4. Classic Tales

Bundle up favorite books from your childhood:

Select from the New York Review Books' Children's Collection. Among the titles, The Backwards Day, written by Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Marc Simont; Mud Pies and Other Recipes by Marjorie Winslow and illustrated by Erik Blegvad, and  D'Aulaires' Book of Animals by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire. Classics out of print return for a new generation. (New York Review Books, $14.95-$16.95, 2007-2010)

Wrap up a trio of Paul and Ann Rand's celebrated Little 1, Sparkle and Spin: A Book About Words and I Know a Lot of Things, recently back in print. (Chronicle, $15.95-$16.99, 2006). Exuberant stories that make learning numbers and simple addition fun by one of the most influential graphic designers of the 20th Century.

A group of fairy tales: select from such classics as Rapunzel redone by Sarah Gibb (Albert Whitman, $16.99, 2011) and The Three LIttle Pigs, remade by Joanna C. and Paul Galdone. Or choose humorous redos such as Mini Grey's Ginger Bear (Knopf Books, $15.99, 2007) or the imaginative and poetic Instructions, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Charles Vess, about walking into a fairy tale landscape. (HarperCollins, $14.99, 2010)

A Bear Called Paddington, The original story of the bear from Darkest Peru: 50th Anniversary Edition, written by Michael Bond and illustrated by Peggy Fortnum (Houghton Mifflin, $20, 2008). A gorgeous edition of the 1958 classic about a little bear found in London's Paddington Station wearing the sign "Please look after this bear." Pair with a stuffed toy of Paddington for a treasured gift.

The Big Book of Little: A Classic Illustrated Edition, compiled by Cooper Edens (Chronicle, $19.95, 2006). Antique illustrations of children, angels, toys and more accompany beloved children's stories, from Tom Thumb to The Little Engine That Could.