It’s been a year since Margaret, Jen, and their babies Marian and Tilly started Baby Librarians! And what a year it’s been. We’ve gone from eating books to turning pages without help, from reading to mostly inert babies to having toddlers that will run and pick out a book for themselves. We’ve published a total of 150 book reviews and lists (wow!), starting with Jen and Tilly’s review of The Gruffalo and Margaret and Marian’s review of Lon Po Po. These are still favorites. We’re still working on plans for where we want to take Baby Librarians in the future, but until then, happy first birthday to us!
Below, we’ve collected our favorite posts from our first year.
Margaret’s 5 favorite posts
Baby book club: Little Owl’s Night by Divya Srinivasan
The Baby Book Club series is by far my favorite, and the ones I have the most fun writing. This is our very first Baby Book Club, posted exactly a year ago today. It’s fun to see little Marian and Tilly, and though I no longer remember writing this one, it still sounds exactly like Marian–bossy and very interested in reading.
Baby book club: Home is a Window by Stephanie Parsley Ledyard and Chris Sasaki
This is another favorite from the Baby Book Club series. I like this one especially because both Marian and Tilly write their own little poems to define home.
10 of the Best Feminist Board Books for Babies and Toddlers
I’m a fiend for feminist board books (and picture books), so it was so much fun compiling this list. And Marian continues to enjoy all of these books, especially Feminist Baby
Five great books about wombats
Jen wrote this one. As a Southerner in the United States, I knew three things about wombats: they’re not here, they’re gray, and they look cuddly. So I loved reading Jen’s list about wombats. Are possums the Southern equivalent? I guess. I would be hard-pressed to find five books about possums, though I think they’re cute in their own way. Not as cute as wombats.
Book Series Review: Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
The Llama Llama books are still a have around here, and I suspect they will always be. It’s funny; I wrote this post only five months ago, but Marian looks twice as big now! These kids grow so fast! But she still has the same expression on her face when she reads the Llama Llama books.
Jen’s 5 favourite posts
20 Board Books You Need for Your Baby’s Library
I wrote this post at the start of the year, and I still stand by all the books on this list. If I were to write this list now, there are probably some small changes I would make, I’ve now got an additional nine months of reading-aloud experience under my belt and nine more months of books read, but this is still a pretty fantastic list.
Books on a theme: Crime and mystery
The books on a theme series is fun to write, and it gives us an excuse to write about other books that we’re reading (ones aimed at an audience slightly older than 0–3). I love the books I wrote about in this post — Tana French is my favourite discovery of 2019, I’ve loved Jeffery Deaver’s books for close to a decade, and if I had to pick ONE favourite kids’ book ever, Where is the Green Sheep? would probably be it.
Baby book review: Each Peach Pear Plum
This is one of my favourite books, and since the review was written, it has become one of Tilly’s favourites too. It *is* a book that she demands multiple readings of now.
Baby book review: Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?
I no longer hate this book, mostly because it has stopped being one of the books we read a gazillion times a day. Tilly brought it to me to read the other day and I think it was the first time in at least a month. I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder.
Baby book review: The Chilly Penguin
A lot of my favourite posts are the book reviews. They’re what originally sparked the idea for this website, and writing in Tilly’s voice is a lot of fun. These reviews, where I write in Tilly’s voice and the reviews reflect more of our lives than any kind of literary critique, are my favourite things to write.
Do you have a favorite post from Baby Librarians?