Monday, January 21, 2013

Off My Shelf


Breath Ten:

I read books for pleasure, to relax, calm children down, learn, teach, explore and discover;  however, I sometimes read books out of obligation too. I've had to read handbooks, articles, and text books for work and classes.  These readings challenged, surprised, invigorated and exasperated me.  When I read out of obligation versus for pleasure I read differently.  Sometimes it is with a notebook and pen for note taking, sometimes with great irritation at the task.  To be honest, I have also felt this way when one of my children placed a Disney Princess book or a Lighting McQueen book on my lap.  Give me, The Paper Bag Princess by Robert N. Munsch or a Dr. Suess any day. 
Let’s face it, not all children’s books are created equally.  I am certain that we all have these children’s books that are brain-numbingly boring.  Our children carried them home from the library, or we bought them to meet our children’s reading levels, or perhaps the book featured their favorite character in a movie.  While these books contain value to promote successful independent reading, or entice interest in books, they are not particularly enjoyable to the adult readers, nor are they laced with interesting dialogue or beneficial vocabulary.   Some of these books are indeed housed on our bookshelves, but I often find myself reading them with a sense of obligation rather than pleasure.  The only delight to be had in reading these books, are the snuggles offered by my children while reading.  I concur with C. S. Lewis, “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” 
   
Devoting time to reading regularly with your children is one way to prepare your children for success in school and in our literate society.  The discussions that arise from books in our house, as well as the quiet and silly moments that reading provides, are some of my most cherished memories.  From sweets tales when they were infants, to entire bookshelves unloaded, books have surrounded my children. Frederick is only four, yet he regularly makes connections from books to our experiences and connections from one book to another book (educators would call this text- to -self connections and text-to-text connections).  Even the vocabulary that my children choose as they write or engage in a conversation reflects the quantity of written and spoken language that they have been exposed to. Reading books helps children to further understand the structure of language, concepts of print, introduces them to various text structures, and exposes them to rich vocabulary and glorious art, while also allowing room for imaginations to flourish and establishes that our written word contains meaning.   In addition to the educational value, reading quality children’s literature is an art that can be enjoyed by adults.  Personally, I love the beauty of the oil painting in, Come Along, Daisy, by Jane Simmons, yet can relate to the text as I often hurry my own children along.  (This was Jane’s phase of loving every book with ducks!)  Quality children’s literature provides poetry, endless supplies of fascinating facts from nonfiction, songs to sing along, and made-up words of Dr. Suess to capture each reader.  While I don’t drizzle honey on my books like Patricia Polacco’s character, Babushka, I too hope to pass on to my own children the deep appreciation for books and teach them that reading is as sweet as honey.  
  
Here are a few sweetened children’s books off my living room shelf.  As a former teacher, we have a monumental amount of children’s literature, but I promise to only share a few.  I cannot possibly say that these are my favorites, because my favorites are too numerous.  I can, however, say that I enjoy these books! I did not include any readers/ TV spin-off books, since you don’t really want to read them anyway. 



 Twelve off my Shelf:
1. Not Norman: A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett

2. The Mitten, Jan Brett     

3. Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, by Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld     
                                                                                                    
4. Mice Squeak, We Speak,  by Tomie dePaola  

5. SeedFolks, by Paul Fleischman 
                                                     
6. Dog Food, by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers     

7. Biggest, Strongest, Fastest, by Steve Jenkins
                 
8. Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse,  by Kevin Henkes 
                               
9.  Pinkalicious, by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann
             
10. A Porcupine Named Fluffy, by Helen Lester
                                     
11. Thank You, Mr. Falkner, by Patricia Polacco
                                   
12. You Can’t Take a Balloon Into The Metropolitan Museum, Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and Robin Preiss Glasser                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Quick tip:  While I let my children select books for me to read to them, I also get to choose a book to read to them.  We all get to take turns and we are assured at least one quality read aloud. 

What Children’s books do you have on your bookshelf?  

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