Teddy Bear’s Fun to Learn First 1000 Words is book that is great for all little ones. My 4 year old enjoys it just as much as my 1 year old. Granted, you won’t find las vegas hotels in here. However, there is pretty much everything else. Each page in the book has a theme (like the beach). It lists the theme and a ton of items to go with it (for example, the beach pages show things like sunscreen, water wings, sailboat, beachball, etc). There is also a picture in the center of the page with all the miscellaneous items.  There is also a short poem asking you questions about the theme.  Will (my one year old) just likes to look at everything and go “ohhhh”.  Madison (my 4 year old) enjoys looking at the pictures and telling us what each thing is.  She likes to answer the questions for us too.  My only complaint is that the pages are paper which are a little to easy for Will to rip.

This book is great because your little ones can use it as they grow older.  I would definitely purchase it a birthday, baby shower, and/or Christmas gift.  The little ones who you are getting for will get a lot of use out of it!

Winnie The Pooh’s Sleepytime Hum is another great book for little ones.  It has awesome illustrations and is about Winnie the Pooh going to bed (which we want all our little ones to do).  This makes a great bedtime story.  The book is made from cardboard, so it is very durable.  It is short, so it keeps the attention of even the shortest attention spans.  It also tells you about why Pooh wants to go to sleep at night (he might even want to buy the moon) which hopefully will entice your little one to go to sleep. (If it doesn’t work for that, well it was worth the try, right?)  The whole book is a short little poem.  Each page has a picture and a couple lines of the poem.  Though my favorite has to be the last page:

Winnie is sleeping,
so you close your eyes, too!
Catch up with your dreams -
Pooh’s waiting for you!

Don’t let the really long title of Pooh’s Early-To-Bed and Early-to-Rise Hum scare you away.  This short little book is a cute poem about Winnie the Pooh.  It is made of cardboard, so your little ones really can’t wreck it.  You get to see how Pooh spends his day (though I hope he doesn’t get Plantar Fasciitis from all the walking he does!). It is short, so even little attention span children will enjoy it (and easily memorize it). Each page has a picture and part of the rhyming poem. This is definitely a cute little book for the little ones in your life.

This book by Cecil Alexander takes the popular saying we all know:  “All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful . . .” and illustrates it.  Besides the first couple of lines, I did not realize there was more to the poem (or whatever you want to call it).  However, the illustrations in All Things Bright and Beautiful are really nice.  When I read this book to my kids, it reminds me to enjoy life and quit worrying if my business should change hosting companies or use authorize.net. The pictures in here allow your children to really make up their own stories beyond the words on the page, and what more could you want from a book?

Devils Advocate is one my favorite all time movies. This movie is about the choices we make and how they can effect every aspect of our lives. It is amazing how something as simple as buying cabinet knobs can change the outcome of someone’s life, but it is true. Devils Advocate has an all star cast with Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves, and Charlize Theron. The story is about Keanu Reeves and the choices he has to make in his life. We are able to see that every choice has a consequence — some consequence worse than others. It is a great “what if” story. Without giving too much away, Al Pacino play Satan aka lawyer John Milton. I love the hat tip to the English poet who authored Paradise Lost (the poem detailed Satan’s fall from heaven as well as Adam & Eve’s fall from the Garden of Eden). This is rated R and definitely should not be watched with little ones around. However, once you get them to bed, enjoy!

I Love to Laugh: A Book of Fun and Giggles a great book for both toddlers and babies. The favorite part of this book for my kids is the button that giggles when you press it. Each page is about what makes kids laugh and happy. It isn’t anything exciting for us parents (like finding Barnes and Noble coupons). Instead, there are things like playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. If you don’t remember these childhood poems, they also list them besides the story. The pages are cardboard, so little ones can’t damage the book. This book is worth it just for the giggles!

A Light in the Attic is one of those books from my childhood that my kids had to have. I actually bought the book before I even had kids — that’s how much I love this book. Shel Silverstein is one of those authors that is able to speak to both kids and adults alike. His poems are cute and definitely make a picture in your mind. I remember being a little kid at school and having the teacher read this to us. I am hoping my daughter and son are able to have such great memories of this book too. The 20th anniversary edition (which is the one I own) actually has a CD included with Shel Silverstein reading his own work. One the poems that still makes me laugh is “Prayer of The Selfish Child”:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
and if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my toys to break.
So none of the other kids can use ‘em . . .
Amen.

I was giggling as I was typing that. I guess what I really love about Shel Silverstein is that he is able to get into the hearts and minds of children and tell us what they really are thinking.