Tales of Life with a Girl on the Go

I try to rotate the books that we’re reading, really I do. I haven’t been doing as good a job as I should’ve, I guess, based on the scene that played out at Reid’s bedtime or Monday night.

First, Ken read Biscuit Loves Father’s Day. I had high hopes for this one since he’d begun by commenting about it’s nice that dads are in Father’s Day books, unlike in many of the other books we own. Now that I think of it, he did say something about the Father’s Day books being more about the kids than the dads but I didn’t consider it a real problem. Until Ken started reading the book aloud. He read about “Bisquick” who says “Meow! Meow!” in the places that Biscuit says, “Woof! Woof!” I didn’t pick up on the switch the first time. Reid didn’t object until the little girl was calling Bisquick a nice kitty and then she objected to such foolishness.

I offered Go, Dog. Go! as the second book but Reid said, “no” and Ken expressed approval of the decision. I thought he liked that book – maybe he used to. Instead, I passed him *The Mitt* by Jan Brett. I knew from his sarcastic, “oh, great” that we were in trouble. He pointed out the intricate designs surrounding the main picture saying, “These are the illustrations that mamas like.” Naturally enough, Reid asked, “And daddies.” Of course, Ken said daddies didn’t like them. Next he pointed out how the next animal to enter the story was featured in the miniature illustration of each page. Finally his comments were making both Ken and I laugh so much that Reid had to resort to a smiling, but firm, “Stop it, Daddy!” to get him back under control.

I’ve since measured the book shelves we have devoted to Reid’s books. There are approximately 9 linear feet of bookshelf dedicated to Reid’s books. This doesn’t include the 13 books in her backpack of the various volumes scattered around the house. I haven’t counted the 33 we currently signed out from the library. In short, we have many books but apparently not enough of them.

Thank goodness for the library, I say. I’ve a book with recommendations of authors and books that I need to use to order books from the library. It’s hard to choose kids’ books based on their spines. With Reid, especially, it can be a mad grab of books from shelves before she finds another bright, appealing book in another area. When I’m on my own, even, I’m impatient. Often I choose several books by the same author since they’re all together in one place. This falls apart when the authors tend to repetition. For example, “Franklin could count by two’s and tie his shoes.” gets old rather quickly. But not for Reid, of course.

I read the last stories of the day and find that it’s comforting to read a familiar story. I think it’s like spending time with an old friend while settling down. Okay, maybe part of it is that familiar books lead to fewer questions and less discussion – normally good things but not so much so at bedtime.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Books, Daddy, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.