Build a library, build a reader - Anne Rooney

Peck, Peck, Peck — a favourite in Berlin

  I have a grandchild in Berlin who will be one year old next month. When he was born, I struggled to think of a new-baby present that would have more enduring value than the usual (but essential) baby items. And suddenly it became obvious: books. I will buy him a book a month until — well, until he doesn't want them. Or until 18. The books will grow with him, so his first books are baby books, but they will change as he changes.

It took a while to settle on this plan, so he got six books the first time. If I see him in a month, I give him a book directly. If I'm not in Berlin, or he's not here, I buy the book from Curious Fox, an English language bookshop in Berlin and they deliver it to him. (I did try buying the books here and posting them, but the postage cost more than the books and they took forever to arrive. And I don't use Amazon.) I am buying him books in English, though not necessarily English books. This month's book is by a Brazilian writer and was first published in Portuguese (see Penny Dolan's post yesterday on Guilherme Karsten's Are You a Monster?) Instructions from his kita are to use English at home and German at kita/school to build a bilingual child. 

He's not obliged to keep the books. He/his parents can pass them on to younger children if he outgrows them, though it will be nice if he does keep them. I might have a stamp made up so that they can stamp each incoming book.

These are some of the books from his first twelve months. They include some favourites from my daughter's childhood that she specifically asked for, I'm not being unimaginative!

Clive Penguin, Huw Lewis Jones and Ben Sanders, Little Tiger, 2024

A Boy Wants a Dinosaur, Hiawyn Oram and Satoshi Kitamura,  Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1990

Where's Mr Puffin? Ingela P Arrhenius, Nosy Crow, 2022

Peepo! Janet and Allan Ahlberg, Puffin, 1997

Funnybones,  Janet and Allan Ahlberg, Puffin, 1999

Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise,  Sean Taylor and Jean Jullien, 2016

Shh! We Have a Plan, Chris Haughton, Walker Books, 2016

Peck, Peck, Peck, Lucy Cousins, Walker Books, 2013

Are You A Monster?  Guilherme Karsten, Quarto, 2023

Next month's book will be How Long Is That Dog by John Bond, HarperCollins, 2025.