Book love
I love books. My kids love books. We also love to share the books we’re crushing on to spread the love around. Here are our picks from the past month.
Up and Down
I discovered this in Ernie’s sock drawer a while back and felt a little bit betrayed. Can you tell we don’t keep secrets from each other? Turns out it was my birthday present and he’d even had it inscribed! It was an entertaining read, although ridiculously far-fetched and it could have been shorter. Funny thing is that Alex was totally smitten with the pic on the cover so now he’s started reading it. For realz!
Danny the Champion of the World
This was Ernie’s fave when he was a kid, so it’s no surprise that Alex and Jack both love it. Ernie reads it to them at least twice a year, and it was the first chapter book that Alex read on his own. It’s classic Dahl – great morals wrapped in a funny/nerve-wracking/awesome adventure. My only grievance is that it’s got that familiar dead-mom storyline, à la Bambi, Finding Nemo, Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, Ratatouille… the list goes on. Sigh.
Bear Feels Sick
If your month’s been anything like ours, there’s been a lot of tissues, OJ, honey, Vicks VapoRub, and Halls. Par-tay! We’ve always enjoyed the bear books, despite the fact that there’s nary a parent in sight. Nary! Jack’s been loving this one lately between his coughing fits. Gotta love winter.
Ten Apples Up On Top
I don’t know what it is about this one, but each of my munchkins loved it at around age one and a half. Lola’s in that phase right now – she keeps pulling it down from the bookshelf, flipping through the pages, and trying to count the apples. Until she realizes that she’s desperately starving and refuses to be distracted until I give her an apple. At which point Jack picks up the book she’s tossed aside like yesterday’s diapers and starts sounding out the words. So… it’s all good.
And you can maybe guess how much we’ll be reading over the next two weeks…
Hate winter. Love winter Olympics. GO CANADA!!!
Read anything good lately? Leave a comment below or email us to share!
CRUNCH compass 
Re. Danny the Champion of the World: I don’t worry too much about the ‘dead mom’ aspect. I look at it more as a ‘single parent’ scenario, or a ‘marvellous single dad’ scenario, but mostly as a ‘non-formulaic family that is perfectly wonderful’ scenario. (Us non-formulaic families love encountering other such groupings in our books!) This one is a rather new favourite of mine, I hadn’t even heard of it as a kid. And now that you’ve reminded me of it, I think I’ll pull it out to read to L…
And Ten Apples Up on Top I read about a zillion times as a kid! Good one.
cheers!
Thanks Kim – that’s an excellent perspective. I’m not a fan of the absent mom/evil stepmom stories but am probably too sensitive. Danny is so great on so many levels. Hope you and L enjoy!
Yeah, the evil stepmom is another thing entirely, I don’t like that one at all.
Here’s another angle on the ‘dead mother’ I just thought of: if done well (not lightly or flippantly or just for effect), it’s also a model for kids who are ready to start contemplating the topic of death and grieving, it’s good for them to see someone who has lost someone so important, surviving and thriving. Life goes on.
Another excellent perspective! You’re right Kim – Dahl does talk about Danny’s mom quite wonderfully, so that probably was one of his intentions after all. I never thought of that. Thank you for sharing!