I can't help it. I just love picture books. I love the pictures. I love the words. I love how the pictures and words work together to tell the story. I love cuddling up to my mom and listening to her make all the voices...but now I'm the mom so I have to make all the voices myself while Rachel cuddles up to me.
I used to read every juvenile book that came into the BYU library when I worked in the Acquisitions Department. I would read every single picture book (and skim through the novels) and still process more books than anyone in the department (not that I'm bragging or anything). I loved it. I read hundreds of picture books each semester.
Since I stopped working there, I've kind of missed reading children's books, although I have enjoyed the novels I've devoured in the last few years. I'm definitely glad to be able to walk into the public library and proudly pull picture books off the shelf and check them out. It's a nice feeling.
Our favorite book right now is Quanti Colori by Alex Sanders. It's an Italian board book that I purchased from the BYU bookstore.
At first I wasn't sure how much I liked it. It was a cute enough story, but rather simple (most board books are) and I thought the pictures were less than entertaining. But that just shows how wrong very my initial impression was.
Emma loves the book. She'll have me read it over and over, but only in Italian. If I try to read it in English to her she tells me 'no.'
Rachel also loves the book. I was reading it to her while we were waiting for her doctor's appointment yesterday and a lady commented that she actually seemed to be looking at the pictures so I started watching Rachel closely to see if she really was--and she was!
It makes sense though, because the pages inside are white and the bunny is white with a black outline (he slowly gets colorful by bouncing in grass, eating strawberries, jumping in mud puddles, etc) and babies her age enjoy stark contrast. According to our "Baby Milestones" chart by "very best baby" babies start to perceive color differences at 3 months. It's fun to see her so interested in the pictures of this book and ignore pictures in books that have what I would consider "better" artwork.
I love picture books too! Every year for Christmas, I give my grandparents a children's picture book, that they then read to all their progeny present. It's usually Christmas or Church related. I'm the oldest grandchild and randomly started this tradition about 9 years ago. They're in London right now, serving their mission at the temple, (which is where I'm going for Christmas - sorry I never clarified that!), so last year I read the book. This year, Grandma will get to read to me again. Yay!
ReplyDeleteAs for the other comment I just saw - yay for recipe sharing! What kind of food does your family like to eat?
Hey Nancy! I have a serious picture book addiction at the moment. I had to think long and hard about whether to ask you to get me a copy of Quanti Colori for Lincoln. It sounds like a fun book and I love Italian. I collected about a million books for him this summer (really abt 400!) at some of the amazing garage sales they have around here. Let me know if there is anything you are looking for. I may just have it. I am trying to slow down.
ReplyDeleteThis is random and in no way related to the post, but I like the header! How did you do it?
ReplyDeleteI did it in Photoshop. I measured the pixels and made my canvas as big as the header. Then I checked what color it was and made that color in photoshop to apply to the background. Then I cropped my pictures to the right size--with a feather so that they have the blurry border--and moved them all onto the canvas with the green background.
ReplyDeleteSaved it as a jpeg and then uploaded it (there's an option to add a picture to the header).
It took awhile to get the dimensions of the pictures to work out well, but it was kind of fun to work out.
Nancy we love picture books, but while I hold a few special favorite (Max the Minnow is AWESOME...I love the ones in verse because they are so easy to memorize making it easy for me to recite while Ezra is hogging the book to get a better look at the pics) I prefer to load up my bag at the library each week so each week we have twenty or so new books to read. It is just as exciting for me as it is for Ezra the first time through...then it gets a little less exciting until by the end of the week I'm thrilled to get him back to the library. It's never to early to get Rachel in there. We have a great program here called baby lap time where they read and sing to the kids for a half hour. It's fun.
ReplyDeleteWe like going to the library, too! I should check out story time--I'd totally forgotten about that!
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