Baby Rankin Book Club®

One of my fondest memories of childhood was being read to at bedtime, and it’s one of the things I most look forward to doing as the parent of a very young child. We hope that our daughter learns to love reading as much as we did as kids, and as much as we do now. So as we get closer to receiving our referral, it’s time to start putting together a library!

What Were Your Favorite Books?

Many of you parents have children who were young not so long ago. Your kids have their favorites, and you had your favorites, too (those would be the books that still charm after the 25th reading…) We’d love your help. Please add the titles of your own children’s favorite books—and yours—to our list by adding a comment to this posting. We’ll “publish” the list periodically, and also give updates of our own.


Building a Multi-Cultural Library

Aside from the normal range of great kid’s books, we are looking for books with a multi-cultural bent. Dave and I had already had an interest in foreign language kid’s books as a result of our trips and educational experiences overseas (as you’ll see from the selection below). Now that we are building a diverse family, we’re even more interested in books that tell stories from other cultures and in different languages.

Das tierische Worterbuch (loosely, ‘The Animal’s Dictionary’) is a fun example (see the picture of the talking sheep, above). Dave found this wonderful book on his recent business trip to Zurich. The book shows the sounds that a sheep, a duck, a frog, a horse, etc., makes in 40 different languages, including Russian, Arabic, Irish, Welsh, Swedish and of course, Chinese!

The picture above roughly translates as follows: 'It's reasonable to think that the many peoples around the earth speak many different languages. But how is it with the animals? Just look at the three sheep here. Do you think that the Norwegian sheep understands what the other two are saying in Chinese and Afrikaans? I don't quite know. Maybe the sheep understand exactly, and maybe only us people need to learn foreign languages'

Here are some other recent editions from the Westman-Rankin juvenile collection:

The Hungry Caterpillar: we were first introduced to this book in Malaga, Spain, while browsing at an open air book market. Although we really prefer the Spanish version (it’s more poetic), we decided to buy the board book in English. After our daughter chews through the English version, we’ll consider picking up the big format picture book in Spanish.

El Gato (the Cat): Also from Malaga, a picture book about cats—who wouldn’t love a book like this? For instance, did you know that “el gato es un pescador” (the cat is a fisherman)?

Carl Goes Shopping, features our favorite baby-sitting rottweiler named after one of our favorite people.

The Polar Express

El Mundo Magico de Gaudi, a fabulous book in Spanish about a girl in Barcelona who spends her summer vacation with a friendly dragon, discovering the whimsical, magical, fantastic world of Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi.

A selection of Dr Seuss, including One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; I am NOT Going to Get Up Today (also good for teenagers); Dr. Seuss's ABC; and, Oh Say Can You Say?

Thanks for helping us build the library. Click the "comments" link below, and leave us your suggestions!

(“Baby Rankin Book Club” is a registered trademark of Westman-Rankin productions. All rights reserved.)