Books!

I did one of those facebook games today, 15 books in 15 minutes, which is just what it sounds like. What I liked about it was that it asked for the 15 books that stayed with you; not favorites or best or smartest or coolests. The ine's that affected you enough that they jumped immediately to mind when given this simple prompt.

I was also struck by how many books from my youth made their way in to my 15- so many, in fact, that I cheated and made two lists, one for adult books and one for young adult books, and it is the latter category that actually linger with the most sense memory, the most emotion.

Yesterday, the consultant we are working with on a strategic plan, told me this story. She had a garage sale with funny themes (like "failed exercise plans"), and a little girl wandered into the book nook. She was looking at one particular volume, and our consultant told her she could just have the book, that it was free. The mother swooped in and took the book away from her child, explaining to Martha that they were trying to restrict books until the little girl was "ready."

WHAT?????

This is so strange to me, so counter-intuitive, but then, I'm a mother who writes blog posts on a somewhat regular basis about children's books and the joy of children reading. I felt compelled to tell Martha all about Clio's love of books from the age of 5 months, as if to fend off this crazy story she had just told me. I described to her pictures like this:



Of course, Eleri was not quite such an early "reader," and, before we realized that that's exactly what Clio was, early, we found ourselves worrying that Eleri would not love books. I'm happy to report that we were wrong. Recently she too has embraced books (as something more than a chew toy), and we've finally added them to her bedtime routine. Or, I should say we've finally successfully added them- she used to just flip the pages or throw the whole book down on the floor. Now, she takes great pride in getting them from the shelf herself, and even, sometimes, putting them back when she's done.




Eleri particularly likes lift-the-flap and other "action" books, though she also seems to have a penchant for non-fiction (Barb introduced me to the children's non-fiction section at our library last time she was here, along with fairytales and poetry). Right now, we're reading a book called Fish Facts that both girls really like. (Eleri points out the blue water, two of her favorite words, ad Clio asks questions like "what's 'prey'"?) And Clio continues to be voracious. I've now upped our bi-weekly library haul to 6 books, and for posterity, I'll share some recent titles here:

Corduroy
Time for ballet
The Sneetches and Other Stories
Priscilla and the Splish-Splash surprise
The Gingerbread Man
Goldilocks
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
A Birthday for Frances
Tiki-Tiki-Tembo
Cecily G and the 9 monkeys (the first Curious George book)
Hector Protector and As I Went Over the Water
I the Night Kitchen
Strega Nona
Strega Nona's Magic Lessons
The Poky Little Puppy
Duck at the Door
Ladybug girl
Ladybug girl dresses up
Berenstein Bear's Honey Hunt

And the list goes on and on.

If the girls ever get stuck on one of these facebook challenges in the future (or whatever time-suck technology the future holds), they can take a look here, unless, of course, that's considered cheating.