Hellobee

Gymboree recently released an Eric Carle line of clothes and PJs that Drake went bananas for.  He loved all the animals and went with me to the store to pick out the ones he liked best. Truth be told, I’m not a huge Eric Carle fan and so Drake wasn’t familiar with the books — he just loved the animals. Since we don’t have a lot of Eric Carle books, I thought it might be cute to get Drake & Juliet a PJ set each as well as an accompanying book as a Christmas gift. I chose the classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar book and pajamas for Juliet and Papa Please Get the Moon for Me book  and pajamas for Drake.

This got me thinking about other items that I could add to a classic book to give as gifts. Here are some ideas I have come up with:

If You Give a Dog a Donut –  Drake loves the If You Give A… series by Laura Numeroff; we usually read one daily. I was particularly drawn to the If You Give a Dog a Donut one because I thought it might be really fun to make donuts with Drake. Donuts seems to be the new cupcakes these days and there are so many amazing ways to customize them and try different flavors and varieties. I found this cute donut maker which might make a great addition to this cute book. To go the more affordable route, you could also just get a donut pan.

The Day the Crayons Quit – I love this book. It’s adorable and hilarious and each page is a delight.  I pre-ordered this book — the second I saw the title, I was sold. And what would go better with a book all about crayons and how tough they work in coloring than a jumbo box of crayons with every color under the sun! This might be my go to pre-school gift now since I love sharing this book so much!

Octonauts – I was a fan of the Octonauts illustrators Meomi even before the Octonauts came out. When I saw that they were creating a children’s book series, I was so excited and bought their first book even before Drake was in the picture. Since his arrival I have steadily added to his collection, and only recently has he really started to take a shine to them. As the series has gotten more popular they developed not only a show on Disney Jr. but also a wide range of playsets and toys. How wonderful would it be to be able to read the story and then act it out with your own little Octonaut crew.

Extra Yarn – This is a truly heartwarming story about how a little girl brings cheer to the people around her with her little gifts of yarn. We have checked this one out at the library a few times as I love the message. I crochet a lot so Drake always wants to play with my yarn after reading this book. Maybe next time Ill get him his own little yarn kit to play with, and in the future he might even want to learn to crochet like me or knit like his aunt.

Mix It Up – I haven’t read this one yet, but we are a fan of Tullet’s other book Press Here. Knowing Tullet’s style, I am sure this book is filled with imagination and fun in a way that all kids love. The title makes me think of paints, and not just regular paints but finger painting. I recently found these adorable fingerprinting kits that might go perfectly with the theme of this book.

The Curious Garden – There are actually quite a few fun and interesting books about gardening for kids, but I really enjoy The Curious Garden. The story is endearing and the location is actually real, The High Line in NYC, which is a real garden growing on an old railway. If you live locally you can always read the book and go to experience it in real life, but if that’s not possible a gardening kit might be a perfect accompaniment to this or any of the other books I mentioned.

Stone Soup – A classic story, I even remember doing a play about it in 4th grade.  The message is timeless — everyone pitches in and everyone benefits from the results. I recently discovered a board game of the same name. It’s a cooperative game, meaning you play together to win rather than against each other, which I think ties in very nicely with the moral of Stone Soup.

Maps – I discovered this book through Hellobee and I am really interested in it. Drake is just at the age where he is starting to be aware of different locations and places (mostly because he has learned animals live in different areas), and I think this book would be perfect to help grow that interest about our world. There are so many great add ons to this one including the activity book by the same author, a map, a globe, a puzzle of the world, or even a subscription to Little Passports where they teach you a little about a new place every month.

Take Away the A – I haven’t read this one but I’m keen to try it. From the description it seems to be based on the idea that you can take away letters of a word to create other words. Drake is all about spelling these days so I think this idea would appeal a lot to him, as he already knows that by changing letters you can get different words. I think a fun game about spelling might go great with this book.

Baby Bear – This is a story about a little bear in search of his mother. The illustrations drew me in and the story is sweet and one that Drake can relate to well. After we read it I was immediately reminded of Disney’s Bears movie which I saw and loved. Drake is just getting to the age where he can sit through a movie and I think that he might enjoy a nature movie featuring his favorite animals. Get a cute stuffed teddy bear and you have the perfect evening planned from book, to movie, to snuggles.

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Can you think of any popular book + add-on combinations that you’d love to gift or receive?