Building an Adventurous Library (or.....where do you get all these books??)

I am blessed with many things in life.  One of them is a family that surrounded me with books my whole life. We are a family of readers - each with a different taste, a different take - and that truly helps to build an adventurous mind.  Another thing that I've been blessed with of late is a great group of mom friends that are genuinely devoted to not only their work and caring for their families, but also to creating wonderful experiences for their kids....which is an essential component to cultivating an adventurous mind.

Many of these wonderful mom friends have lately asked me some version of the question, "where do you find all these great books?" So I thought I might share a bit of my (hopefully) sensible strategy for sharing a wide array of books with my sweet Little One.

First off, I absolutely believe the you can grow a reader.  I'm certainly no expert, so on this topic I defer to someone who is, and has compiled a lovely list of "tips for growing bookworms."

I love many of these tips - #3  reminds me of my wonderful husband, who insists he hated reading as a child because all the books were dumb (turns out he has a voracious appetite for non-fiction but finds fiction a waste of time.  While I cringe to suggest going soft on fiction....if that is what it takes to get your child reading, go for it!)

It is tip #4, "Make sure your children have books of their own," that I struggle the most with.    This is because I am a bookaholic.  If I let myself buy every book that I ever loved and couldn't live without, then you would never see me again because I would be buried under a mountain of biopics, epics, historics, romantics, etc.  I once worked at a bookstore part time for extra spending money, and came out in the red.....Bad. Idea.

So, this is a how a full-time working mom with a rowdy toddler and very little to no spare time who suffers from bookaholism builds an adventurous library for her sweet LO's budding imagination.

 Sensible rules for building an adventurous home library:

1. If you don't have a library card, get one. 
2. Start finding books you want to share with your LO!  
• Think of topics that interest your child (frogs? rain? rainforest treefrogs?) and use google or amazon to find books about that topic.  They don't have to be the BEST books on the topic, or award winners....just find some books that look interesting!
• Check out some book blogs (the ones that I have on my blogroll to the right are a great place to start).  Here you will often find some of the newest and up-and-coming classics.
• Check out the Texas 2x2, an annual list of 20 notable books for children ages 2 to 2nd grade.  It even comes with a list of activities for each book.  We're currently reading our way through 2010 (don't ask why that year, just picked randomly), and you'll be reading about those adventures soon. 
• Look at winners of awards like the Caldecott (for younger kids) and Newbery (for more advanced readers). 
• Think of books that you remember loving as a kid!
3. Log on to your local library's website.  Almost all of them have an online catalog.  If you haven't found books yet in step 2 above, you are certain to find great kids books by perusing the library kids catalog.  If you have a list in hand,  you can check to see if your library has the books and request them to be held for you.
4. When the books are ready at your local branch, you can go pick them up in a jiff.  This way, when you're tired and hungry and your toddler is throwing a fit, you can be in and out of the library in 5 minutes with a haul of great reads (and the librarians don't throw you out for too much giggling and/or crying....yes, this HAS happened to me thanks to the joys of motherhood).  
5. Read the books!  Over and over.  You will be able to tell which ones your child loves and which are personal duds.  Don't be disappointed if they don't like one...they are bound to love many more.  Reading the books (even the less-than-favorites) multiple times offers many advantages.  As the reader, it gives you a chance to practice your narration and maybe point out something new.  As the listener, it gives your child a chance to remember and a chance to form a bond with characters and settings.
6. There will come a time when you have to part with these wonderful tales and return them to the library.  If you are a bookaholic like me, there are many ways to deal with this pain.  One of them is to blog about your favorites.  Another is to make a Wishlist.  I do both. 
7. Only buy books on your wishlist.  This way, you are buying "pre-adored" books that you know your child loves, already has a connection with, and will want to keep reading.  These are going to be the books that they remember, the ones that they will want to read to their kids some day.  

• Exceptions:  

• Supplement your home library with classics that you think every kid should have or know.  We started with Curious George, and she adores that little monkey.  
• You never know when an impulse book buy may turn into a lifetime favorite.  We have several books that we grabbed as we rushed through Target just to keep her preoccupied that have become lasting loves.
• You will get some amazing books as gifts!  Notable among our favorite books that originated as kind gifts are Limu and Cooper (among many others).

And there you have it!  A sensible approach for a bookaholic to build an adventurous mind without breaking the bank (or having the "hoarders" gang called in to dig me out of my book mountain).


Happy Reading!

Good and bad: lessons in perspective

Ah, Monday.  I have never been a big fan of Mondays (I don't know too many people who are).  But Mondays are even harder when you have a toddler that apparently hates Mondays more than you do.  Today's post is in honor of all those Monday mornings - the dawdling, the screaming, the pleading, the crying, the begging, the bargaining, refusing to eat, begging to eat more - and the list goes on.  Usually by the time I get to work on Monday morning, I feel like I have already worked a whole week.  It takes a shift in perspective to get back in a good frame of mind and buckle down for a productive - and happy - day and week.  

The books that I have chosen for today's post  are great examples of books that put things in perspective.  Even very young children can learn lessons from relatable tales, and in the throes of a tantrum (no matter what time of day or what day of week), I have been able to remind my Little One that she can choose to have a good day by reminding her of these stories.  I'm not saying that it works every time....but the fact that it has EVER worked makes me realize that she is learning from our reading adventures, afterall!

 

My No No No Day

by Rebecca Patterson

 

Anyone that has ever spent any time with a toddler knows about no, No, NO days.  But "NO!" days don't end with toddlerhood.... I'm sure it's safe to say that we all come down with bouts of the "no's."  The main character in this book parades us through her day, filled with lovely activities and loving people...but she won't have any of it.  As she grumps off to bed, she sweetly tells her mom that she just didn't have a great day, and mom replies that hopefully tomorrow will be better.  And it is.  The lucky little girl has an equally lovely day, and with just a change of perspective, she certainly enjoys it a whole lot more.  This story has given me a framework for dealing with my often-grumpy Little One:

         Me  - (trying to remain calm and collected) "Are you having a NO day?"

         LO  - (sniffling dramatically through tears) "No, I want to be happy." 

         End Scene.  Thunderous applause.

A Good Day

by Kevin Henkes

 

I have read enough of Kevin Henkes books now to realize that I am in love.  They are all remarkably simple and beautifully illustrated stories that deliver a very moving message.    All the animals in this little tale start off having a terrible day.  Tragedies of loss and loneliness strike at every turn, and it is shaping up to be a bad day indeed.  BUT!  One by one, things start to look up.  In the end, everything is right with the world, and it turns out to be a very good day indeed.  Always look for the bright side, sweet Little One....the world will right itself once again.

Good News, Bad News

by Jeff Mack

I will mostly let the trailer below speak for itself.  This book is great.  She asks for it every night, often as she drifts off to sleep and is still begging for JUST ONE MORE!?  "now good news bad news mommy??  <yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnnn>."   We talk about why the rabbit is happy and the mouse is sad.  We talk about why the rabbit becomes sad at the end.  We talk about how the friends can cheer each other up.  We laugh at the ridiculous scenarios.  We love this book.

 

My Lovely Valentine

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!  We started the celebration off the weekend before, with a storytime and craft session with our favorite group of mom and tots.  We read many of the books below, and then watched the kids play while the moms created heart-shaped crayons.  My sweet Little One had her first school Valentine's party on Thursday, and then we ate out as a family on Friday. Check out my cool heart crayons below!

You Color My World!  We made heart-shaped crayons as valentines for LO's class

One of the primary ways we get in the spirit of any holiday or season is through books!  As an avid library patron, I had been collecting books with Valentine's Day themes for quite some time.  My goal for this particular holiday was NOT to introduce her to the candy/gift giving traditions, but more to focus on the idea of showing love.  Thus, you will not find a lot of character-themed Valentine's books on this list (though a certain Curious George Valentine's Day book is a favorite of LO).  So here we go, books for a love-ly holiday!

The I LOVE YOU Book

by Todd Parr

 

This book is one of my favorites by Todd Parr (my other favorite is "The Thankful Book," which we read often around Thanksgiving and continues to be a favorite).   As with all his books, the pages are alive with color and so an infant would even be mesmerized.  The more older and more observant read-aloud listener will be able to describe to you what is going on in the pictures without you even reading, and usually goes something like this "the baby is throwing food and the mommy is smiling."  Which pretty much sums up the I LOVE YOU book:  it is about all the scenarios in which parents love their children, teaching them that they are loved no matter what.

Hugs from Pearl

by Paul Schmid




This is a sweet little story about a prickly porcupine that likes to give hugs.  Her classmates seem to tolerate her prickly hugs rather well, but Pearl wants full acceptance, without the "ouches" and "ows."  Disclaimer:  my gut reaction is that I HATE Pearl's solution to her predicament....let's just say it involves destroying some family household items on the sly.  On the other hand, Pearl does exhibit creative problem solving, and it's for a good cause.  I can't say that I give this one two thumbs up as a great morality tale, but the illustrations are adorable and my Little One always asked to read Pearl. 

Apple Cake: A Recipe for Love

by Julie Paschkis

 

The real story is told by the illustrations, which are vivid and imaginative and prompt lots of discussion and imaginative storytelling.  A book worm ignores her would-be lover in favor of reading a book (I can always relate to a bookworm!), who decides to bake a cake to get her attention.  He then relates the recipe for his Apple Cake, with each step illustrated in creative detail.  While there isn't much of a real plot, this book has been a favorite due to the fascinating pictures on each page.  I'm certain that LO remembers more about the pictures than about the fact that he was trying to seduce a lady that liked to read.

The Biggest Kiss

by Joanna Walsh, Giuditta Gaviraghi (Illustrator), Judi Abbot (Illustrator)

 

This falls in the category of cute animal book.  There isn't much  of a plot, and the flow is a but random, but there isn't a child on the planet that won't like seeing animals big and small getting and giving kisses.  This was not a favorite of LO or myself (probably because there's nothing compelling about it), however she seemed to enjoy it on the three or four occasions that I pulled it out to read.

Love Waves

by Rosemary Wells

I really want to like this book.  My sweet Little One struggles with separation anxiety, even though she has been going to day care full time since she was six weeks old.  We work really hard to explain to her that she doesn't need to cry or be worried when we drop her off, because we love her very much and we will always come back for her.  This book attempts to broach this topic.  I love the idea of a "love wave" and we use this concept when we talk to her about our time apart.  I HATE that mommy goes to work to make cookies and daddy goes to work in an office.  I know that every mommy and every daddy have a different job, but the traditional gender typing is a bit much for me.  That said, we read this one several times and LO seemed to like the end of the book, where the love waves circle around the sleeping baby.

All Kinds of Kisses

by Nancy Tafuri
 

Another "cute animal" book, but this one is much better in my opinion.  The story is told in a series of double-spread, full-color illustrations of farm animal babies getting kisses from their mommas.  You can often see the animals from other pages in the current illustrations.  Gorgeous book with a sweet theme of baby love.

Snowy Valentine

by David Petersen

 

This is the only book on this list with a distinct "Valentine" theme to it.  Little One liked it so much that she calls it by the characters names - "read me Jasper and Lilly, mom!"  This is a sweet tale of a rabbit, Jasper, looking for the perfect valentine for his wife.  In the end, the best valentine is his love for her.  This one is a gem.

Plant a Kiss

by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Peter H. Reynolds (illustrator)

To Little One, this is the "my kiss book." I'm pretty sure she is very confused about what it's really about, but she loves to blow kisses at every page. As with all stories, there is a deeper understanding behind the simple, poetic text....but we were content to blow kisses and watch them grow.

 

Zombie in Love

by Kelly DiPucchio, Scott Campbell (Illustrator)

I am certain that this book is meant for an older child, that has a sense of what a Zombie is and maybe an appreciation for the macabre.  My sweet LO does not meet either category, and therefore I was certain she would not care for this book.  Oh how I was wrong.  She squeals with delight when I pull out "MORTIMER!!" and this was her hands-down favorite among the Valentine's Day lineup.  It is a sweet story with hilarious illustrations, and I would definitely recommend for school-aged children.....and maybe an adventurous toddler or two :)

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? 

by Jane Yolen, Mark Teague (Illustrator)

 
This is the first of the "How do dinosaurs....?"  books that we have read.  Perhaps it coincided perfectly with our new membership at the new Science and Nature museum in town, because LO loves all things dinosaur.  I know this is a popular series, but I have not read any of the other offerings.  This book provides a delightful insertion of dinosaurs of all shapes/sizes/colors into typical scenes in a young childs life.  Again, the lesson learned is that parents love their kids no matter what.  We loved this book.

SNOW

We live in a place where I forget it is February because it is 80 degrees outside.  The phenomenon of sweating in December because the instinct to wear boots and a coat (I mean, it's almost Christmas!) outweighs the practical sensory perception that it is warm enough to go swimming is not new to me.  But I did not grow up here.....I grew up with SNOW.  And I want my baby to know what that flaky, white stuff of wonderlands is all about.

The only time my child has seen snow is when she was about six months old, and a freak "blizzard" blew threw town which resulted in a whopping inch or so of glistening powder.  I hauled by sweet infant out dressed for an igloo overnight to snap a couple of shots.  No snow since.

How do you teach a child to wonder at something she will never see?  This question speaks to many deep yearnings of the heart and is more worthy of a cheap attempt to answer here.  But one practical approach is, of course, to read about the mysterious and the unknown.

So here is an abbreviated list of books about snow, snowmen, and winter in general (real winter, that is) that we have been reading and re-reading all "winter" while sitting in our air conditioned home, or in the park on a warm, sunny, January day. 

Snow by Uri Shulevitz

 We adore this book.  A little boy and his dog excitedly welcome individual snowflakes and proclaim the snow despite everyone telling them that snow is not coming.  This book feels magical.  It harkens many a night, sneaking into the hall to look out the window that gave the best view of the street.....will the snow come?  Will school close and can we stay home and build snowmen and sled in the backyard?  The colors and symbology are amazing - the world is grey, and then the snow comes and everything is magical white.  We also take the opportunity to use this as a counting book, and count the snowflakes on each page.  This book works on so many levels - imagery, poetry, counting.  This is definitely one of our favorites and we have been renewing our library loan since before Thanksgiving.  Probably time to take it back and buy our own copy, so someone else can learn of the magic that snow brings!

Over and Under the Snow

by Kate Messner, Christopher Silas Neal (Illustrator)

  

 What a lovely book!  The scientist in me loves this nature walk of a book, which explains what happens in nature during winter.  It is a snowy adventure in the woods and a lesson in woodland animals in one.  The artwork is amazing - both beautiful and effective at making clear the distinction between the worlds both over and under.

When Winter Comes

by Nancy Van Laan

Another nature walk in the snow, but with more lyrical text.  This book also does a good job of broaching the subject of nature in winter, but can read aloud easier and quicker.  Little one can sit and listen to the lyrical text and take in the artwork without the great explanations and questions that she usually comes up with for the similar work above.

Red Sled

by Lita Judge

 

 At first, I didn't understand what the hype was about.  This is a relatively new book that is in high demand - I waited nearly three months to check out a copy, and it is splashed on reading lists everywhere.  But the truth is, my daughter absolutely LOVES this book.  The artwork alone is captivating - who doesn't want to page through woodland creatures careening downhill on a red sled?  But to get the full effect, I think you have to be comfortable in your voice-acting and silly sound effects to fully "narrate" this tome whose only written words are sounds (is it plagiarizing to type "Scrinch Scrunch" here??)  The truth is, this book does a great job of cultivating an adventurous mind...your imagination is left to fill in the blanks left by the lack of narration. 

  Snowballs

by Lois Ehlert

 Some of my favorite things are creating and reading, and this book represents the perfect blend.  The story is simple:  it snowed, and we made a snow family.  The beauty is in the artwork, where the snow family comes to life with a collection of wonderful things, from knit bags to shoe strings, fruit to rocks.  We have a blast just going through the pages and naming all of the trinkets and knick-knacks that give the snow family life.  Hard to get more imaginative than to think of the plethora of uses for a popcorn kernel!

 

Snowmen at Night

by Caralyn Buehner, Mark Buehner

I love this silly tale.  Apparently lots of people do, since there are many books in this series.  But I didn't know that at the time....I just thought I had found the cutest book about why snowmen look different the next day.  My husband, the ever-realist who hates fiction and calls myths "lies," would probably hate this book.  "Snowmen look different because they melt" he would state, and would likely launch a lecture about the water cycle.  Of course, being a scientist myself, I would appreciate that approach to learning as well.  But to indulge in a world where snowmen dance and play and sled the night away is just too much fun! 

 

Winter Is the Warmest Season

by Lauren Stringer
 



This book articulates feelings that I have always held but never thought enough about to verbalize.  The juxtaposition of reality (cold winters) and perception (the warmth of close family gatherings, cuddling by a fire etc) is a great way to explore feelings.

The First Day of Winter

by Denise Fleming

I sing this book.  Instead of giving gifts of birds and rings and ladies dancing (never understood how one gives gifts of people in this song), this book builds a snowman over the first 10 days of winter.  Never mind that there are few locales I know of where a snowman would stick around for 10 days to be decked in all of it's adornments.  It is a fun read/sing-aloud.

The Jacket I Wear in the Snow

by Shirley Neitzel, Nancy Winslow Parker

A great book for early reading skills.  The text is repetitive, and key words are represented by pictures in the text.  I think that this book helped Little One understand that written words are symbols for spoken words/concepts/things.  I think that we will look for more books like this as we progress toward learning to read.

Oh!

by Kevin Henkes, Laura Dronzek (Illustrator)

At first glance, this book is just a sweet and simple story about animals and children playing in the snow.  But on our second time reading it, my sweet two year old noticed something that I had not - each individual picture is connected to the picture before (for example, the picture of the dog has the cat's tail in the corner from the picture before).  I was so amazed at how she put together that connection - she even said "the cat is behind the dog!"  This became one of her favorite snow stories.  She also has a thing for cardinals, insisting that they are not red birds, but cardinals.  Melts my heart. 

What books about winter/snow do you like to read?

Crocodile hunter by day, fairytale princess by night

When I was a youngster, I read.  I distinctly remember getting in trouble in first grade because I would hide novels in my little student desk, reading in my lap during lessons.  In second grade, I remember volunteering myself to the timeout wall during recess so that I could sit and trek through whatever adventure I was currently invested.  In fifth grade I read Gone With the Wind, and became so obsessed with the setting that I started collecting historical tomes; I am probably the only person you will ever meet that has a shelf of thick analyses of battles and biographies of commanders that they began collecting as Christmas and Birthday gifts at the ripe age of ten.  In sixth grade it was ancient Egypt that caught my fancy, and I devoured the ancient world with a voracious imagination. In eighth grade I read Grapes of Wrath - just for fun - and loved every heart wrenching minute of it (to the chagrin of my later, 11th-grade self, who was assigned the book to read in class and found wading through the dust bowl too depressing for my current place in life.....unfortunately, they didn't accept the "I read it when I was twelve" excuse).  Truth be told, there is not a realm of the written word that I have not allowed my mind to dabble, wade and dive into.  But this blog is not about what I like to read now.  Because now, I am a mommy.

Myself as mommy does not get to indulge in new reading adventures nearly as often as I would like, though life is certainly as adventurous as ever.  And while I may at one time have a pile of books knee-high that I was alternately perusing and engulfing, I now collect books to share with my child.  When my daughter (now two and a half) was first born, I was finishing graduate school in the biomedical sciences.  Having read somewhere that infants learn language faster and more efficiently if they hear it read to them constantly, I read her scientific journal articles outloud during my entire six week maternity leave.  Don't worry, I wasn't trying to turn her into the worlds tiniest cancer biologist.....she got to hear plenty of poetry, news, novels, and children's books as well.  She may have been the best-read one month old on the planet, but no one really studies these things so it would be difficult to prove.  And while the initial goal of plodding through read-alouds of technical manuscripts was to teach her to speak and communicate with the world, my one hope for my sweet baby girl was to imprint a love of the written word somewhere deep in her heart.

While I am certain that no one on this planet (save my angel's two grandmothers and maybe her aunts) want to read me bragging about my child, I have to get it out of my system just this once:  My efforts at instilling early language skills have rewarded me with a toddler that is often mistaken for an older child, clearly speaking her mind with the assertion of a teenager and delighting listeners with her creative imagination.  And she loves to read.  She can read for hours - literally.  In a room of toys and books, she looks at the books.  She is her mama's girl.


Well, here we are.  After an expose on me and my girl wonder (or simply wonderful girl), we are left with why we are here. This blog is not about me, or my miniature crocodile hunter/fairytale princess (it depends on the time of day).  It is about the quest for cultivating an adventurous mind through reading.

I intend to keep track of the adventures that we are sharing by sharing the books that we are reading together.  I hope that you will read along with us.  And cultivate an adventurous mind!