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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