Reading Moms

Shelving those gift books

By Anne Boles Levy

I'm probably the only mother who insists we don't need kids' books for Chanukah. None. Zero. Nada. Naturally, my relatives ignore me. Books are easy: they always fit, they're not a choking hazard, they don't get recalled. What's not to like?

Trouble is, these gifts, however well intended, just get tossed on the pile. And it's a big pile. At last count, we have 200 picture books on hand. This is after donating 150 to Katrina victims last year and an equal number to various school teachers, friends and a favorite literacy program. When we sold our house in August, a trunkload somehow never made it out of our Toyota Echo -- now in a Self-Stor in California.

We moved to a two-bedroom Chicago apartment generously termed "cozy," which would be accurate if we'd stopped growing at three feet tall and only ever stood sideways. Our main furniture is, unsurprisingly, shelves, uniformly covered with pulped trees.

If there's a spare inch atop a dresser, it sports a plastic bin of board books. And every few days there's a Post-it on our mail slot from the UPS elf. Boxes keep coming, as reliable as this city's legendary wind.

The cause of so much largess: I review children's literature at my blog. I couldn't possibly critique all the titles I receive and still keep track of whether my kids have eaten or bathed this week, but publishers are a hopeful lot. Once you get on their lists, it is forever. The universe may be flying apart and we will all be cosmic dust someday, but I'll still be somebody's best friend at Random House.

This isn't a terrible problem to have, I admit. For Seth, each day brings new discoveries or a happy reunion with a long-lost, dog-earred friend. He gets veto power over what stays or goes, a lesson I learned after a few meltdowns.

But what to do about Chanukah presents? One relative called from a store the other week, where she was browsing -- guess where. The book section! What did Seth already have?

Sigh. Where do I begin?

Anne Boles Levy lives with her husband and two children in Chicago.

The grown-up point of view

By Rachel A.

One of my favorite childhood memories is of my mother sitting at the foot of my bed, reading me chapters from a book before I fell asleep. Even when I was a fluent reader, books seemed better when she was reading them -- she used great voices for all the characters!

I try to recreate that atmosphere for my children. We read between two and four picture books a night, and then I read one or two chapters of whatever book I am reading with my older daughters (ages 6 & 8). My youngest (3) tends to fall asleep during the chapter book, but some stories keep her attention, and she doesn't fall asleep until the room grows silent, and I read my own book quietly. I hope this nightly routine will help turn them into avid booklovers.

It is so interesting to be the reader for these nighttime book-fests. My perspective is so different than when I was a kid. Things my mind bleeped right over as a kid jump out at me as an adult. Books I loved as a kid become questionable when I read them to my children. When I talked to my mom about this, I found out she verbally edited the content for several books. I haven't been alert enough to do that. Plus we listen to a LOT of audio books, which limits the opportunities for editing.

The chapter book we finished most recently was "Matilda," by Roald Dahl. I loved this book as a kid, and we read my childhood copy of the book, complete with cover that has been taped on a few times! The sweet, quirky illustrations are the same, and the story is still wonderful.

However, reading "Matilda" as an adult was different. I was horrified by the way her parents treated her, and the school she attended was worse than a nightmare. As a child, I had been thrilled with the idea of being left alone every day by my parents to read and go to the library! In today's world, though, even my kids found the idea rather frightening. 

The stories of the Headmaster harming children were horrifying to all of us, so far beyond our frame of reference. Even my homeschooled kids wished they could have a sweet teacher like Miss Honey, though! We were joined in our love of Matilda and our astonishment and excitement at her precocious reading and other skills, and then later her ability to move things with her eyes.

My 3-year-old managed to stay up late enough so she could hear the last couple chapters, as we were all waiting for the happy ending. It does my book-addicted heart good to see them so excited about a story, and so sad when it ends.

Despite the very happy ending, we all finished "Matilda" wishing we could know what happened after the last page. That, at least, was no different from when my mom was reading to me!

Rachel lives with her husband and three daughters in a small house near the New England beach. 

Library treasures

By Sarah Rachel Egelman

Every week my 2 and a half-year-old daughter, along with the woman who cares for her while I am at work, goes to the library for storytime. Afterward, she is allowed to browse and read and pick books off the shelf, selecting some to take home. When I come home on those afternoons I am always excited to see what she has selected. Excited and, I admit, nervous. 

Some of her favorite books (and, like her mom, she is a bookworm: she has several books memorized and reads them to us all the time) are not ones I really like. It isn't that they're awful, it's just that I find them dull, or unoriginal, or the illustrations are less than attractive. I would never insult her choices: reading, even to a toddler, is about personal preferences and is an opportunity to learn and explore. Still, on library days I hope she brings home some of my favorite authors and illustrators, as well as some of her own. 

What I really like is when we both fall in love with a book together, a book whose pictures and words we can lose ourselves in, a book that transports the two of us to a new, perhaps faraway place, or one that gives us something to talk about all week (and long after).

Here are some of our recent favorite library finds.

• We love Molly Bang! For almost a year "Ten, Nine, Eight" was a favorite bedtime story. Recently, my daughter checked out "In My Heart". I really love the funky pictures, not to mention the story (more of a poem, really) about a working mom who loves her job but always keeps her son "in her heart" when she is away. It is really beautiful.      
  
• "Flyaway Katie" by Polly Dunbar is also a cool and unique book. It's a short tale about Katie, who is a bit bored and a bit gray and thinks the bright picture on her wall would be a better place to be. So, with a fancy outfit and some imagination she manages to spend the afternoon there until it is bath time.

The past two weeks Lilith has come home with books by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. First was "Look! Look! Look!" written with Linda K. Freidlaender. The illustrations remind me of Clare Beaton in this story of three mice who take a painting and deconstruct it visually in order to understand shapes, colors, patterns and other components. This week she brought home "Pumpkin Day," which is full of imagination and discoveries.

It is, of course, far to early to say if Lilith and I will have the same taste in literature. But, I am excited to watch her grow as a reader. She already likes poetry (Robert Louis Stevenson and Mother Goose!) but will she find the magic of e.e. cummings appealing? Will she discover Vonnegut and Kerouac in high school? Will she, as a grown women, dive head and heart in Rushdie and Rhys, Austen and Kafka, just like me?

Most likely we will share some of the same reading passions while each having our own unique tastes.

In any case, I am proud she is off to a good start, and that she is already a great patron of the library.

Sarah is a community college instructor and freelance book reviewer who lives in New Mexico with her husband and daughter.

"Ode to Joy" and other book news

By Julie Moos

In her New York Times Magazine essay on the new edition of "The Joy of Cooking," Jennifer Steinhauer writes:

"My relationship with 'Joy of Cooking' was never remotely monogamous, a particularly tawdry confession given that the cookbook has shown only love for me, the busy American woman who longs to feed her family a home-cooked meal almost every night.

"Yes, I was a tart. (Or perhaps a frosted yellow cake.)"

You can read more here on the way we eat.

Also in the news recently:

• A sequel to "Peter Pan"
• Theirs is a series of fortuitous collaborations
• Bay mum's anger: library for books, not games
• Bookworms walk the red carpet at Quill Awards
• Passing the pen down to the next generation

Julie is a writer and editor who lives with her husband and son in Safety Harbor, Florida.

Harry Potter podcasts and more

By Julie Moos

If you haven't yet tuned in to podcasts, there are some great ones for booklovers in general and parents in particular.

"NPR: Books" takes the best stories from the week and combines them into one podcast you can listen to in the car or wherever you are. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and some publishers offer podcasts that include interviews with your favorite authors and the latest book news. There's even a Shakespeare podcast.

For kids, Scholastic offers a Harry Potter podcast and there are several other Hogwarts ones as well. There's a Narnia podcast, and some comic book podcasts.

Do you listen to podcasts or books on tape? Which ones?

Julie is a writer and editor who lives with her husband and son in Safety Harbor, Florida.