I Don't Read Grown-Up Books Anymore

I didn't know it, but my days as a grown-up book reader became numbered when my first child was born.  I remember when she was a few weeks old, getting out The Rhyme Bible and starting her off right.  I was so proud of myself.  After a few days, however, the kid-book thing was getting old.  Breast-feeding seemed like enough work, so I happily passed off the reading-out-loud duties to my husband.  :)

He had been read out-loud to for most of his childhood.  (Well, in between boarding school stints.)  So when he heard news stories on liberal media places like NPR about the importance of reading out loud to your child, he didn't have to think very hard to internalize them.  He happily churned through a kazillion-trillion repetitions of Jamberry and Good Night Moon while I hid in our bedroom and scarfed down some questionable material by Janet Evanovich.  Sigh.  Those were good days.

Then I became a homeschooling mom.  And I fell in love w/ a literature-based curriculum (Sonlight).  I confess now that I originally did this because I thought I would get to read the books to myself and the kids would read the books to themselves, and there would just be a lot of sitting around quietly reading.

Hah.

Anway, what eventually happened is that I learned to love to read out loud to my kids.  (True Confessions moment: it took me a couple of years to get to this place.  Before that, I would find myself pausing in the middle of a sentence I was reading out loud to skim ahead furiously in silence.  I think my oldest might be surprised to go back and read some of the books I read to her back then and realize there aren't actually long pauses built into the book.)  I also discovered this is really, really good for their brains EVEN AFTER THEY KNOW HOW TO READ.  I put that in all caps because I always missed that part of the liberal media news stories before.  So maybe you didn't know that either.

There is a special sweet joy that comes from reading a book to the under-five set when they know it really well.  You can pause and they will fill in the pause.  You can mess up the words and they will correct you.  My favourite game is to put their name in the story, and they shout NOOOOO!!!!  And tell me the right name.  :)

There are a lot of good pictures books out there.  There's also a lot of JUNK!  Oh my.  Nothing brings out my Inner Critic like a poorly written picture book.  I mean, yes, nice pictures are nice, but it's still a book!!  It needs good words!! 

I was recently challenged by a friend to come up w/ lists of books that are on my re-read list.  Well, that list is huge, just because I'm a mom, and can't say no to everything I wish I didn't have to read out loud.  :)  But I thought I'd start out by talking about picture books that I read (and re-read) to my 4yo, w/o crying and whining (on my part).  Since my oldest is 12, I have been reading these books for many years.

• Just to start the list out w/ something unusual, I will mention a book I randomly selected in a used book store just because I had store credit that had to be used and they had precious few children's books: Puff Puff Chugga Chugga by Christopher Wormell.  Oh yes, I also had a little boy and was operating under the assumption that only books about trains would get him interested in reading. (Not the worst assumption, by the way, although the jury is still out on how well it paid off.)  This book is adorable.  Lots of opportunities to play with sounds, a little color recognition, a really big sneeze, and the little train goes home to bed at the end.  When you have little kids, you ALWAYS want somebody going to bed at the end.
• Anything by Virginia Lee Burton, while a bit of a chore to read (IMHO), pays off big-time w/ my boys, and frankly, I think boys need a bit more effort to capture their imaginations, so I don't mind.  OK, well, sometimes I do mind.  Sometimes I LONG for the day when they can read Katy and the Big Snow to themselves and I no longer have to say chug, chug, chug and move my fingers along the roads that Katy plows.  There you have it.  My single flaw.  hah.
• Anything that involves Harry the Dirty Dog.  Harry sometimes becomes a purple dog w/ yellow spots.  Sometimes Tristan the Dog grabs watering can of frogs and sits it next to the Lady Next Door.  But yes, these books are also cute as written.  ;) 
• Anything that involves Frances.  Bedtime for Frances???  LOVE!!!!!!  Bread and Jam for Frances?  I have seriously done this to one of my kids.  I didn't serve him bread and jam for every meal; I served him what we call porridge (thanks to my husband) but what I grew up calling oatmeal.  He lasted a bit longer than Frances did, but he cracked.  Oh yeah, he cracked .  .  .
• Does anybody NOT have Where the Wild Things Are on their list? Well, probably not, and I don't want to be weird, so I guess I better include it. But I do love the subtle humor!
• Horton Hatches An Egg - I'm going to be bold and come right out and admit that I'm not the biggest Dr. Suess fan.  In fact, some of his books are downright tedious.  (I know, you've lost all respect for me now.)  But this book never gets old!  I think about my husband's faithfulness in fatherhood when I read it.  I wonder if I'm a good enough mother when I read it and I'm inspired not to give up, no matter how many times I have told the kids to put their head on their pillow, close their eyes AND STOP TALKING!  I get teary every time I read the line "Because Horton was faithful, 100%." In short, I turn into a complete sap, but you already know it: I'm not normal.

OK, my real love is chapter books, and I'm much more excited to talk about some new ones I just discovered, but that will have to be another post.  Meanwhile, yes, I'm still reading Jamberry and enjoying it.


~Stephanie