Gladys Hunt on Book-Gifting

Editor’s Note: We assume that most Redeemed Reader readers love books, and love to give them. But you may wonder, how can I choose for a particular child? and will this particular gift be appreciated? Gladys Hunt offers thoughts and reassurances.

Give a Book!  and Giving Books (Published on the Tumblon website December 16 and 23, 2008)\

We are nearing the “gifting season” of the year. Remember books make the very best and most lasting presents. Suggest titles to grandparents, aunts and others who will be giving to your children. If you want your child to collect the best library make the effort to give others suggested titles. Store clerks are not librarians, and may recommend some cute titles that capture their own fancy or are part of the push of the book sales people. These may not be the treasures you are looking for.

Probably the worst offenders are books based on Disney movies. The characters are winsome and cute; you’ve seen them in the advertising. The problem is the stories are bland. There is absolutely NO comparison between Disney’s version of Pooh and A.A. Milne’s original stories and Ernest Shepherd’s wonderful drawings. I have a crusade against children reading popularized versions of stories and then assuming that they have read THE book.

Having said that, don’t disdain one or two on your shelf. But as a general rule but set your sights higher in terms of literary value. I’ll write more about this subject another time.

How do you find the best books? Well, that’s why I wrote Honey For a Child’s Heart. (You could put a copy of this book on your own gift list!) At the back of the book [Editor’s note: use the 5th edition] you will find lists of age-appropriate books with a short description of content. Book stores can be intimidating, and so can libraries. All those books and where does one begin to look? My book is one resource, but there are others.

Learn the name of the author of the books you like. If you like one book by Ruth Krauss, look for another. I figure there is only so much time in anyone’s life. You might as well go for the best. I used to worry about good books being published and not in my book! I wanted to know what was in all of them. But I soon realized that if I could help parents become familiar with some of the best, then I had set a standard. Read good books and you will soon recognize the ones that are of lesser quality.

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A friend told me recently about a toy he desperately wanted when he was ten years old. The advertising said he just had to have this toy. It was “Hands Up, Harry” and the toy responded with hands-up when you shot at it. If you happened to hit his belt buckle, his pants fell down. He didn’t get that gift, but his brother did and together they shot at it all Christmas day. By the end of the day the toy had fared badly with broken hinges and unresponsive parts. It got put away in the garage and was never used again. Everyone needs some toys—even grown-ups—but this story puts the gift of books in proper perspective. Years later they will still be around to be read and treasured.

People who know me get used to receiving flat packages and hardly ever have to guess what is inside. I brought such a package to our three-year-old neighbor boy one holiday, and his mother said he could open it early. He excitedly removed the paper, eager to see his gift. When he saw it he cried, “A book? I can’t even read!”

His mother and I have laughed often over this memory. But the story goes on. When he graduated from the university last year, he wrote me a note thanking me for all the books he had received from me, saying he had majored in literature! The “major” doesn’t matter so much; it’s his loving to read that matters.

Think about that when you also buy gifts for other children. Sometimes you have to discount the immediate response and have enough assurance to know that the gift of a book will have increasing value in the days ahead. Better even than “Hands Up, Harry.”

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Resource: Are you looking for specific suggestions? Gladys has some here. And find some more recent suggestions here.
• Resource: For book fans, go book-ish! Betsy has fun suggestions for Girls and for Boys.

© Gladys M. Hunt 2008-10, reissued in 2022 with minor adjustments with permission of the Executor of the Literary Estate of Gladys M. Hunt (4194 Hilton SE, Lowell, MI 49331). Used by permission. All rights reserved.