The Gift of Books

Looking for "book" related gifts to give for new babies or for toddler birthdays - and here are two "new" ideas.
First of all - Jennifer Black Reinhardt's Always by My Side is a great book to share the love of a stuffie.  In this book it is a polka-dot dino but it could be any favorite stuffie that goes with a cuddly blanket.  Try these giraffe blankets and this plush giraffe.  And you have a stuffie package to go with Always by My Side.

Find the giraffe blanket and such at  https://www.etsy.com/listing/714199664/blankets-books-purple-giraffe-blanket.  And the book Always by My Side at your local bookstore.

Reinhardt, Jennifer Black. Always By My Side. Random House Books for Young Readers, 2021. ISBN: 9780593173824.  The second package is for all lover of nature.  Package Elizabeth Rusch's and Will Hillenbrand's newest title, Zee Grows a Tree with a sapling (or perhaps a plant) to grow side-by-side the new baby or from a baby's first (or subsequent) birthday.

Rusch, Elizabeth and Hillenbrand, Will.  Zee Grows a Tree. Penguin/Random House, 2021.

View the book trailer at https://spark.adobe.com/page/GcJNFVmdtqWkk/

And perhaps package with a blanket in a favorite tree/floral pattern. 
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Cite this blog:  McElmeel, Sharron. (2021, March 24). The Gift of Books (blog). http://bit.ly/giftofbooks-1

 Visit Greenfroggifts on Etsy 

Connecting - Books with Baby Gifts

Owls and Bears and Elephants

A few weeks ago my friend found out that her nephew and his wife were expecting their first children - twins, a girl and a boy.  Now I don't normally subscribe to the idea of pink for girls and blue for boys but the mother-to-be was going to decorate the joint nursery using an owl decor and I found just the right fabric.
On the back side of the pink and grey fabric I used a pink rosette minkie and on the backside of the blue and grey fabric I used a grey velour smooth minkie.  Both were soft and cuddly.  I lightly quilted each of the blankets and bound each with a variegated binding of either pink or blue.

I made two cloth bibs to coordinate with the pink blanket and two more to coordinate with the blue blanket.  I appliqued larger owls on each of the flannel bibs.  Since I thought burp cloths would not be child specific I created four burp cloths that used pink, blue, and grey fabrics with an applique of owls that mimicked the owls appliqued on the bibs.

The final piece for this package was to identify books that would contribute to the overall theme.  I did not want to chose stuffed owls or books about owls - that would be too obvious.  So I selected two books each by Philip C. Stead (author) and Erin E. Stead (illustrator).  The first book was A Sick Day for Amos McGee which was award the Caldecott Award in 2011.  In that book a small owl appears as one of the animals that follows the zookeeper home, and later follows the zookeeper's wife back to the zoo.  The second book is Bear Has a Story to Tell.  While an owl does not appear here the fall tree certainly seems to be a perfect home for an owl to spend its days or nights.  Erin E. Stead actually uses an owl as her logo on her website.

Stead, Philip C. (2012) Bear Has a Story to Tell.  Illustrated by Erin E. Stead. Roaring Brook Press.
Stead, Philip C. (2010) A Sick Day for Amos McGee.  Illustrated by Erin E. Stead. Roaring Brook Press.

With the Amos McGee book I added a stuffed elephant with a blue ribbon around it's neck; and the stuff bear received a pink ribbon around it's neck.

Arranged in a wicker basket the gift basket was ready to give.  The last item to be inserted was the Read Aloud brochure that is the standard insertion for all gifts created and given to young families.


The goal of the brochure -  http://mcbookwords.com/resources is to encourage parents to read to their children – regardless of age (Read Aloud brochure) and to encourage young parents to make their house a “book house.”