One of my friends is having a baby very soon. I want to get her a book for the baby, but I want it to be weird. Not offensive, but strange when compared to other baby books. Still useful and good, but maybe the theme or the characters are weird. Do any of you remember the show Crashbox?
Does this exist? Do you know of one? If I have to hunt for something old and obscure that's fine.
I don't know anything about babies or what they need or want.
by putridtooth
20 Comments
It’s not a baby book as such, but there’s The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.
It’s not a board book (so not the best fit here), but “Pretty Ugly” is by far the absolute *weirdest* picture book I’ve ever read (seriously, check it out!).
Not exactly what you ask for, but i always recommend
‘Go the f to sleep’ by Adam Mansbach
animalia by graeme base? Definitely unlike any other baby books ive seen. maybe one red dot by david carter but I think thats too fiddly for a newborn
My favorite board books are by Sandra Boynton. Check out *But Not the Hippopotamus*.
Quantum Physics for Babies. There are other titles in the series, Artificial Intelligence, etc.
They are board books, suitable for reading to a baby. My grandson has these. Obviously it’s a joke, but my family is big on reading aloud to children, and it doesn’t really matter what you read to an infant.
You can find classics like The Odyssey and Romeo and Juliet and Little Women re-written for babies in board books. I have a Baby’s First Hamlet, it’s hilarious. It’s written in the style of See Spot Run, I don’t remember exactly how it goes, but like “See Hamlet. Hamlet sad. Hamlet’s dad dead”, “Hamlet knives Polonius. Now Polonius dead”
*P is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever* by Raj Haldar, Chris Carpenter and Maria Tina Beddia.
Not weird but different.[https://www.amazon.com/Bye-Binary-Eric-Geron/dp/0063215144](https://www.amazon.com/Bye-Binary-Eric-Geron/dp/0063215144)
[A is for Alien](https://www.target.com/p/a-is-for-alien-an-abc-book-20th-century-studios-little-golden-book-by-charles-gould-hardcover/-/A-90520833#lnk=sametab)
[https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/there-are-moms-way-worse-than-you-irrefutable-proof-that-you-are-indeed-a-fantastic-parent_glenn-boozan/28975702/](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/there-are-moms-way-worse-than-you-irrefutable-proof-that-you-are-indeed-a-fantastic-parent_glenn-boozan/28975702/)
Quantum Physics for Babies
Seriously https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Physics-Babies-Baby-University-ebook/dp/B08BJ7NM24/
Any of the hat books by Jon klassen . – in particular “I want my hat back”
K is for Knifeball
The Very Hungry Cthulhupillar
All fun to read to babies.
*Millions of Cats* by Wanda Gág
I’m a huge fan of the Hazy Dell Press, which are a series of mostly board books based around criptids. Goodnight Krampus is a fave of my nieces for the holidays. Another one they enjoy is Get Dressed Sasquatch, which is adorable.
They’re really cute, well illustrated, an indie book company, and the board books hold up really well.
I mean… it’s a beloved one but I always found the one where the mum climbs into her son’s bedroom window to rock him as an adult kind of strange
I like how you think and I loved reading weirder books to my kids as babies!
A Bad Case of Stripes
Strega Nona
I Want My Hat Back
The Adventures of Beekle
The Giant Jam Sandwich
*Love You Forever* by Robert Munch is, simultaneously, a book that will make me ugly cry so hard I can’t get through reading it aloud, but also completely unhinged. A book in which (spoiler alert!) a mother drives across town in the middle of the night with a ladder and creeps through the bedroom window of her fully-grown son in order to rock him on her lap while he’s sleeping. Boundaries, people!
*Confessions of Max Tivoli* starts off with a baby in the guise of an old man who ages backward. Wonderful read.