Because when your kids are reading, they're not setting fire to things
This post is sponsored by Chronicle Books. Who doesn't like books? Nobody I'd like to know, is who.
I made this video today, and the thing you need to know is that my film-editor husband was working so I put this together in iMovie by MYSELF and I am quite proud of me. Also, that is a terrible freeze-frame. Although really, is there ever a good one?
Did you enjoy my use of the iMovie music? Scott is rolling his eyes, probably, or he will be, when he sees this. This is not what this post was supposed to be about. Reading! It's about reading.
The Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure Novels are Chronicle’s new series for kids. They are similar in format to your classic Choose Your Own Adventure books, but, I think, more appropriate for kids of Henry's age and sophistication. (He wears a tux to bed.) Henry tore through all three of them within a week. There's one about the Amazon, one about Everest, and one that's Mars-themed. Here's the trailer for the Mars one. It's pretty great. (Almost as great as the video I recently created. Maybe you've heard of it? It's right up there.)
Want these books for a child in your life, or maybe for you? (I'm not going to judge you if you want them for yourself.) Leave a comment. What's the first book you remember falling in love (or at least deep like) with as a kid? Tell me! I'll pick a winner at random.
I remember my first book-love all too clearly. It was a picture book. Each page featured photos: heaps of pastel cookies, climbed on by curious, fuzzy kittens. I don't remember the story. I just remember the cookies and kittens. The kittens and cookies. It was a magical, soft-focus and probably unhygienic world, and I wanted to be in it. Eating the cookies, owning the kittens. I hope I was a toddler when I had this book, but who knows? I might have been twelve. I was probably not twelve. But I can guarantee you that if I had found that book when I was twelve, I would have kept it, and maybe looked at it every night.
Alice
According to Random.org, our winner is...
Ann! She loved Where the Sidewalk Ends, and she is not wrong about that. I mean, it's no kittens and cookies, but it's pretty terrific.
Reader Comments (119)
Cujo! I couldn't sleep for a week but I loved it.
The first book I remember loving was Hansel and Gretel - the original Golden Books edition with all the violence and abuse unedited. I remember my mom reading the witch's line "nibble nibble like a mouse, whose that nibbling on my house" and I always got to whisper the next line said by the children "it's only the wind" in my very best windy voice. I still have the book....but for some reason haven't introduced it to my own boys yet. Maybe soon.......
The very first book I fell in love with was called "who said moo". A delightful toddler book by fisher price I believe. I think I could still recite it verbatim lol.
The Night Kitchen. It was a pop-up book, I loved it, tore it to pieces. Also Tom Kitten, because I got a stuffed kitten wearing a straw hat. He was awesome.
I remember loving Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.
All time favorite childhood book - The Velvet Room. I wish I could find a copy of it.
Charlotte's Web, without a doubt, and I still have my childhood copy- including the picture of boobies my brother drew in the inside back cover.
My 10 yr old loves the choose your own , and would did these.
Pokey Little Puppy. Every adult in my life new that book front to back because I had them read it to me all.the.time. I'm sure they were sick of it. I named my first dog after that book too.
"Island of the Blue Dolphins" was my favorite for years. I still read it from time to time.
Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume and all the Little House on the Prairie books! Also less "literary" awesomeness like "The Babysitters Club". There was also a series about a boy called "Sprout" I think? I need to look for that for my boys.
I know I loved many books as a small child, but the series I most fell in love with was Anne of Green Gables. (And my son sounds very much like yours. I can not stand reading the various Star Wars 'novels' etc., where every character has a crazy name and they are so badly written. But Sometimes he lets me read him "Little House on the Prairie.")
What sold me on Alice in Wonderland (my first favourite book) was this exchange...
"The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, screamed 'Off with her head! Off — '
'Nonsense!' said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent."
Green Eggs and Ham. I realize that's not very original. But I was obsessed.
Even when I read it now, the pictures give me this intense feeling. I would stare and stare at them. I think I even had dreams about it.
Next was Charlotte's Web. And then a short time later The Secret Garden. I can't get my daughter into this but she defintely took after me with the Dr. Seuss obsession.
I have no idea what my first great book love was. Probably Ramona Quimby, Age 8, which I think was the first of those books I read. Other early front-runners included Harriet the Spy, A Wrinkle in Time and The Story Girl.
I loved the book MARTHA MATILDA O'TOOLE by Jim Copp. The art was so lovely and the rhyming story about a girl who goes to school but forgets everything tickled me every time.
When I was very little, it was "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss. When I could read on my own, I fell in love with the entire series of "Little House on the Prarie" books by Laura Ingals Wilder. I was also quite fond of the "Borrowers." (Does this date me? I think it might...)
Meanwhile someone should start a business that does nothing but create sexy freeze frames. All mine have my mouth open and my eyes half-closed. I look like I'm doing You Tube ads endorsing eating pot on your oatmeal.
I found the cutest website with magnet necklaces for mom and daughter. I just bought a set for daughter Becky and me to wear on mom’s day! That will be fun. They have these red hearts with plastic ladybugs glued on them. They are held to the necklace with magnets. Loved the designs. Well, happy mother’s day to all the moms. www.britebuttonz.com
Shirl Hinkle
I have two boys who would love these books. The first books I fell in love with and devoured were the Nancy Drew series.