*there's books

I know a little girl that loves books. She loves them so much that she asks to be read to in the middle of a party. That party was Will's birthday party, which doesn't speak well of our ability to entertain, but it makes for a sweet story about a book lover.

Will already has an awesome collection of children's books and he loves to look at them. Thanks so much to everyone that gave them to him as baby and birthday gifts. He also gets a book in the mail every month until he is 5 years old from Books from Birth. For that reason I try not to buy him too many. But they are one of my favorite things to shop for. Since I can't get them all I did want to keep a record here of ones I hope to read with him in the future.

The Boy Who Changed the World
The Little House or any of the Caldecott winners
anything by Shel Silverstein, Eric Carle, Kevin Henkes, Todd Parr

Some new discoveries:
Beautiful Oops
Give Me Grace
God Gave Us You
The Art Book for Kids 1 and 2 
Count on Us: A Tennessee Number Book
V is for Volunteer: A Tennessee Alphabet
K is for Keystone: A Pennsylvania Alphabet

Some for me to read:
I Love Dirt!
First Art: Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos
How Children Learn
The Creative Family
Creative Play for Your Toddler

Some classics:
Danny the Dinosaur
Harry the Dirty Dog
Corduroy
The Giant Jam Sandwich
Harold and the Purple Crayon
the Mr. Men and Little Miss collection (So far we've read Mr. Perfect.)

and just to make sure we don't miss something:
1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

With the upcoming holidays in mind, I took Will to our nearest bookstore to spend a gift card with intentions of getting The Elf on the Shelf. As I looked through it I realized he will appreciate it much more when he is a little older so I decided to save that one for the future. My back-up was Olive, the Other Reindeer (which is a Christmas book about a dog with an identity crisis - who doesn't want to read about that?) but I couldn't find that one. As I looked around for something else I noticed that book titles have changed recently. I'm usually all for any tactic it takes to get people to read and I understand that books need to evolve with the times. I don't care if the book is about something silly because at least its reading. So maybe A Pirate's Night Before Christmas* (see below) is just what today's kids need. But I'm close to drawing the line at Dick and Jane and the Vampires.

I can't decide if I think the cover is horrible or hilarious. He is scary and they are smiling. The whole thing is just odd. But Dick and Jane taught me how to read so if it helps a kid that likes vampires learn to read then who am I to object?

We ended up leaving with this one:

*or one of these:
Texas Night Before Christmas 
Dinosaur's Night Before Christmas
Hillbilly Night Before Christmas
An Irish Night Before Christmas
Cowboy Night Before Christmas
Nurse's Night Before Christmas
Racecar Driver's Night Before Christmas