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Books for New Parents

New parents have little sleep and less time, so these eight are short, funny or made to be read aloud. They mix a parenting guide, a memoir, three illustrated books and three novels.

Gift ideas

  • Cribsheet

    Emily Oster

    An economist looks at the research behind common choices from birth to preschool and lays out what it shows. Calm and data-driven, for a parent who likes facts.

  • Operating Instructions

    Anne Lamott

    Anne Lamott's journal of her son's first year as a single mother, funny and frank about fear and fatigue. Good for a parent who wants company, not advice.

  • Goodnight Moon

    Margaret Wise Brown

    A little rabbit says goodnight to everything in the great green room, one quiet page after another. A bedtime classic, short enough to read half asleep.

  • Oh, the Places You'll Go!

    Dr. Seuss

    Dr. Seuss follows a young traveler through highs, lows and waiting places in rhyme. A hopeful picture book to read to a baby now and keep for graduation.

  • The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

    Charlie Mackesy

    Four friends trade short thoughts on kindness and courage in ink drawings. With a few lines a page, a tired parent can finish it in one sitting.

  • The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

    Gabrielle Zevin

    A widowed, prickly bookseller on a small island is changed when someone leaves a toddler in his shop. Tender, bookish and easy to read in snatches.

  • Where'd You Go, Bernadette

    Maria Semple

    A teenager in Seattle goes looking for her mother, an architect who vanished before a family trip to Antarctica. Told in emails and letters, and very funny.

  • The Thursday Murder Club

    Richard Osman

    A cozy murder mystery with a cast of clever retirees and plenty of jokes. Light enough to pick up between feeds and put down again.

How to choose

Choose by how much attention they have. In the first weeks, short and funny wins: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse and Operating Instructions can be read in small pieces, and The Thursday Murder Club or Where'd You Go, Bernadette suit a brain on little sleep. Goodnight Moon and Oh, the Places You'll Go! are for reading to the baby. Cribsheet summarizes research on common parenting choices. It is not medical advice, so suggest they ask their pediatrician about their own child.

Know the themes before you wrap. Operating Instructions includes a friend's cancer and the strain of single parenthood, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry includes a mother's suicide and an illness, and Where'd You Go, Bernadette mentions miscarriages.

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