Need Indestructible Books for Babies? Check out this list! And here’s a good essay on how to let go of your child destroying books. I’m still working on it. They started with a few classics — Alice in Wonderland, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and Romeo and Juliet — and Publishers Weekly reported that in their 10th anniversary year in 2021, they have 95 titles and have sold over 2 million copies in North America. I think a good fourth of that is in my home right now. In addition to the classic literature, they also have biographical books about naturalists and poets, books about places, distribute Spanish-language books from Lil Libros and more. Ariana Stein and Patty Rodriguez founded Lil Libros because they wanted to “introduce bilingualism and Latin American culture through picture board books.” So when I started finding BabyLit Classic books, I was naturally intrigued. But what really sold me on the franchise was Frankenstein, the simple text by Jennifer Adams, and Art by Alison Oliver. Instead of the book trying to summarize the plot of Frankenstein in a few pages, it has a tongue in cheek component. It’s a book to teach children about parts of the body using Frankenstein’s Monster. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes: Hounds of the Baskervilles teaches different sounds of doors creaking, lightning crashing, and more. Adams explained the idea to PW: “[I]t’s important to note that these books are not retellings. A retelling of Anna Karenina for a 3-year-old would be ridiculous! [In a shrewd paring-down, BabyLit’s tie-in to Tolstoy’s 1877 masterpiece is Anna Karenina: A Fashion Primer.] The series features primers that teach age-appropriate concepts for babies, but use the characters, settings, and storylines of classic novels to do so. When the books are working at their best, they are functioning on two levels — for the child and also for the adult.” I think finding baby books of any sort that work on both levels is important. My child learns important words and is exposed to classic literature at a very basic level…and I get to enjoy reading the story. I love seeing how the authors have reimagined each classic book. Some introduce various characters from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven. The bilingual books of Lil Libros not only help build my child’s Spanish vocabulary (I hope!) but are also a good refresher for me. I don’t get to speak Spanish often (and I need to do a better job reading) but these books help to enhance my vocabulary like the word for paintbrush like “el pincel.” Plus I love the books featuring different cities in Latin America like Havana and Bogota. While travel overseas is not an option, these books are a little fun window into these cities. So that’s my little love letter to BabyLit. Ultimately, it’s been a great way to try to encourage talking and love of books in my daughter. Hopefully she’ll like it too.
