Books Make Me Happy: My First Reading Log

Instill a lifelong love of reading in children. Created by Judy Pelikan, Books Make Me Happy is the perfect gift for a beginning reader, an interactive journal that encourages reading. It begins where classroom reading logs end―title, author, illustrator―and offers prompts that knit the bond between story and reader more deeply, such as "My favorite part of the book was..." and "I will recommend this book to a friend because..." There are fill-ins where kids can list their favorite books, draw scenes from a story, and write about the pleasures they get from reading. Throughout are full-color embroidered illustrations based on real children's drawings about their love of books. Also included are five pages of stickered bookplates that kids can customize and use to personalize their own books.

For children, Books Make Me Happy is an invaluable tool to inspire first-time readers to become lifelong readers. For parents, it's both a keepsake and a rare window into the mind of their child at a particularly interesting time.