February 21, 2013

Facebook sidebar can be fascinating--looking in on other people's conversations with people you don't know. This morning someone had posted about actor Fred Gwynne also being a children's book author. (I knew that already but none of his books crossed my path during my project year.) What interested me was a follow-up comment by a woman who said she'd go look for those books right away now, that she liked to read children's books because it was fun and kept her mind young. I honestly don't think I realized how much pure fun my project would be until I reallyl got into it. And it was SO much fun!

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I would love to be able to include The Mysterious Benedict Society books in this project but I read the first three before coming up with this idea. However, I have just read The Mysterious Benedict Society—Mr. Benedict’s Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums by Trenton Lee Stewart. Designed for 7- to 12-year-olds like the trilogy before it, this book of brain games was a challenge. NOT my forté! It gladdens me though that this is something that appeals to today’s kids. Such fun on top of all the “learning”! [Comment: My daughter is reading the first of the trilogy now, and I have the latest Benedict Society waiting for me to start.]

I recently read Caillou – What’s Missing? and Who’s Hiding? to my 2-year-old granddaughter. The first is a pull-the-tab book and the second is a lift-the-flap book. Abby loves these interactive books. Were they even around when I was little? I don’t recall anything like this. The closest I can think would be Doctor Dan and Nurse Nancy, books that included real live Band-Aids! Little Golden Books were the staple of my “library” when I was a beginning reader—and before that I have no idea.

Babies in the Bayou (author, Jim Arnosky) was a library book I picked out thinking it might be something reminiscent of Bayou Buddies, the nature education courses at Sims Bayou Urban Nature Center.  It was just an OK book, and of course, Abby wasn’t interested in it at all. I wonder if I would’ve even picked it out of a library shelf when I was little—considering that I don’t think I fully understood what a bayou was until I moved to Houston – The Bayou City – after getting married! At the same time, I brought home a Charlie and Lola book by Lauren Child, hoping Abby might be interested in it. She wasn’t, but I will keep trying because I adore Charlie and Lola books. My familiarity and fondness is strongly influenced by the television series but I think I would’ve discovered these as a little girl and I would’ve adored them. Charlie (or “Chollie” as Lola seems to pronounce it on the cartoon) is a terrific big brother and Lola is just too, too precious. This book was I Will Be Especially Very Careful and is the story of Lola trading her clippy handbag (or purse) for her friend Lotta’s fluffy white coat, which she proceeds to lose at the library. Desiring something of someone else’s has for some time been described by me as my desire to have a clippy purse to trade. Lauren Child has authored other series that I plan to explore during this project. For now, I’ll keep hoping that Abby will share Charlie and Lola with me one of these days. [Comment: Just yesterday I checked out a Charlie and Lola board book from the library for Abby. We'll see if she likes this one, now that she's 3 years old. And, alas, I never got around to the series that I expected to read for this project. More reading!]