Pip’s Book Review
David read something a few months back that made me cry. And I wasn’t even pregnant yet. He read that about 30% of Dallas households with children under the age of three lack even a single children’s book. He and I both grew up voracious readers–he read encyclopedias from cover to cover and I read novels (shocking contrast, I know!)–so imagining a world without books is such a sad thing for us. We always have more than a few books on the nightstand for reading before bed and we have a truck load of books for Pip. I’ve been reading to her since she was just a few months old and, these days, she scouts them out on her own when she wants to read.
This is, hands down, Piper’s all-time favorite book:
It was a gift from her friend, Jake, many months ago and she has spent HOURS flipping through this book on her own, as well as reading it with Mommy, Daddy and Nana. It is a Richard Scarry-type board book for beginners, filled with familiar scenes (the schoolhouse, the firehouse, the carwash and garage, the grocery store) that are packed with familiar items (books, apples, slides, seesaws, hoses, cars, keys, etc.) Because her vocabulary is blossoming at such a steady pace, we “read” the book in different ways, depending on the moment. Sometimes we talk through the scenes generally, including how things work and what purpose each object has. Other times I teach her the new words on the page that I know she doesn’t know yet on her own. And then other times I say, “Can you point to the apple? Show Mommy where the apple is…” and then cheer wildly when she gets it right. These days, we use the last method the most frequently and she can identify so many objects that we are blown away.
Probably the hardest thing for her right now is when I point to an object and say, “What is this called, Piper? Do you know the name of this?” Though she knows what the objects are, she can’t quite form all the words, but she is improving in leaps and bounds–even if we are the only ones who understand her.
This is Piper’s other all-time favorite book:
It was given to her by some dear work friends at Oncor (thank you, Keith and Sue!) and she has spent many hours over the past several months flipping through the stiff pages and looking at the animals. I use the same method for teaching her the objects on the page and we also practice the animal sounds, when applicable (if you know the sound a chameleon makes, we are all ears). Often she can’t say the name of the animal, but when I ask her what animal it is, she makes the sound. This book has been a LOAD of fun for us and she has several favorite pages. Every time we get to the kittens and puppies page, she tries to kiss each of them. It is so sweet!
We read before naptime and bedtime and have been doing it for so long that she’s read some of her books hundreds of times and has since grown bored of a lot of them. From time to time, we’ll hit up Half Price Books or Barnes & Noble to add to her repertoire. This book came from Barnes & Noble, chosen specifically for Pip from Daddy on a Thursday Night Date Night:
She loves to make the sounds of the animals and touch the little fuzzy pieces in the book. And, thanks to Whitney in Play Group, we are now borrowing some books from the local library to help mix it up–I didn’t even know that the public library loaned board books!
This is a new purchase from Half Price Books that is great for adding to/testing vocabulary:
It’s a lot like the first two books and it’s great, mostly because this just happens to be the stage of learning that she’s in. I’m not a huge fan of some of the pictures (the dog doesn’t really look like an “average” type dog), so some of the objects are a little harder to identify, but it still works.
This book was a birthday gift from She-She (David’s mom) and is fun because 1. It’s Dr. Seuss, 2. It’s a board book with flaps that can’t easily be ripped off, and 3. It’s a train that stretches out over the pages and makes it fun and interesting to read:
This is Piper’s NEW favorite (that has great potential for making it into the All-Time Favorite category):
She spotted it from across the room at Half Price Books and screamed “Elmooooo!” I was surprised because her only prior exposure to Elmo was the talking Elmo doll at She-She’s house that has always been both intriguing and a little bit scary. And the book only shows the top of Elmo’s head and hands, so I didn’t expect her to recognize him on a book. After all that fuss in the store, though, we had to fork over the $3 for the book. She NEEDED Elmo… And so she will often call for Elmo throughout the day from the front of the house and I will take her back to the box of books in our room so she can retrieve this book and do a quick flip-through.
It has been so rewarding to watch Piper’s joy as she learns new words and puts all the pieces together in her mind… not to mention the sweet, sweet time of snuggling on our laps while we talk and share before bed! I’m not really sure what to do about the lack of children’s books in Dallas homes, but perhaps we need to look into serving with a literacy organization… or at least donate some of our books when we’re done with them!
Love y’all and hope to...