Santa’s Little Helper…Gift Guides at The Public Library!

There are lots of great gift guides out there but the best, in my opinion, is the library! How great is it that you can check out a book first to see if you want to buy it for someone! Here are a few suggestions!

Want something interactive for preschoolers and younger? Try these three!

Scholastic’s “Touch and Feel” Winter (ISBN 978-1—3381-6145-8)  is sensory fun for toddlers. It isn’t a story, but rather a padded board book of words (warm fire, reindeer, slippers, etc.) on each page and most pages do have something to feel (foil paper, fake fur, foam marshmallow for the cocoa, etc.).The four children featured are of various ages and two of them appear to be diverse.

Practice making a real taco recipe with flaps, wheels, and tabs in Tacos! An Interactive Recipe Book (ISBN 978-0-7148-7505-7) and if you like it, try both Pizza and Pancakes in the series, too!

Famed author of Press Here, Herve Tullet, has this fun interactive book: Say Zoop!  9781452164731 but he has many others that would make good gifts for friends and family members.

 

Looking for something magical and holiday-themed, but short?

The Little Reindeer (ISBN 978-1-4814-8686-6)’s shades of black and white with a few red accents and cut-outs has a spare charm as a little girl befriends a grateful reindeer.

Pick a Pine Tree (ISBN 978-0-7636-9571-2) is a rhyming story of an ideal day decorating a Christmas tree with friends. Diverse characters and a vintage feel make this one warm and cozy.

And for grade schoolers, look beyond Wonder, A Wrinkle in Time and the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid (The Getaway) for a reissued classic like Henry and Ribsy or try something funny or factual!

For fans of Shel Silverstein, there are previously unpublished but equally silly poems in Runny Babbit Returns (ISBN 978-0-247939-6).

National Geographic’s Just Joking Jumbo (ISBN 978-1-4263-2880-0) is 288 pages and 10 chapters of color photos, jokes, tongue twisters, lists, puns, and conversation bubbles.

How to Be an Elephant (ISBN 978-1-62672-178-4) is a picture book format but the fascinating details are more for second-fourth grade nature enthusiasts. Did you know an elephant’s trunk weighs 300 lbs.? This book has a great message about how intertwined humans and animal species are. What a lovely message for the holidays. May we all think about our connections with one another and hope for peace and happiness.

What are some books you might be giving (or hoping for!) as gifts this year? Post below!

(Images from Amazon.com)

*************************************************************************

Erin Wen is the Materials Selection Librarian (Youth) for Dayton Metro Library. She and her husband have wayyyy too many cats and she likes cemeteries, gardens, soft pretzels, and, oh, books (especially non-fiction!) She spends many hours at ewen@daytonmetrolibrary.org.

Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.

If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com.