On Clio's Bookshelf

A few months ago, we noticed that many of Clio's board books were starting to seem too simplistic in their concepts and vocabulary; add to that the fact that she suddenly seemed able to handle paper pages with very little damage, and we knew it was time to expand her library. Before I went on bedrest, I spent a morning at Barnes and Noble Jr.browsing the (many) possibilities; Clio and Dave joined me after swim class to approve the selection.


We got the classic Harold and the Purple Crayon, which I like for its use of imagination, and the wonderful childlike sensibility that If You Draw it, It Is Real. Plus, it's a fun one to read out loud.
Mary Had a Little Lamp and I Like Myself share the great message to be true to yourself. Mary drags her lamp around like a security blanket, unphased by the stares and snickers she gets. I Like Myself focuses on the notion that it's what's inside that counts The narrator claims that she'd like herself even with "hippo hips or purple polka-dotted lips" and any number of other silly afflictions.


As a big sister gift, Uncle Rory and Aunt Nicole sent Bear Snores On, a modern classic about a party that happens in a bears den while he hibernates, and what happens when he wakes up. Clio loves this one for its rhythm and charming rhymes (plus she's obsessed with the badger in the story.)


Finally, Clio is loving I'm a Big Sister (this one she"reads" aloud herself, having memorized key passages, such as "the baby is so little. Too little to eat pizza or apples or ice cream") and Once Upon a Potty, two "issues" books that are self explanatory. I especially like this Potty book because of the collaged illustrations, and Clio thinks it's hilarious when the protaganist, Prudence, sits on the potty for a whole page's worth of "sat" ("she sat, and sat, and sat and sat and sat, and so on.)

My only complaint is that she loves books so much, and right now, these in particular, that she demands that we read them over and over again. All the time. But I guess we should appreciate that.