writing assignment: children's library

via travlinoma's school days

~Do you have recommendations for books that haven't been mentioned yet? Who would enjoy them: a little girl, a 10-year-old boy, the whole family? Is it a read-it-yourself, or a read-it-to-me type book?

~If you were giving just one book to an infant grandchild, what would it be? A friend suggested Clotilda by Jack Kent. I like A You're Adorable by Martha Alexander. What's your favorite?

~Do you remember a special book from your childhood? Who read it to you?

children's books. ahhhh. a subject dear to my heart. Where do I even start? As a newlywed I began building a children's library enthusiastically, long before any babies came to me. I've continued adding to it since the arrival of my wee ones; story time is precious at our home, especially at bedtime. Some we have enjoyed most with our boys: Where the Wild Things Are, it's just so timeless and boyish, Tough Boris is short but precious with a story unfolding in the illustrations, Good Night Moon is quite easily a perfect bedtime story, and Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever is filled with silly and interesting illustrations and charming short stories. A wonderful gift for any family, I enjoyed it tremendously as a little girl and now my little boy is thrilled with it. Same goes for the classic Little Golden Books like The Tawny Scrawny Lion and Tootle; they never get old. For older children and adults, Number the Stars is lovely, and my sweet husband never lets a school year go by without reading Where the Red Fern Grows aloud to his students. I read it in fifth grade and cried so hard I vowed never to read it again. But it is wonderful. And every girl should read Anne of Green Gables at some point in her life. Plain and simple.

An early reader (but a late everything else), I was captivated by almost anything readable. Biographies. Picture Books. Novels. Two favorites, aside from my Nancy Drew collection, come to mind. First, Nine Days to Christmas. I remember it from the first grade, when I'd make a beeline for this book at every class visit down the hall to the library. I adored it week after week. It's out of print now, but my husband tracked down a used copy and gave it to me as a Christmas gift two years ago. Romantic, no? The other book is The Giant Jam Sandwich and I think I loved it because it It's silly and rhyming with fun vocabulary, plus it involved summer and strawberry jam, both of which make me happy. I'm so pleased my kiddo enjoy it as much, over and over again. I'll stop now, though the list goes on.