2.17.2005

Baby book review

This is Megan's current favorite book.  Posted by Hello
It just arrived in the mail yesterday and she's already run her fingers across the various textures on each page. The battle in our house is over which child of mine gets to touch which tail first. This despite the fact Logan refers to it as a "baby book."

I wondered if she'd take to books the way her brother had. Logan's always had a book fetish. We began reading together his first day in the hospital and never looked back. We read stories daily and now, at 31 months old, he's beginning to read himself. His favorite book, for this reason, is David Get's in Trouble by David Shannon. He's able to read most of the story to himself now - and that's before he had the tale memorized. There is a single sentence on each page. Simple sentences with the words Logan does recognize "No", "It", "My", "Not", and so on. He pulls it from his shelf, asks me to read with him...and then he reads me the story. Its an event I adore.

But part of that is just Logan being Logan. While our consistent story time certainly gave opportunity to nurture his passion it didn't create it. He just has it. There are plenty of children that are read to on a regular basis that enjoy books but don't live books. So we wondered...would Meg, given the same exposure, become a book lover.

Its early. She's only 5 months old. Its early but it seems the answer is hinting to yes. She was hours old in the hospital when we read "My Big Brother" together. Since then we read at least something each day - sometimes its a book her brother wants to read as we sit together. Other times its another of her seemingly favorite books - one of the Miss Spider genre. It seems the artwork appeals to her in those books, which is good since she now has four of them.

Reading calms Megan. A fussy girl will usually settle down and stare at the pages once you open a book before her. She likes to grab at the images. She likes to talk to the characters. Sometimes she does like to try to eat them too - and that's when we switch from standard picture book to board book or cloth book. The Tails book has really appealed to her though because its interactive. She can hear the words we read her as she runs her baby fingers across fluff and bumps. She can touch and stare at the shining foil inlay of a peacock tail or watch the wagging tales of the foxes. After just a day of owning it, Meg sees the cover come towards her and she kicks with glee.

SO its early. We have no idea what she'll think of her stories in a month from now let another a year, but so far, it seems she shares a passion with the rest of the family - and for that we're glad.

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