5 Books to Buy Your Pregnant Friends in Addition to Goodnight Moon

Baby Faces Peekaboo, by DK Publishing
In this book, babies’ faces are hidden behind very sturdy flaps featuring various toys. It’s gloriously simple in concept and execution, and kids go bananas for it. I think this book has been permanently burned into my brain. Even from a very, very early age, my daughter was into looking at these other kids’ faces. Humans, man. We’re just wired that way.

Color Zoo, by Lois Ehlert
This is a super cool book from a design perspective. Each 3-page bundle lines up to make 3 different bright and bold animal faces from 3 basic shapes. Turn the page, and a circle tiger turns into a square mouse turns into a triangle fox. A pro parenting tip is to make all of the appropriate animal noises until you get to the fox page, then bust into a super loud rendition of “What Does the Fox Say?” until your baby gets mad at you.

I Know a Lot!, by Stephen Krensky and Sarah Gillingham
I Know a Lot!, along with sister volumes I Can Do It Myself! and Now I Am Big! are designed to be empowerment literature for toddlers. They are all about blowing one’s own nose, differentiating day from night on one’s own, and casting away the trappings of babyhood. Despite the slightly-too-old content, my kid locked onto the vintage-looking, primary-colored illustrations right away.

 Baby Touch and Feel: Fluffy Animals, by DK Publishing
This book is basically the Internet in board book form: it is literally just pictures of cute baby animals with soft-touchable fur patches, surrounded by sub-doge-level exclamations. Kitten and duckling: let’s tickle their tummies! Fluffy friends: ahhhh! so cute! Puppy: so cuddly! It’s wonderful.
There’s glitter, guinea pigs, a baby gibbon, owlets perched on sparkling leaves, baby penguins; the whole shebang. The whole baby touch and feel series is excellent, and kids seem to love all the boooks, but this one might as well be called Baby’s First Meme.

  Baby Sees: A First Book of Faces (Sassy), by Dave Aikins
Sassy is a series designed for itty bitty eyeballs. Babies don’t see color for a while, so the illustrations are patterned with eye-catching geometric shapes and other things that render well in black and white. They’re almost text-free and not exactly what I pictured reading to my child before she arrived; I think all book-loving parents imagine that their offspring will love being read to from birth and will be enthralled by the stories their parents remember from childhood. Which I’m sure will someday happen, but even the most gifted 3 month old does not care about Harry Potter.
Instead, kids who can barely keep their heads up love to drool and stare at these simple illustrations. All the Sassy books were hits in my house, and even now that she’s older, my daughter enjoys them. They’re great for teaching first words. A First Book of Faces is particularly exciting because it focuses on Mommy, Daddy, the cat, the dog, and the baby, who is (spoiler alert) depicted via a mesmerizing mirror on the last page.
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