April 22, 2013

Beginning my project, back in 2011, I aimed to read books that were available back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s when I was becoming a reader but books that somehow I never read, but I also wanted to read more contemporary books, children's and young adult's both, that I might recommend to my grandchildren. I realized that other than the years that I didn't have a little one to tuck onto my lap and read to, I'd actually read a number of the "modern classics." (Oxymoron?) Now, long after finishing my project, I realize that I will never NOT read young people's fiction. Picking up a Looking for Alaska or Benedict Society edition will always, always, be a delight and wonder.

My daughter started her son on a chapter book, a Texas Bluebonnet choice, and since they were reading it on her NOOK, I wanted to download it also so he and I could continue reading it during the afternoons. First I needed to start on The One and Only Ivan though to catch up. Only took me a couple of hours to read it. Might've taken less time except for the moments spent wiping tears from my eyes. -sigh- What a heartwarming, heartwrenching story! And it's inspired by a true story which is just as heartwarming and heartwrenching. LOVED this book today--and if I'd read it when I was 8 years old, I would've been searching all over to find a copy to read to my grandchildren. (Well, eventually. This is not a book for the especially tenderhearted. But it will foster respect for all living things, for sure.)

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Library day! Touch and Feel Farm is one of those books that will drive a parent (or grandparent) to “lose a book.” If possible. Ten pages, 34 words. And I probably read it a dozen or more times today. I think it will go back in the book bag before Abby arrives tomorrow morning! She did let me read Little Quack’s Hide and Seek twice however. Since she’d enjoyed the last Little Quack book so much—and I did too—I specifically looked for another at the library today. Just as cute as the New Friend one we recently read.

Found another old Little Golden Book on my bookshelf. The Taxi That Hurried, reissued on the 50^th anniversary of Little Golden Books, was familiar, so perhaps it is one I read when little. Now it’s not so captivating but I could see the appeal for a small child.

At the same time I picked up our copy of Flat Stanley. I remember discovering it with my son and daughter. I’d forgotten how charming it is—and with a little bit of tongue-in-cheek humor that appeals to adults. At one time, Flat Stanley school projects were big—where children sent Flat Stanleys through the mail, to be passed on for a certain amount of time or for each to be returned to the child, who could then report on how far and wide Stanley had traveled. Could be fun.

In between re-readings of Handy Manny The Best Repairman and Little Quack’s Hide and Seek I read Abby another book from our library trip this week, Cock-a-Doodle-Hoooo.  Since she’s quite the owl lover—and pretty fond of chickens (“Bock! Bock!”), I expected her to like this one and she did. Me too! Even thought it could be appropriate for our favorite nature course, Bayou Buddies at Sims Bayou Urban Nature Center.

Because Abby, my 2-year-old audience for children’s books, adores Please, Baby, Please, I dug out Please, Puppy, Please also written by Spike Lee and Tanya Lewis Lee and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. She liked it—at least she asked me to read it a couple of times. Personally, I would read an economics textbook if it were illustrated by Kadir Nelson. When I was little I adored the drawings of Eloise Wilkin (as I have mentioned) and with my own daughter I adored the drawings of Joan Walsh Anglund and Mary Englebreit, so I suspect that if I was a little reader today, particularly a little African-American person, I would be collecting Kadir Nelson books. So lifelike, so appealing. Now I think I need to get out Please, Baby, Please because we haven’t read it in a while. At the same story time we read The Search for the Perfect Child by Jan Fearnley. Would maybe grade this one a high B. It’s appealing and for several different ages but seems a little disjointed for probably that same reason. But the ending is adorable and just what any kid wants to hear: You are the perfect child!

Then, because it just happened to be in the same book basket, I picked out Llama, Llama, Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney. YEA! Abby let me read it all the way through to her. To be honest, she was strapped in her high chair at the time but she didn’t try to close the book or anything.

You have to understand that on a daily/weekly basis I read dozens of children’s books. Many of them multiple times.  In the same day. Before, I was reading them as a grandmother; now I’m trying to read them as a grandmother, sometimes even a mother, and as a child. Lends a different perspective.

I have read Elmo’s ABC Book by Sarah Albee many, many times. I’m including it here for two reasons: It is an ABC book enjoyed by both Aidan and Abby, and I downloaded it onto my NOOK. Back in my childhood, as an only child, I’m sure my mother and daddy would’ve been thrilled to have a more convenient way to cart books around to entertain me and as a young reader I would’ve been thrilled to not be limited to only getting to take two or three books along with me. Having been a backseat passenger with Abby last weekend, it was nice to have the diversion of Elmo for her. (I have several children’s books on my NOOK.)

Recent library trips have yielded some real gems for Abby and me (and the boys) to enjoy. Wee Little Lamb by Lauren Thompson has been requested several times. This is the same author as the Little Quack series but a different illustrator (John Butler). Different but just as good, more realistic. A sweet story.  Lettice, the Flying Rabbit by Mandy Stanley was a book I’d read to Aidan; Abby was not as fond of it, but I still think it is rather cute.  Abby asked for The Three Little Kittens by Anna Alter a couple of times; I could’ve been done with it after one reading. Odd, squinty-eyed cats rather bothered me. I didn’t have cats as pets until I was an adult and this book probably would’ve convinced me as a child to stay away from them. In contrast, I Love Cats by Sue Stainton and illustrated by Anne Mortimer is chock-full of adorable, lifelike, charming cats. And we’ve read this one often enough that Abby mimics words.  I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen didn’t interest Abby so I read it on my own. I don’t think the sense of humor is “modern” and I think this would’ve cracked me up as a kid. I probably would’ve made my daddy and grandpa read it to me often. I’m sending this one home to big brother Aidan and I’m going to check to see if I can buy a copy for Rowan. It’s that funny. To me. Michael Shoulders is an educator and lecturer (“Reading Is Magic”) and the author of Goodnight, Baby Bear, the dearest book I’ve read since Baby Cakes. This is a sweet book, great illustrations also (by Teri Weidner), and a repetitive pattern of story-telling that appeals to adult readers, little listeners, and beginning readers.

I’m giving up reading the Oz books, at least for a while.  Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz truly bored me with its absurdity. This one sounded more like a book written BY children than a book written FOR children. “People” made entirely of wood or who were vegetables? Earthquakes sending people falling through air they could’ve walked on? Piglets the size of mice? “Gestating” dragons? Gonna take a bit to entice me back to the Land of Oz.

And how odd that I’d next read a book written a hundred years after Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. John Green wasn’t writing books back when I was a child but if he had I surely would’ve gobbled them up just as I have as an adult. Like the young me read Nancy Drews or Beany Malones. Paper Towns is the second of his books I’ve read (I read Looking for Alaska a number of years ago), and I’ve already downloaded his newest book to my NOOK. Young Adult (YA) fiction is one of the fastest growing, most popular genres on the market today. Yes, there’s always been fiction for “older” children—what today are considered “tweens” or teenagers—but today’s books are on a more sophisticated level, often tackling problems most adults didn’t face 50-60 years ago. J.K. Rowling can be credited with a good deal of this publishing phenomenon. Harry Potter books are read by all ages. Personally I know an 8-year-old girl who just finished the series (yes, for real) and my husband has read all of them too. (A note: The Mysterious Benedict Society books, which I mentioned earlier, are for 7- to 12-year-olds but with the publicity NPR has given them by including them in their Backseat Book Club, no doubt more adults will discover them as I did.)