Several of Amazon's Best Books of 2008: Editors' Top 10 Picture Books are on sale at great discounts.

Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea (on sale for $11, 32% off the regular price) is sure to keep the interest of babies and small children with its bright mixed media like illustrations. This book follows Dinosaur as he takes on the ever unpopular bedtime. It's a treat to watch self-assured Dinosaur try to overcome the time to sleep!

Charley Harper ABC's, by renowned modern artist Charlie Harper, is another great book for babies and is currently 32% off for about $10. This book features the wildlife prints for which Harper is famous alongside letters of the alphabet. Parents as well as children are sure to enjoy this book.

These books (along with many others on sale at Amazon) are eligible for Free Super Saver Shipping. Just purchase $25 worth of eligible items and standard shipping is of no cost to you. Be sure to check them out! - Jenn

There are plenty of baby-friendly books out there, from popular board books to playful fabric books, but how many do you know are eco-friendly as well? I just discovered a “green” series of books aptly named Little Green Books, and their Little Panda and Little Monkey cloth books are perfect for little ones.

The series is designed to help educate children on how to be more eco-friendly. Made from recycled materials, the stories teach everything from improving the environment to learning about endangered animals.

Little Panda and Little Monkey were designed for infants. Both books feature the two friends and their days spent eating their favorite foods and playing together. The super soft recycled Polartec fleece and cotton make for an extra cuddly book, perfect for keeping in your baby’s crib (so Mom can have a few more minutes of quite time too). Like all baby-friendly cloth books, these are machine-washable, and like a true eco-friendly cloth book, they comes packaged in a chipboard box made from 100% recycled material.

It’s never too early to teach your little one about the environment and Little Green Books are a great way to do so. You can find Little Panda and Little Monkey on Amazon.com for $10. - Emily H.

We are big fans of interactive fabric books. Not only do they encourage creativity but they also hold up well when used as a teether and can withstand the "love" of an 14-month-old. Sometimes a non-cheesy, engaging fabric book is hard to find, and that's when you should look to HABA.

HABA's new Animal Friends fabric book is sure to become a family favorite. The illustrations are bright and cheerful and this book even has a storyline, something you don't always get when it comes to fabric books. In Animal Friends, the mouse becomes a cat and the monkey becomes enormous, and all the animals “squeal with delight.” While reading the story, your little one will have fun playing with effect foil, a flap with a magnifying glass, color window, rotating disk, and rustling foil. Animal Friends is made of cotton/polyester, hand washable (a plus if it's used while teething) and available from Amazon.com for $24. - Emily H.

A few weeks ago I talked about what a blessing Putamayo Kids' Dreamland had been to us. Recently, Putamayo released a compilation of Sesame Street classics entitled Sesame Street Playground. We finally got a chance to play around with this CD and it is just a ton of fun! This CD features several favorite Sesame Street songs in different languages (such as Rubber Ducky in Chinese) as well as boasting songs from each host country's version of Sesame Street, new to the American audience. It is different and lively, a great addition to any children's CD collection. It is currently $14 at Amazon, 12% off the original price.

I have also been enjoying Mo Willems award winning children's book, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! This book, as you may have guessed, is about a pigeon who tries with all of his might (and every trick in the book) to coerce the readers into letting him drive bus while the bus driver is gone. He reasons, and pleads, and eventually has an outright temper tantrum, all in hopes of driving the bus. Its incredibly funny and will definitely hit home with parents of toddlers. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! is 32% off for $10 at Amazon.

If you're looking for a classic children's book, the Brown Bear & Friends Board Book Gift Set is also on sale at Amazon for $16, 32% off the regular price. This set features the favorites, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?; Polar Bear, Polar Bear,What Do You Hear?; and Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? Children of a wide age range will enjoy these books, and parents (many of whom also grew up with them!) will enjoy sharing them as well.

This post is also your chance for an extra entry in our Philips Avent bab monitor giveaway! Comment here with a kids' book or CD that has been a recent favorite in your house for an additional chance to win! - Jenn

Adding a new baby to a family is a big step for everyone, parents and children alike, and getting big brothers and sisters ready for all the changes ahead is an important part of the process. When I was researching how to get B and E ready for the arrival of their baby brother, everyone I spoke with had positive experiences reading books with their children. There are many books that explain different aspects of adding a new baby to the family, from mommy and baby being at the hospital to the fun of being a big brother or sister. Here is a quick run-down of some of the books I've enjoyed, as well as one commonly recommended by other parents.


What Baby Needs by William Sears, Martha Sears, and Christie Watts Kelly

This book is one of my favorites on the subject of new babies. The focus of What Baby Needs is on helping big siblings make friends with the new baby, and it addresses all the things that big siblings can do that babies can't. The book is especially good for nursing families because it includes a picture of the baby nursing and talks about mommy providing milk. The foreword at the beginning of the book addresses how to personalize the book to your own family, and it is fairly easy to use the sidebar topics to make the book more on the level of elementary-aged children, too.


I’m a Big Brother and I’m a Big Sister, both by Joanna Cole

Written at a toddler level, these books talk about the fun of being a big brother or sister. They also stress the fact that mom and dad will always love the big brother or sister.


Mommy’s in the Hospital Having a Baby by Maxine B. Rosenberg

This is the only book I found to really address mom and baby being in the hospital for the baby’s birth. I personally think this book is most valuable for the photographs of mom and baby in the hospital, including pictures of a mom nursing and a baby with its blackened umbilical cord stub (which both of my boys immediately asked about). It is a bit outdated in that it talks about the baby spending a significant amount of time in the nursery, which isn’t the case in most hospitals today. But it does address many other hospital issues like the special bed mom gets to sleep in, the baby bassinets that roll up and down the halls, calling mommy (or having mommy call you) when she is in the hospital, and what it will be like to visit mommy. This definitely wouldn’t be my only baby-preparation book, but it has been great to give my fellas a glimpse into what will happen when I am in the hospital with the new baby.

Have you found books that have been especially helpful in preparing for the new baby? Share them here! - Sara I.