Our Lil' Book Worm

Our baby sweet potato girl is a book worm! Her head teacher has confirmed she loves books and more so than any of her classmates. She LOVES "Circle Time," always eager to sit beside her classmates in a semi-circle for daily reading time.

Her definite very first favorite book was "Sounds" from Hinkler Books, part of their Baby's Firsts series. It simply features images of all sorts of things with the sound each makes written across the page bottom. She will still bring this book over, climbing into my lap, ready to hear me read the sounds.

Her second favorite book was a solid tie between Piggy Toe's "Ten Little Ladybugs" and Harper Festival's "Cow Moo Mee" - - she still loves them both, although only recently did she rediscover the "Ten Little Ladybugs," eager now to point out and identify all the different bugs and animals.

Her third favorite book is from Cartwheel Books, "It's Spring," by Samantha Berger. Our lil' sweet potato still really loves this book, nightly, and now points at each of the animals featured, trying each time to use the sign for birdies.

Her fourth favorite book is one of my very favorites - the illustrations are so darling - from Chronicle Books, "My Friends," by Taro Gomi.

Her fifth favorite, a well known classic, "Goodnight Moon" from Harper Festival. This book didn't hit her favorites list though until she was about 11 months old.

We have tons of books for her to read, including a number of great Priddy Books, and nearly a dozen from the fantastic Touchy-Feely board books series by Fiona Watts from Usborne Publishing, but all the aforementioned "Top 5 Favorites" have been the ones she wants read to her, over and over, sometimes each read repeatedly in one sitting.

Not until her first birthday, did she really add new titles to her Top 5 Favorites rotation. It should be noted that we haven't yet been able to trust her to handle paper-page books with care, so the majority of the books we read and give her are all board books... but she has, like, 30 or 40 of them now since her first birthday for which I'd encouraged people to give her board books ~ yay me! Lookin' out for my lil' book worm!

Sooo, her latest BIG BIG favorite that she wants read every night now (along with "Goodnight Moon" and "It's Spring") is a Sandra Boynton board book from Little Simon books, "The Going to Bed Book," given to her for her 1st birthday. She loves this book and will point to all the animals, and she will turn round and look up at me, wanting me to identify each of geanimals as she points to each of them, like the moose and the rhinoceros.

A recent new favorite is another Harper Festival pub, "Harry the Dirty Dog." She goes nuts pointing out all the doggies and birdies and trees and flowers and the butterflies and she just gets soooo excited. She doesn't really let me read this book though - - she wants to flips through the pages faster than I can read them.

Another new favorite is "The Paper Bag Princess" from Annick Press. I think it's the voices I use though to read it that she finds the most amusing - - she doesn't yet know/recognize/appreciate this lil' books fantastic message for young girls. I'm really looking forward to the day I can try to teach other similar lessons, especially important for today's growing girls.

Lastly, the book for which I'd written a blatant plug last week, "On the Night You Were Born," from Feiwel and Friends... It isn't yet on her favorites list, but it's getting close (due to repetition) and all the ladybugs on one of its pages near the book's end. Ha!