Favorite Childhood Books
There are always fond memories of traditions and things that you remember most when you were younger. I know with having my own children, I have always tried to carry down all the special things that I remember doing when I was little.
Some of my favorite things were Christmas time at my grandmother’s house when me and my mom would come over in the days prior to the big shindig and helping her decorate the nearly 15 dozen sugar cookies for the event. She made cookies and could cook like nobody’s business. I come from a huge family and I am one of nearly 30 grandchildren, and family was always a big deal when my grandmother was still here.
My husband and I read to our boys nightly before bed and it has become one of their favorite times in their day. They also have some favorite books that they repeatedly pick up for us to read. They love the Llama Llama series by Ann Dewdney, and we also read the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne. Even though they have outgrown the Llama Llama series, they still love to hear them read and look at all the whimsical pictures.
When my mom read to me it was a favorite time for me, and there was one book that I still remember and still love even as an adult. It was The Big Tidy Up by Norah Smaridge. It was about a little girl who had a messy room and her mom refused to touch with a mop or broom from now until Christmas Day. I still remember the words “Jen picked up stuff, blew away fluff, shook out the mats, and hung up her hats.” Eventually we had read it together so much, that the binding and cover virtually disintegrated off the book and the pages began to tear. So, I went on a search to find it. I began to get disheartened when I saw that the available copies were selling up into the $300 range. Eventually the reprinted the book in 2008, but today, when I went to look they are no longer in print again! So, I started looking on ebay, because I wanted something from my childhood, that I could sort of hang on to. Luckily, I came across the original book, in good condition, from the first 1970 printing and I got it!
Now, the trip to the mailbox has new meaning for me. I can hardly wait to get it and read it to my boys. I will of course be hiding this book safely out of the boys’ hands, but I am looking forward to sharing a little piece of my childhood with them.
What are some of your fondest childhood memories or books?
Smitten by David Gordon
April 21, 2009 by Laurie
Filed under Books, Product Reviews
The boys have an absolute love for reading books as one of our nightly routines. There is a stack of books by the bed and they both love being able to chose what will be read for the evening. They simply adore the books with bright illustrations and they love a good story. They are huge fans of the Trucktown series of books by Jon Scieszka and they love all fun characters.
We recently had the opportunity to review a couple of books by David Gordon. He is one of the illustrators for the Trucktown books, so naturally I was really excited to read these books to the boys. David Gordon has done conceptual work for the Pixar/Disney blockbusters Toy Story, Toy Story II, and A Bug’s Life.
Smitten is an adorable tale of an unlikely meet up of a sock and a mitten. Both of them are missing their other half. They set off in a big city to find their other halves and wind up getting in some predicaments and discover along the way that they were meant for each other. What a terrific way to introduce to your children friendship through diversity. I won’t give away the whole story but it is such a great book and my boys love it. They already know what is happening on each page and like to sit and read the book to my husband and I (in their own words, of course). I made them their own sock and mitten and drew faces on them and they like to act out the book.
