book learnin'

Chins is quite the avid reader. Or rather, Chins is quite the avid sitter of laps, turner of pages, and squealer of delight. We have stacks of board books now (although he has, for the most part, moved on from tasting everything in sight), residing in bins and baskets around the house and in the car. Reading books is the first thing the pint-size (well, quart-size anyway) bibliophile wants to do when he wakes up in the morning and the last thing he does before bed.

This, of course, means that d.w. and I are always reading to him. Hardly something to complain about, except when it's your 74th time through Pat the Bunny in half an hour. After a while he doesn't even care if you're reading to him. He just likes the cadence of turning the pages.

As a public service, I thought I would share the books that make the rounds most frequently at chez zygote. Some are Chins' favorites, some are ones I think are pretty awesome. Well, awesome for baby books, anyway.

• Look, Look! by Linenthal. A favorite since Chins was only a few months old. Actually, I think this book was the first inanimate object he ever really noticed. Nothing but blocky illustrations in black, white, and red. Like baby crack, but without the batteries.
• Ducks in Muck by Haskins and Petrone. A story of clueless rednecks, wetland conservation, animal liberation, and daring rescue, told in a total of 30 words. What it was really about didn't even register the first few times I read it. Brilliant.
• I am a Bunny by Risom and Scarry. The story of Nicholas, a rabbit who spends his days lying in the sun watching birds, watching frogs in the pond, and chasing butterflies. Lucky bastard.
• Counting with Wayne Thiebaud by Rubin. "One piece of pie, two ice cream clowns, three sandwich slices, three pickle rounds." How awesome is that? But I think I'll steer clear of the Mapplethorpe edition of Everybody Poops.
• Bean, Bean's Games, Bean's Night, Bean Soup, Soup too? and Soup's Oops by Hines-Stephens and Hines. The epic story of Bean (a cat), Soup (a dog), and Baby (a baby). They have some adventures, make a little mischief, and all manage to quietly fall asleep together at regular intervals. Can my house have a little of that?
• Goodnight Moon by Brown and Hurd. How can you not love this book? Other than the fact that the author lazily tries to rhyme "Goodnight, Moon" with "Goodnight, cow jumping over the Moon", this book is pretty much perfect. The way it builds to a crescendo, and then coasts to the end makes me want to fall asleep where I'm sitting, even as Chins assertively hands it back to me to read again.

I can't possibly list all the books we've been reading these days. I've been meaning to put together a Compendium of All Knowledge Related to the Rearing of Offspring for this here weblog. Maybe I'll review a few more there.

But right now, I'd better get my book reading hat on. I think Chins will be waking up from his nap any minute, and I have a feeling I know what he'll want to do...

Comments

[Danielle in Iowa]

If he just likes the page turning, can't you read journal articles to him? Get some science done AND entertain the baby all at once!

[samantha Jo Campen]

Thanks for the list. I"m going to refer to that later. And yes, yes! Give me, I mean, your loyal readers, your Knowedge of Raising Offspring! And get on it as SOME people only have 4.5 months before putting any of it into practice.

[Papa Bradstein]

Funny how reading requires laps. 3B will tolerate it, if he must, in a car seat or on his changing pad, but what he really wants is to be in a lap while reading. No complaints from us--we love having him in our laps and reading to him.

[Art Nerd]

LOL @ Everyone Poops by Mapplethorpe. I love Wayne Thiebaud, I hope I get that book at my shower!

[catching it all]

have you all checked out SkippyJon Jones yet? New fodder for the reading boy! :-) and LOTS of laughs for boy's parents, too.

[mrs t]

Have you noticed in Goodnight,Moon that the clock's time keeps progressing? It takes forEVER to get that little bunny to bed. The Children's Museum in Bangor,Maine has a Goodnight Moon room that is a kid-sized version of that great, green room with the telephone, comb, brush, bowl full of mush. It's all there.

My husband used to joke that the bunny's NAME was Pat- as in Pat, The Bunny.

Some other good ones- his birthday's coming...- are "Goodnight Gorilla" and "Gorilla Grows Up", as well as several by Sandra Boynton- "The Going to Bed Book", "Not the Hippopotamus" and "Moo, Baa, La La La".