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I'm a big fan of giving books to babies. Many newborn parents are so focused on the gear that they aren't necessarily thinking about starting a library for their wee-geeks. It's never too early to start reading, but unless you live and breathe children's books, it can be hard figuring out what to get.
Enter Blue Manatee Boxes, "the best books in a box that rocks." Blue Manatee is an online gift service where you can create book-based gift boxes or choose from a number of different preselected sets. The first thing I noticed is that the selection of books is wonderfully curated. It would be hard to go wrong with the choices available, which include most of our family's all-time favorites: Good Night, Gorilla
You add books to your box to the tune of $30 for three books, $55 for six books, or $80 for nine books (shipping is included). It may not be the cheapest way to buy these books, but there are advantages both to the curation of the books and some of the added features. You can add in gear like onesies and toys (including a manatee Squishable), and then personalize the message with custom artwork.
Blue Manatee gave me the opportunity to sample a box. With their encouragement, I chose the "UnpluggedBox" from the Manatee Select section, containing three books by Dr. John Hutton and Illustrated by Andrea Kang. I wasn't familiar with these books, so it was a great choice. Then I chose a cute drawing by Leslie Patricelli, another family fav, to adorn the card and had it sent here to my 22-month-old son.
The box arrived and my six-year-old started sniffing around. We unpacked the board books, which feature absolutely delightful illustrations. The verse in the books isn't perfect, but they're charming nonetheless. We pulled out the card and then looked at the other insert that came with the box, loaded with ideas of what to do with the box. Here's where the "box that rocks" comes into play. Oh, sure, it's just an ordinary box. We've done our fair share of constructing things out of boxes, but my daughter was super motivated to try one of the ideas. She immediately zeroed in on the robot.
The craft suggestion not only uses the box, but suggests ways to use the packing materials as well. Packing peanuts became arms. Little, pretty scraps of paper added decoration. There was even a crayon in the packing materials, a surprise that delighted my daughter.
As she worked away on the robot while my son napped, it made me realize that these Blue Manatee boxes are perfect for babies who have an older sibling. (You can even add in sibling books, a wonderful idea!) Obviously, babies aren't going to make cardboard robots any time soon, but giving the baby's older brother or sister a cool project to do is a gift to everyone. And it helps that Blue Manatee makes the gift-giving process so simple. Time to get that library started!
