Thursday, January 20, 2011

story time

story time
the other night, the hippie snapped this grainy phone picture of me reading to the babies before bedtime, and i just adore it in spite of it's somewhat crappy quality. i absolutely love reading to the boys, and i do it every single day, even if we're late and there's no time to dedicate to reading. the boys also love books--it works out. when finn first went into daycare, his favorite toys there were these lovely cloth books just made of heavily patterned cloth sewn together. i was delighted! (by the way, i have tried like crazy to find these books to buy somewhere--i can't. i am sure they wouldn't be too hard to make, but i don't have that kind of time laying around, unfortunately. but i digress...)

both boys love board books, and lately, kieran's been moving more and more into true story books, which is great fun for me. in my youth, i had aspirations to become a children's book illustrator, and i guess i've never lost my love of the field. i had a few books on hand before k was even born, and now, neither of us can expand our collection quickly enough. his current favorites are little blue truck. harry the dirty dog, the cat at night, and going to sleep on the farm.

last night, i learned the hard way that reading where the wild things are before bedtime is a MISTAKE. critter got all wild and crazy and was chasing the hippie through the house with a stuffed dragon, roaring at the top of his lungs. when i said it was time for bed, he burst into tears, and wailed at me, "no mama! i rawring!!!" cute, but not exactly desired at 9pm...

anyway--the point is, if there are awesome story and picture and cloth books you guys love or have known a little one to love, we'd love to hear about it. we're in the market for more good books!

4 comments:

Kristin said...

i will probably add a few posts about this here and there...as i think of them...:) one i like (off the top of my head) is Llama Llama Red Pajama...we LOVED (well, i still love and can recite) Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We had a collection of cloth books (filled with batting)that were sold at our church bazaar...I know that doesn't help you immediately, but maybe you can look for similar events where older women would be crafting...gosh, that really doesn't sound very nice, does it?

Kristin said...

and again....not sure if this is what you are looking for...target.com has Dexter Cloth Books (available online); here are a few more choices: http://shopping.yahoo.com/search?p=cloth%20books OR search on amazon.com :)

jackie said...

the books i am talking about were just patterned cloth--kind og like quilt blocks made into books. they had busy brightly colored fabrics--so like one page would be fruit, the next stars, the next little robots, the next flowers, etc. there were no stories or primary images anywhere--it was just lots of colors and patterns, and he LOVED them. i have other cloth books that are just books that happen to be soft, but none of them have had the same appeal. i've looked EVERYWHERE, even on etsy--i think i just need to make my own. (in my free time...)

Kristin said...

Those cloth books sound wonderful! I thought of another one I personally love (boys may not, yet, but it ALWAYS makes me cry b/c it is so beautifully written - I used it last year in 2nd grade as an excellent example of description...both the assistant and I were crying at the end which I'm sure made more of an impact than the words. It will be perfect for you since the mom in the story has 2 sons.) It's called I Love You the Purplest.