Inscribing Children’s Book Gifts
Inscribing books with words from the heart is like icing a cupcake. It’s making something that is already sweet (a gift) even more so.
An inscription in a children’s book adds that personal touch and promotes it from ‘book shelf’ to ‘keepsake’ status. Never to be thrown out or passed on when the child has long outgrown it.
The best baby gift
The first gift that was given to me when I had PudStar was a book – ‘Puffling‘.
It was given to me by the wonderfully talented Trish Buckley. I cried immediately on opening and reading the inscription. Okay I had just had a baby, hadn’t slept for about three days and the baby wouldn’t stop crying, but I still tear up every time I read her inscription. ‘Puffling’ is a gorgeous book to give as a ‘Welcome to the World’ present and is on my list of the best books to give to babies.
My most recent book for baby purchase was ‘Imagine You’re a Pirate’, along with a pirate hat from here, for a baby who was born on ‘International Talk Like A Pirate Day’- September19th. Yes there is such a thing as talk like a pirate day and I only knew this because the new dad seemed uber excited to claim this as an auspicious date! Pirate books for newborns!
Inscribing books with love
I have many books from my own childhood, and the ones I have kept are the ones which are inscribed to me personally. It’s so lovely to see the dates and remember who gave them to us. Inscribing books dates them, but in a good way.
I have all my old ‘Miffy’ books and each has name written by mum, with the year they were purchased (librarian much?). Mum still writes in all the books she gives to her five granddaughters, except now she has gone upmarket with a sticker which has space for the child’s name, and says ‘a book gift from Nonna and Papa’.
You’ve no idea how much I love seeing these inscriptions from … hmmmm … SOME TIME AGO.
Honest to goodness, Trish writes THE best inscriptions doesn’t she? Look at this one:
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Bloody hell miss, I am a weeping mess. I miss writing stuff to/for you. You’re kind of a muse for me. Remember all those ridiculous poems I wrote?
I must love you or something.
This is an awesome looking & very useful website. Well done you….
Tx
I love inscribing books for birthdays and graduations and ‘baby’s first library’ baby shower gifts. I’ve never read ‘Puffling’ but I will be checking that one out for my littlest, for sure! Thank you for sharing!
Glad to meet a fellow book inscriber!!
[…] Inscribing Children’s Book Gifts – Children’s Books … – Inscribing Children’s Book Gifts. … It was given to me by the wonderfully talented Trish Buckley. I cried immediately on opening and reading the inscription…. […]
This site is very inspirational. Thank you. I love to write and have written a small paperback book for children telling the happenings of Christmas, ‘The First Christmas Eve,’ based on the book of Luke. People who buy it want me to inscribe it and often I’m at a loss for words, but not today. I’m inscribing for a baby and I now know just what I’ll write. No need to copy anything word for word, I’ll just use the inspiration I got from your site. Thanks again.
Just found this wonderful post below the raising readers cover page article, I’m about to purchase a few ‘Raising Readers’ for some special new parents in my world and am excited and inspired to compose the inscriptions inside your superb book. Hope there’s some space amongst the stripes!
Best wishes for your publication success Megan
xxxx
I love giving books as presents – especially baby presents (i’m known for it) I still have almost all of my books from childhood except for a few my cousins ended up with – one of which one of their kids had the other day and i read to them – it was exciting to show them my name inside the cover and try to explain to a 4 year old that this was my book when i was your age.
Couldn’t agree more!
Yes, it is great to see names and dates. I was remiss not to write them to my son. My sister in law did and he was excited to see it in a book he read to his kids that had their name and date when he received it.
I like that you said that inscribing books is a great way to add some personal touches to your gifts. I have some books that are inscribed to me, and I truly treasure those, like you. My niece is turning seven soon, and I plan on buying her some chidlren’s books. Perhaps I should inscribe all of them too. Thanks for the idea!