One of my favorite gift ideas for a new baby is a stack of board books I liked reading to my own kids: it’s a sentimental gift but also a practical one. I was looking at candidates for that very sort of gift, and I kept running into…unusual board books. Many of them seemed like they’d make great amusing gift ideas for the right recipients—but I’d need to go see them in a book store so I could make sure they were as good as their covers.

Baby Mix Me a Drink (photo from Amazon.com). I hadn’t realized until I went in search of a photo/link that the author Lisa Brown is married to Lemony Snicket. We bought a couple of these books a few years ago so I SHOULD know what I think of them, but all I remember is that we thought the titles and the whole concept were funnier than the actual books, but that the actual books were also funny and appealing. They make nice shower gifts, or a book to mix in with some that are more for the baby.

Star Trek Book of Opposites (photo from Amazon.com). This seems like it would be a good Father’s Day gift for a new dad. (Or of course for a mother who’s a Star Trek fan, but Mother’s Day has passed.)

Orla Kiely Colors (photo from Amazon.com). (There’s also Orla Kiely Numbers, so those two books together might make a nice gift set.) This is one that might be a genuinely good board book in addition to something that would please the parent. I wish there were some reviews of it, or a “look inside this book” feature.

Jane Eyre (photo from Amazon.com). This one has the “look inside” feature, so I can see it’s a counting book (”One governess,” “Three candles” with a quote from the book about letting candles burn at night). Kids wouldn’t get the book references, but I’d think parents would enjoy them. There are a others in this series, and more being released soon—wouldn’t that be a fun set for an English teacher, or for someone who loves classic books? It seems like it would also be neat to give the board book version and the regular version as a set to the family, like “for now” and “for later.”

Urban Babies Wear Black (photo from Amazon.com). This one also has the “look inside” feature, so I see that urban babies wear black, do yoga, and visit galleries. There are many baby varieties to choose from, including Eco Babies, Foodie Babies, Country Babies, and Rocker Babies.

Barack Obama 101 (photo from Amazon.com). I would love if there was a whole series of these, one for each president: they’d make a fun keepsake. I would like to have one for each child, about the president who was in office when they were born—and one for myself, with the president who was in office the year I was born!

123 San Francisco (photo from Amazon.com). I wish this series did not refer to itself as “cool” counting books. It seems like the first rule of being cool is not labeling oneself as cool. I still like them, though: I like the illustrations, and I wish they had them for even more cities/states.

Subscribe to blog via RSS