The Baby Who Stayed Awake Forever
Well, this is one book that many of us parents can deeply, profoundly, and intensely relate to, especially those of us with beautiful, cheery, and happy babies with absolutely brutal internal clocks. I love this delightful book, featuring an equally delightful baby, who is relentlessly happy to be alive and who has zero time for sleeping, despite the fact that it was written “using the Notes app at 2 a.m. while huddled in the corner of a nursery.”

Or maybe that’s why it’s so on-target. The phrasing is charming, and includes references to the “Alien” slogan and the baby singing “the song of her people” in the middle of the night. The illustrations are well-done and filled with fun on each page, as the baby’s Gaa-Gaaaaa’s wind, unending, across and around each page of this fun (and funny) book. It will help any child (and parent) laugh at the predicament that lovely, wide-awake babies being into our lives.

A Thousand Years
My children love to page through this beautiful book over and over again. And I can easily see why. How can we describe love that seems less like it is emerging, and more like it is awakening, having always been there? How can we describe “always” in terms we can more easily understand? One way is to describe it as “a thousand years.” This is a moving and beautifully illustrated picture book, presumably based on Perri’s lullaby version of the incredibly popular yet tender love song from the “Twilight” film franchise.

Here, the lyrics become more impressionistic, just as the lovely illustrations within switch scenes from real live scenarios, like visiting a colorful park, to imagined, psychedelic celestial joy that true, eternal love seems to bring to us all. It is a very gentle book, yet seems all the more powerful in its tenderness.

Mommy Love: A Mindfulness Exercise for Mothers and Babies
This a beautifully poetic book, written from the perspective of an introspective mother, about embracing the changes a baby brings into a woman’s life as she transitions into “Mommy.” There is gentle and subtle advice throughout, as the mother leads through her example, as we see her and her little baby learning and appreciating the wonderful new world they both find themselves in. We see the two of them in the various cluttered rooms of her lovely home, at the park, and so forth; the detailed illustrations document the quiet messiness of a newborn’s home, which the new mother is setting aside while she soaks in the changes babies bring.

Thus, while the text is directed from the mother to newborn, the observations found throughout are directed more toward new mothers, than for the children who moms will read this quiet book to. The illustrations will be fun for little ones to point out all the details of a real, lived-in home, full of clutter, and full of love. This book is less clinical — and far more emotive and lovely — than its subtitle may suggest. That said, it is an ideal gift any of us new mothers who aren’t quite sure how to come to terms with the challenges and changes a baby brings.