Books!

This week Facebook told me that the author of one 

of our favorite children's book series, Anna Dewdney, 

had passed away.  If you have small children or

work with small children, you will likely recognize

her as the author of the Llama Llama book series. 

I personally love that series - and Max loves to 

point out the expression on the llams's face

when he's "mad at mama" or when llama

is supposed to be sleeping but is instead "calling

for his mama" (story of my life when putting

Max to bed). Mrs Dewdney died of brain cancer, 

at the age of 50 (this is also unfathomable to me). 

In lieu of a funeral service, she requested that 

her friends and family read a book to a child instead. 

This just got me thinking about all the of the reading

we do with Max.  Generally, our reading occurs

at night time, as the water is filling for the bath, 

and then after bath but before we turn out the lights. 

We also like to play "library" where we take all the 

books off his shelves and bring them down, arrange

them in rows, and read them one by one.

It's honestly something I look forward to

and enjoy probably as much as he does. 

He's always negotiating the number of books

we will read before turning out the lights 

and notices immediately if a new book

has been added to his shelves. 

We change the books frequently - and the 

shelves are often sprinkled with library books, 

as well as books we own. I've been known 

to put out special books for the holidays

and we even did a book per day with our

elf last year. I guess, all this to say, I find such 

a comfort in reading and I'm glad that Max

does too. 

If you need a a few ideas for new books

for a little one in your life, I made a collage

of the ones we've been reading frequently with 

Max above.

Max the Brave - the story of a fearless kitten who is supposed
to be chasing mice, but the mouse tricks him into chasing
a monster.

MAX - the story of a seagull who befriends the local
fish and chip shop owner.  Eventually the owner moves
and Max has to find him in a new city.

It Came in the Mail - (Max loves to get mail and
peer inside the mailbox, so I knew this would
be a hit).  The main character in the story, Liam,
writes to his mailbox and is surprised when the
mailbox responds!

Let's Go to the Hardware Store - (this book
seemed lame at the library...but Max loves
it and we read it every night). Dad, Flora, the
narrator all make a trip to the hardware store -
and talk about all the tools they see inside!

Pom Pom Panda - the story of a little Panda
who wakes up on the wrong side of the bed -
and nearly everything that happens afterward
bothers him.  (I like to substitute Max's name
for the main character and then talk about
how we can turn our day around if something
makes us mad).

Orange Like an Aardvark - the story of some
carpenter ants who are very nervous every time
they drill a hole that an aardvark might be
waiting to chomp them!

And of course - any book that involves
Maisy the Mouse (at one point I think we had nearly
every Maisy book checked out from the library), Peppa
the Pig (Max will actually talk with a British
accent sometimes, just like Peppa and George), and
Elephant and Piggy (every book has some kind of
important underlying message.
Happy Reading!