Reading to the littlest one: Recommendations from Grandma's book club

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

By Marlene Parrish, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Cover of kids' classic "The Velveteen Rabbit"

We are 10 ladies of a certain age who have been meeting for eight years in a book club that covers selections from all over the literary landscape: Jane Austen, David McCullough, Vladimir Nabokov, J.K. Rowling, M.F.K. Fisher, Pablo Neruda and Michael Chabon.

Before dinner (always delicious), and discussion (always spirited), we catch up on travel, news and family, and all but one of us pass around photos of grandchildren.

Last fall, the holdout announced that her first grandchild was due in May. We were as excited for her as if she had just pledged our sorority.

Then someone suggested we hold a "book shower." Each of us would buy a children's book or two, talk about it, then give the book to the grandmother-to-be to keep in her home library.

I wanted something special, not just the top pick from some Googled e-list of Best Books for Babies. What to choose?

This was clearly a question for my friend, the Queen of Libraries, Gloriana St. Clair, dean of University Libraries of Carnegie Mellon University. She loved the challenge and did what librarians do best -- research, including asking colleagues for recommendations.

"My own childhood was filled with 25-cent Golden Books, which children's librarians abjure as being insufficiently artistic," she wrote in an e-mail. "We also had a big Child Craft set, and I knew those stories quite well. I have a little stack of the former at home, as well as my deteriorating copy of "Eight Cousins" by Louisa May Alcott."

Her colleague also made recommendations. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle -- still in print, after many years -- is a classic. There are the old standbys such as "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown, or a nice collection of nursery tales or nursery rhymes (Rosemary Wells has done one where the characters are animals). "The Baby Goes Beep" by Pittsburgh's Rebecca O'Connell is a favorite with the 2-year-old set. Grandchildren love "The Big Red Barn," also by Margaret Wise Brown. And every list must include anything by Richard Scary.

One of the best ideas came from yet another librarian who bought books for her grandchildren and kept copies for herself so that she could read them to the little ones over the telephone. Her choices were "The Gunnywolf," a story based on an old tale and re-told and illustrated by A. Delaney. An earlier version is "The Gunniwolf," by Wilhelmina Harper.

Baby Ella was born on May 31. One day she will listen to the stories from her grandmother's book club bonanza:

"Where the Wild Things Are," by Maurice Sendak

"Make Way for Ducklings," by Robert McCloskey

"Larky Mavis," by Brock Cole

"The Little Fox," by Ram Papish

"Strega Nonna," by Tomie dePaola

"You're Only Old Once. A Book for Obsolete Children," Dr. Seuss collection

"Absolutely Not," by Matthew McElligott

"Verdi," by Janell Cannon

"Edith and Mr. Bear," by Dare Wright

"The Little Engine That Could," by Watty Piper

"A Series of Unfortunate Events," by Lemony Snicket