Month: December 2022

Reading children’s books

The designation “children’s book” means a book is appropriate for a child reader. It does not mean the book is only meant for children. A good children’s book is both appropriate for a child reader and enjoyable for readers of all ages.

I feel like this is an important topic because there are so many great books that are written for young readers but should not be limited just to that age group. A great children’s book covers important topics ranging from friendship, family issues, loss, and more. Readers of all ages can relate to these topics.

A few weeks ago, my mom and I visited the library book sale. As we searched through the stacks, I picked up a copy of Holly Goldberg Sloan’s “Counting by 7’s.” I handed it to my mom and said, “I loved this book. You should read it.” She added it to her pile to buy.

My mom read it, immediately understood why I thought it was so good and recommended it to someone she knows. You can visit my review of the book here: https://news.hamlethub.com/coscob/life/4099-on-the-children-s-shelf-counting-by-7s-by-holly-goldberg-sloan?tmpl=component. My mom and I are both older than the target audience for this children’s book, but as readers (and humans) we can appreciate this incredible story. If we focused on it simply being a children’s book, we would have missed out on a great read.

As an adult, I never let a book’s category deter me from reading. Some of the books that have had the biggest impact on me have been children’s and young adult books. What children and young adult books have had the biggest impact on you?

Holiday books, holiday decorations

Every December when I was small, my mom would pull out the holiday bins to decorate. Ah, I loved holiday bin day. She would begin decorating and I would look through all the boxes finding my favorite holiday things. We had this little toy bus with Santa riding on it…his head would move back and forth as the bus moved. I don’t know why I thought this was fabulous, but I did.

In between the decorations and ornaments were books…a few favorite holiday books that we packed away the previous January. Books I had forgotten about all year until I found them buried boxes. Books that suddenly pulled me in as I flipped through all the pages.

I’ve continued this tradition in my family. I pack a few favorite holiday books in the bins with the decorations to pull out the next year. When my children were small, they loved when I would pull the books out of the bins. They would flip through the pages. As they got older, they didn’t pick up the books to look through but occasionally would see one in the bin and say, “remember how much I loved that book!”

It’s just a few favorites (not hoarder level of books). The ones you don’t want to give away. The ones your children loved that you hope they read to their children someday and say, “this was my favorite book when I was your age.” While there will be years that you simply move the books to the side and don’t unpack them, just seeing those couple favorites in the bin will make you smile.

It might be many years before my children flip through the pages of the books in our holiday bins again, but I will save those favorite children’s books for that day. Maybe they will read it to a younger cousin or a niece or nephew or someday their own children. I just hope someday, in their holiday decorations box, they keep a couple favorite books from their childhood that will remind them of Christmas years ago when we read those stories.