Bookworm Moments: Still Requesting New Picture Book Purchases
July 22, 2019
My daughter is nine now. She has introduced graphic novels, novels and some nonfiction into her reading repertoire. But I am happy to report that she still loves picture books. We don't read them together as much these days, but I frequently find little piles of them on the floor around the house. She is especially drawn to picture books at times of physical or emotional distress.
She received a few picture books that she had really wanted for Christmas (the Bears on Chairs books by Shirley Parenteau and David Walker, e.g.), and we've continued to check picture books out from the library. However, I have been ramping down purchases of picture books for her. If anything, I'm trying to reduce the number of picture books that we have in the house, so that we have room for things like furniture.
The other day, however, she happened by my computer as I was reading a news story about the publication of a new Pigeon book by Mo Willems. There was a big screen shot from the book at the top of the article. She stopped dead in her tracks and said: "Is THAT a new PIGEON book?" On learning that it was, she promptly began her campaign for me to purchase The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! I was not all that hard to convince, truth be told.
But it didn't stop there. As we were ordering the book she said: "Hey, are there any new Bob Staake books? You know how much I love books by my friend Bob Staake." (She cherishes a book that he autographed to her as his friend a while back, and considers The Donut Chef to be one of the best books of all time.) A search revealed one that was not new, but that we didn't have and that she could not live without (The Red Lemon). This, too, was added to the cart.
I'm sure she would have kept going given any encouragement. Although I really am trying to cut back, she knows my weaknesses. And, like my daughter, I am a sucker for picture books.
Thanks for reading! I've decided to start tagging posts like this that document a little incident in my daughter's reading, but that aren't really milestones, "Bookworm Moments." Stay tuned for more.
© 2019 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage.