Giftable Books for the Youngest Book Lovers

’Tis the season! While you’re making your lists and checking them twice, consider these extra special titles that combine beauty and brains resulting in memorable gifts for your young readers (and pre-readers). These are books to treasure.

Books We Love: “Benny’s Brigade” by Arthur Bradford

It’s not often I describe a children’s picture book as haunting, but there is something hauntingly real about this fantastical tale of a miniature walrus Benny and the sisters who help him get home to the sea. With beautiful illustrations by Lisa Hanawalt, Benny’s Brigade by O. Henry award winning author Arthur Bradford seems just right for the change of the seasons, as the tale begins as sisters Elsie and Theo are walking to school. Benny’s Brigade feels like that last little wisp of summer that appears right before fall begins in earnest.

Books We Love: “Hang Glider & Mud Mask”

Stop the presses! Okay, now turn the book over and start the presses again. The only picture book of its kind, Hang Glider & Mud Mask is uniquely constructed with two front covers, two spines, and a z-shaped binding that links the two sides of the story. It’s a Möbius strip of a book as the story folds over on itself, each story “ending” on the front cover of the other story. In one story, a hang glider works his way down from the sky to the ground; in the other story, a person wearing a mud mask climbs ever higher, and they meet in the “middle.” It works like a film loop. It’s a clever little milestone and a children’s book for grown-ups; or perhaps it’s a grown-up book for kids.

Picture Books We Love: “Little Bird” and “The Night Riders”

Two magnificent new picture books (one in release; the other soon to be released) tell their stories with pictures in a way that can coax the storyteller out of your child. As both books tell their stories almost entirely in visuals, they offer a perfect opportunity to encourage your child to narrate the stories.