Five books here have letters or numbers in them. Two of them are almost the same book. One of them is not a learning book at all, despite being organised alphabetically. Sorting that out is most of the work.
The alphabet books, and what separates them
Baby's First Letters pairs each of the twenty-six letters with an action — roaring like a lion, waddling like a penguin — with the child's name printed through the pages. The letters are an excuse; the book is really about getting a child to do something physical twenty-six times. That makes it the better choice for a child who does not sit still, which is most of them at that age.
ABC Train runs the alphabet as a journey instead. The child rides from letter to letter through scenes built for spotting and shouting along, one station at a time. Where First Letters asks for movement, ABC Train asks for attention — find the thing on the page, say what it is. It is the more useful of the two if you are trying to build the habit of looking carefully at an illustration.
Practical difference: ABC Train starts at $39.99 and Baby's First Letters at $19.99.
The two counting books that look identical
This is the pair worth being straight about. Baby's First Numbers and Baby Counting both walk from one to ten, both use rhymes, both count familiar objects, and both land on ten wiggly toes. Side by side on a collection page they are near enough indistinguishable, and anyone telling you there is a large difference is selling.
The real distinction is where the child sits in the sentence. Baby Counting puts the printed name at the front of each rhyme, so the child is the one doing the counting. Baby's First Numbers is framed the other way round — the numbers are the subject and the child is along for it.
If that sounds like a small thing, it is, until you have read either one forty times. Children track their own name on a page long before they track a numeral. The version that leads with the name tends to hold attention slightly longer for that reason. Both start at $19.99, so the choice costs you nothing either way.
Do not buy both
Buying both is a common mistake with this pair, usually by two different relatives at the same shower. If you are coordinating gifts, take one counting book and one alphabet book rather than two of either.
The one that is not a learning book
A Letter for You is arranged as an alphabet and functions as something else entirely. Each letter carries a small promise or piece of advice — being brave, asking for help — addressed to the child by their printed name. It reads like a letter from the adults who love them, because that is what it is.
It will not teach anybody their letters. What it does is survive the age range: a two-year-old hears a rhythm, a six-year-old hears the advice, and a sixteen-year-old finding it in a box hears something else again. If you want the book that is still doing work in a decade, this is it, and at $19.99 it is not the expensive option.
Which order to buy them in
If you are starting from nothing, counting comes first in practice. One to ten is a shorter list than twenty-six letters and the objects being counted are things a small child already knows. Alphabet books land better once a child has some interest in the shapes rather than just the sounds.
A Letter for You sits outside that sequence and can be bought at any point, including before a child can talk.
Ordering
All five come in hardcover and softcover, chosen on the product page. Early learning books get handled hard — these are the ones a child holds themselves rather than the ones read to them — so hardcover is the sensible default if the book is meant to last past the year it is bought for.
Everything is printed to order in the United States, with a two to four business day production window before shipping. Read the name back at checkout or on your order confirmation before you pay. Personalized books cannot be returned once printed, though a wrong name caught quickly can usually be stopped before it reaches the printer, and anything damaged or misprinted we replace free.
The rest of the early learning titles sit in Bedtime & Early Learning. If the book is meant for the end of the day rather than for learning, that is a different set of decisions and it is covered in bedtime books that survive nightly repeats.