February 26, 2013
Tidbits from my day: I'm about halfway through the latest Benedict Society book. Great children's series. * I got into a humorous chat with my daughter-in-law (not only the terrific mother of my 5-year-old grandson but a fantastic 2nd-grade teacher) about Dr. Seuss and Goodnight Moon. She's a Seuss fan; I'm not. I think Goodnight Moon may be the stupidest children's classic ever; they're excited to be going to a play based on it Friday night. LOL! * Storytime at the library with my granddaughter, one of two we try to go to each week. Today's theme was jungle animals, and one book we'd already read and one book was a new one. Then Abby got to make a zebra and a lion out of tiny paper plates. She loves to show off her artwork for Mommy and Daddy. * Daily reading with 2nd-grader Aidan and he chose one of his new non-fiction books, this one about volcanoes. Boy, he's barely stumbling over any words. We're both loving these books and all we learn from them. * One of my "fans" told her son (a grown man with two kids of his own) about this blog. After he said he'd recently read Peter Pan and thought Peter was a prick. I could understand his viewpoint but I wouldn't have said it that way.

This Second Childhood may never end. Frankly, I hope not.

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Meanwhile, back to the Wizard of Oz books.  These do continue to fascinate. The Marvelous Land of Oz, written in 1904, was sexist; The Woggle-Bug Book (1905) contained the word “nigger-boy.” How does one read these books to children today and explain those societal differences? Other than those issues, the stories do entertain me.

What a surprise! I’ve never read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and my expectation was that it was like a Narnia, perhaps discovering a new world in a secret garden. Nothing like that—and a wonderful read! Reminded me more of Heidi than anything else. I loved this one. This is what I’m hoping to discover along this journey—wonderful stories that everyone should have in their childhood memories.

Recently I read quite a number of books to my 2-year-old granddaughter. Nothing unusual about that but these books were a bit unusual, not her ordinary choices. Zoophabet  ABC by Cathy Heck is a pretty sweet book, obviously about zoo animals and the alphabet. What makes it unusual is that for almost two years I’ve been trying to read this book to Abby and she has refused to listen to it. Yes, she’s always liked the ABC on the cover because they’re textured letters but two pages into the book and she would push it aside. She is very opinionated about her books. (I really liked getting to read the whole thing!) Then we read Kai-lan’s ABCs by Natalie Shaw. We seldom watch Nihao, Kai-lan, the children’s show, so this book is a bit of an unknown to us. I feel like the show is dear and along the lines of Dora but I just don’t pick up on the Mandarin Chinese words incorporated in the show as easily as I do the Spanish in Dora—my failing. What I do like about the TV show and this book is the interaction with a lot of animals and Ye Ye, Kai-lan’s grandfather.  As a grandmother who is a kidkeeper I appreciate books and television shows that incorporate that relationship which I think is precious.  Another kids’ show that includes a grandparent is Handy Manny, a Disney creation. (This show also incorporates Spanish words throughout.) While only my oldest grandson has been a big fan of Handy Manny, I really like the whole series—TV show, books, toys, clothes, etc. I think a lot of wonderful role models are provided with Manny, his tools, and all the townspeople of Sheet Rock Hills. One of the people frequently appearing on Handy Manny is Manny’s abuela, his grandfather. Although Abby isn’t that familiar with the TV show she has always liked our book, Handy Manny, The Best Repairman. She’s requested this one several times recently—and Grandy has always enjoyed accommodating. Books based on TV shows certainly aren’t new, and I suspect that many books I read when I was little (or had read to me) were Little Golden Books about Howdy Doody, Romper Room, Captain Kangaroo, and such.

COLORS, written by Laura Gates Galvin, is a Sesame Street book, part of a set of early learning books. ABCs, Colors, Shapes, Animals, Numbers—you could fill a library with books that teach children those basics. What did I have as a child? I remember Dick and Jane books once I began learning to read but earlier than that I don’t remember. I am a huge fan of Sesame Street—all the genius of Jim Henson and his family and followers—for all the loving and learning, laughs and lessons they’ve provided for generations now. I’m grateful that my children (Paul was first-generation Sesame Street) and now my grandchildren have had Sesame Street in their lives.