The Library

A baby's first library, considered.

There are gifts a family puts away in a drawer and gifts that go on a shelf the day they arrive. The Library is for the shelf. Five pieces, four books to read aloud and one to write in. The board books for the early years when the baby holds the book before she can read it. The Phaidon titles for the years after that, when she sits on a parent's lap and points at the pages. And the Sugar Paper Baby Book, for the parent's own hand: the document of the year, kept linen-bound on the shelf alongside everything else.

What's inside

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, board book edition. The first read-aloud, kept on the bedside through every nap and every bedtime for the first three years.

The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin, picture book, hardcover. Imagining who a child will become, kind, brave, curious.

Phaidon My Art Book of Happiness, board book curated from museum collections worldwide. The first art book, sized for small hands.

Phaidon Squares & Other Shapes, board book by Josef Albers. The first design book, color and form, no narrative, no need.

Sugar Paper Baby Book in Chambray, linen-bound, written in by hand. The kept book that lives on the shelf alongside the others.

Why we built it

The Library is the Edit we built for the gifter who would rather give books than almost anything else. Five pieces chosen as a starting library, board books for the chewing years, picture books for the lap years, the Sugar Paper Baby Book for the parent's own writing.

Sizing and selection

The Goodnight Moon edition is the board book, sized for early hands rather than the original picture-book format. The two Phaidon titles are the board book editions, My Art Book of Happiness and Squares & Other Shapes. The Sugar Paper Baby Book is the chambray cover, the same edition Sugar Paper sells on its own. The Wonderful Things You Will Be is the hardcover picture book.