Story time is the best time of the day. Whether we're snuggled up on the couch or cozy in our pjs before bed, reading stories with my little ones is one of my favorite things to do. Everyone has a favorite book they remember from their childhood, and every day, parents and kids are discovering new classics of their own. There are many fabulous children's books out there, some of which everyone knows about and others we would have never discovered had my son not simply pulled a random book off a library shelf. I created this blog to share some of these wonderful stories with you. Think of it as a year's worth of the best children's books around, since no day should be without a great story. In the end, I hope we'll all have discovered at least a few new titles that will have made their way onto our list of family favorites. Enjoy!







Saturday, February 7, 2015

Day 239: All By Myself


Recently, we have been revisiting some of our favorite classics. My daughter, now four and a half, is old enough to enjoy most of the books my son (7) loves to read. While this has always been true to an extent, there have been times where the level of books my kids wanted to read varied such that it was difficult for me to read them the same book at the same time. Once my daughter had the attention span to read longer stories, however, this got easier. As a result, though, I found that I had inadvertently neglected to read her some of the stories that were my son's favorites at that age. It wasn't that he didn't like those stories anymore, but rather, they often were overlooked in favor of other stories. (The fact that those thin little paperbacks are so easily lost on the shelf or in the bottom of the book bin doesn't help, either.) Fortunately, my daughter recently found our collection of Mercer Mayer's Little Critter stories, and she has been hooked ever since.

I wrote about my favorite, Just Go To Bed, way back on Day 32. I can say with 100% certainty that anyone who has ever tried to rein an energetic little one into bed will both adore and relate to this story (perhaps all too well!) As you can probably guess by the picture above, All By Myself rings equally true to parents and children, alike. Little Critter can do so many things by himself: get dressed, brush his fur, tie his shoes, color a picture. And of course, there are some things he says he can do which could really use a little more practice. There is one thing, though, that he can't do on his own -- and that is go to sleep without a story. Sweet and fun, this is one of my daughter's new favorites, and I was surprised to realize that I had not yet featured it here on this blog. If you have a preschooler and have not yet discovered these gems, we highly recommend them!