Do You Love To Read?

Does anyone else sigh if their toddler chooses a book they really don’t like reading and try and encourage them to pick something else up? I particularly don’t like books that have been written as a condensed version of a children’s film, or around characters that are on television. For some reason those books just don’t seem to flow correctly and I always feel obligued to try and sound like the characters.

Some of the books we have I have been reading for fifteen years and I have to admit to being quite bored with them, a lot of them I know off by heart and don’t even need to look at the pages.

At Christmas and birthdays I spend a lot of my present budget on books, I can spend hours looking for books and obviously having children of such different ages means they are so diverse.

When Big H was little I used to spend hours reading to him and I would look forward to and plan which book I was going to read to him at bedtime. We would often spend up to half an hour reading snuggled together in his bed. I didn’t enjoy reading ‘Prince Caspian’ to him as much but am sure that  my love of reading is the reason why he was a fluent reader of books by authors such as C.S Lewis and Tolkin at five years old. Even now he still reads avidly, the range far greater than I have ever read. I don’t know how he does it in between working for his GCSE’s, Facebook and Playstation but he does and I’m so pleased that his siblings have followed suit.

I have digressed, back to toddlers which is what the whole point of this post is. When Big H was tiny some of his favourite books were about PB Bear. Can you still get those books? I read them occasionally to Little M but they’ve lost their appeal a bit after so long. They are an excellent way of encouraging interaction with reading though and if there is anything similar out there I would thoroughly recommend them. If you haven’t seen them, the books about a little bear have lots of pictures inserted instead of words so that the child can help ‘read’ the story. I remember that the books could take so long to read that bedtime was often extended. Another ‘interactive’ book that I do still love is ‘A Country Mouse in the Town House’. I still love looking for the mice and the ten peas that are hidden on every page.

I love the ‘real’ pictures in Dorling Kindersley books.

This book, ‘Monkey Do!’ has been a favourite of ours for years. I could recite the words to you. We love this cheeky monkey.

These are a few of our other favourites

I could read this story about poor neglected Blue Kangaroo and his owner Lily every night.

My Penguin Osbert is a fairly new addition to our house, probably two or three years ago. It’s a beautiful story though and I’m just pleased that my children haven’t taken any ideas from the little boy Joe who got what he really wanted for Christmas.

An author we particularly enjoy is Jill Murphy, I love her stories about the antics of The Large Family a family of elephants and an exhausted mum and dad. ‘Peace At Last’ another of Jill’s books depicts one torturous night for a very tired Daddy bear.

So what is your favourite book to read to your children? Or is there one in particular that you really don’t enjoy reading? I’m always on the hunt for new books to read.

Tagged as: children, reading, Toddlers