Someday: capturing perfectly the love between mother and daughter

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Someday: capturing perfectly the love between mother and daughter

ages 4 years to grownup
Heavens this is a beautiful book! It’s a teary one; a lovely wander through the life of a baby girl told through the eyes of her mother. Truly, I get goosebumps every time I read it—it’s my go-to baby shower or pregnancy present for mothers who are expecting girls .

A young mother holds her newborn and kisses her fingers. And she tells the baby of her mother-wishes for the baby’s life. Things like: 

‘Someday your eyes will be filled with a joy so deep that they shine.’
 

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The Matchbox Diary: a warm and engaging story of keepsakes and family history

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The Matchbox Diary: a warm and engaging story of keepsakes and family history

ages 4 to 10 years
Set in USA—there was a time when matchboxes were ubiquitous, now there are probably children who will need the concept of a matchbox explained or shown to them. But once that’s done, I suspect many children will want to start their own matchbox diary – and adults too.
 

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Jambo Means Hello: a joyous book about Africa and the lives that are lived there

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Jambo Means Hello: a joyous book about Africa and the lives that are lived there

ages 4 to 10 years

Set in Africa. Essentially an alphabet book, Jambo Means Hello assigns a Swahili word to each letter of the English alphabet. And along with the words goes a short paragraph explaining something about culture, traditions and everyday life in Africa.

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Baa Baa Smart Sheep: a hilarious look at a certain bodily function!

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Baa Baa Smart Sheep: a hilarious look at a certain bodily function!

ages 4 years to grownup
This hilarious book comes from a husband and wife team from New Zealand and in NZ they know a thing or two about sheep. The cover has a warning label ‘Contains Mischief’. It sure does! Books about poo are a mainstay of children’s stories—with good reason. 

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The Terrible Wild Grey Hairy Thing: an amusing warning about being too easily alarmed

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The Terrible Wild Grey Hairy Thing: an amusing warning about being too easily alarmed

ages 2 to 8 years
This is a rollicking book—so much fun to read and so much fun to look at. The story is an adapted Danish folktale and the fabulous illustrations reflect that. It’s the story of Goodie, a plump and obviously happy woman, who is making sausages to store up for her family—she makes hundreds of them and has to hang them from every nook and cranny. Inevitably, funny happens!

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Every Man Heart Lay Down: a haunting, lilting and memorable Nativity story

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Every Man Heart Lay Down: a haunting, lilting and memorable Nativity story

This is a truly gorgeous Nativity book. We love it because it tells the nativity in a way that makes new listeners stop and think and ponder to understand. The story is in idioms from Liberia and it’s beautiful to read. It’s so well told that the rhythm of the words is easy to catch and then it just flows.

ages baby to grown-up - and everyone in between. 

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Silent Night, Holy Night: ever wondered how this beautiful carol came to be?

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Silent Night, Holy Night: ever wondered how this beautiful carol came to be?

Truly, this is a lovely book. In a time of poverty and despair, two young men - a priest and a teacher - recognised the gift that comforting words could be and created a carol that would drift and echo through the ages.

ages 4 to 12 years

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