105 Ways to Give a Book

Twenty-One More Ways to Give a Book

While I’m working on my goal to match 2008 books with a little something extra — and feel free to make suggestions in the comments — I’m reposting my first three lists. Like yesterday’s list, this one focuses on 2006 titles with some older books. It should be noted that all the lists have some combinations that will work for other titles.



  1. Pair Mo Willems’ book Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus with a toy bus and a cargo truck.

  2. Pair The Moon with a flashlight and a promise for a nighttime walk or two.

  3. Pair new-classic Duck and Goose with a bright spotted ball (fans will know why).

  4. Pair MotherReader favorite The Day the Babies Crawled Away with a baby doll.

  5. Pair the funny wordless book Once Upon a Banana and a stuffed monkey — but show your sense of humor by throwing a banana into the gift bag.

  6. Pair silly beginning reader book The Monster in the Backpack with a cute backpack (monster additional).

  7. Pair classic A Bargain For Frances with a tea set.

  8. Pair the offbeat book Pecorino Plays Ball with a bat and ball. You can throw in a coupon book for practice sessions.

  9. Pair Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs with a kazoo.

  10. Combine sweet Jenny and the Cat Club with a red scarf (don’t worry if it’s too long — so is Jenny’s) and a black cat.

  11. Pair Clarice Bean Spells Trouble with a game of Scrabble, and some of your time to teach it.

  12. Pair a drawing book like Draw 50 Airplanes, Aircrafts, and Spaceships or Draw 50 Cats with a couple of nice sketch pads.

  13. Pair Phineas MacGuire... Erupts! with a science kit, or the next book in the series, Phineas MacGuire... Gets Slimed! with the slime science kit.

  14. Pair a spy-themed book like Steal Back the Mona Lisa! (picture book), The Case of the Climbing Cat (beginning reader), Harriet the Spy (chapter book) or The Real Spy's Guide to Becoming a Spy (nonfiction) with rear-view sunglasses and/or a fingerprint kit.

  15. Bigger girls like stuffed animals too. How about Hoot with an owl, The World According to Humphrey with a hamster, or Room With a Zoo with a puppy?

  16. Pair a magic book of your choice with magic tricks.

  17. Pair The Crafty Diva’s D. I. Y. Stylebook: A Grrrl’s Guide to Cool Creations You Can Make, Show Off, and Share with a gift card to a local craft store, and maybe some shopping and crafting time together.

  18. Pair Knitgrrl: Learn to Knit With 15 Fun And Funky Projects and/or Chicks with Sticks: It’s a Purl Thing with yarn, knitting needles, and a promise for some lessons.

  19. Pair Ductigami: The Art of Tape with... well, rolls of duct tape.

  20. Pair King Dork with a CD of The Mr. T Experience.

  21. It’s not really a toy or separate gift, but take a special book, like Wow! It Sure is Good to Be You (which is about an aunt loving her far-away niece) and make a CD recording of you reading it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brilliant. Seriously.

Jennifer Schultz said...

This is lovely.

How about The Two Bobbies paired with a "Pawsitively New Orleans-Come, Stay, Heal" shirt from the Louisiana SPCA, with some Mardi Gras beads and doubloons thrown in for lagniappe.

Or if you want to go all out, order a king cake from one of the local bakeries (some make them year round....if you do a search for "Christmas king cake," you'll find them. Year round king cakes are not traditional, but are popular with New Orleanians living outside the city).

Cuppa Jolie said...

GREAT suggestions!

Kelly Polark said...

What wonderful ideas! I just added to my bulging cart at amazon.com the Monster in my Backpack book for my daughter!

Charlotte said...

And then you can pair The Pigeon Wants a Puppy with a puppy!