A few Christmases ago, I wanted to buy my friend’s 18 month-old-baby two books as a gift, because I wasn’t in the same city as them, and wanted to be a good auntie from far away.

I don’t have kids so I didn’t know what books to buy, so I started off by asking my friend what her baby likes. Then, I crowdsourced on Facebook, asking parents what they recommended as the best baby books.

Suggestions came in, and instead of just choosing among the titles presented, I searched each of them on Amazon, read the reviews, and looked inside each book.

As I was researching these books, I discovered that I could hear each book being read in its entirety on Youtube, so I listened to all of them. All. Of. Them.