, creative, entertaining and/or moving in an idiosyncratic, odd, or even transgressive way. The second is it was a book my parents read to me, so it brings back nostalgic memories. So the following is a list that fits one or both of the above:
The Big Orange Splot and Tooth-Gnasher Superflash by Daniel Pinkwater
Burt Dow, Deep-Water Man by Robert McCloskey
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
The Wonky Donkey
Any of the old Little Golden Books.
Sandra Boynton
Ladybird books
Rosemary Wells critter books
Margaret Mahey
Goodnight Moon
Anything Roald Dahl. Then keep the books so you can read them again when the baby is 6+ and will love them again!
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles 🙂
Read anything.
My son is 4 and I’ve been reading to him since I was pregnant. He doesn’t care about the content, he just likes to hear my voice, even at 4. We also listen to audiobooks while we do other things. He plays and I do dishes with an audiobook on. (Obviously I don’t read or listen to things that have sexy business or really bad language. But other than that, anything.)
The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. It’s an interactive picture book with a very cute story, and as your kid gets old enough, they will likely enjoy the interactive elements of it in addition to the story.
“Loopy Lu of Laversham Lane.” By Roo Berry, involves mystery and the adventures of a dog owner and his talking dogs but has some subtle adult humour for the parents to keep engaged.
Also quite funny for both kids and adults
Good fantasy romance with no spice is K.M Shea Magiford Supernatural City. 5 trilogies that all connect with each other.
Juvenile read Royal Guide to Monster Slaying by Kelley Armstrong. Very enjoyable listen that is kid appropriate. I needed something that my kids could hear without being boring. 4 books in the series. All about mythical creatures, adventure, and friendship.
I really enjoyed reading Nancy Tillman books. Specifically: “Wherever you go my love will find you”, “On the night you were born” and “it’s time to sleep my love”
I started reading them to my belly when I was pregnant and read them for years to my littles. My oldest is 10 and I still quote the books when talking to my littles ❤️
I love books that rhyme.
Patrick Picklebottom and the Penny Book by Mr. Jay
Pig the Pug books by Aaron Blabey
Sir Pancake and Lady French Toast by Josh Funke
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
(Also Bear Can’t Wait)
There are lots of good suggestions here. I read Jane Austin novels out loud while I was pregnant (because that’s what I enjoyed reading at the time) and my kids were newborns. I started reading them baby specific board books once they were around 3-4 months old.
My new mission is to recommend **Nevermoor** by Jessica Townsend to as many people as possible.
After reading about a hundred comments saying it was the same vibe as HP, I finally read the first one… And oh my god, it’s amazing! First book to really give me that same magical feeling since HP came out when I was a kid.