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As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Screen Free Week is being observed this week, April 29th - May 5th. Random House has been urging families to Unplug and Read. As you might infer by the fact that I'm blogging right now, I'm not going screen free myself. However, I am attempting to keep my 3 year old daughter, Baby Bookworm, free of screens. Because she never uses screens during the day anyway, this mainly consists of three things:

1. Not letting her use the iPad in the morning after breakfast (something that I often allow, so that I can read the paper, shower, etc.).
2. Not letting her watch television in the evening (we sometimes watch a movie or television episode after dinner - she's currently in the middle of Season 1 of Full House). 
3. Not using my iPhone when she is around (because this makes her want to play with it). 

So how are we doing on these three things?

1. Monday morning she cried for a few minutes over not using the iPad. But then we did some gymnastics, pretended we were taking an airplane to Los Angeles, and read two books. Tuesday morning she didn't even ask for the iPad, wanting instead to play a game in which I was the baby, and she was the daddy. I convinced her that "the baby" wanted to read books, and she went and dug out some of her early baby books for us to read together. Wednesday morning, again, no request for the iPad. We did puzzles, read several books, and packed up for a pretend trip to the beach. 
2. Monday night she protested quite loudly about wanting to watch "a movie" (she calls everything on the TV a movie). But only for a couple of minutes. Then we went into the playroom and played Little People, and she went on a pretend camping trip with my husband. Tuesday night she asked a couple of times for television, but was even more easily deflected by puzzles and pretend camping. We also read a lot more books before bed than usual, because we got started earlier (see stack to the right).  
3. Not looking at my iPhone screen when she's around has been the hardest one for me. Baseball scores! Facebook! Checking my email! But I don't think that she has even noticed. This one is going to be a lot harder on the weekend, when I'm with her all day. 

We're only a couple of days in, but already, I'm noticing a few things.

• It doesn't take very much time to make or break habits when you're dealing with a three year old. I was surprised that on the second day she didn't even ask for the iPad. It's possible that we'll get the to end of the week, and she'll completely stop asking for the iPad at all. 
• When she's not watching TV or using the iPad, she is engaging in more creative play. We did at one point pretend to be watching television, I must admit, but she was perfectly happy to pretend, and didn't ask for the real thing. While I do think that she learns some things on the iPad (we have apps that are helping her with letter recognition, for example), I have to think that active pretend play is more beneficial at this age. We are also reading more books, which is certainly a good thing. 
• I think that the reason she is ok with giving up the screens (which she loves) is that she gets more of mommy and daddy's time and attention. If I was trying to send her off to play by herself in the mornings, I don't think that this whole thing would be very successful.

There's no question that this is a sacrifice in terms of my time. I feel like I'm starting off every day behind, because I get so little time to myself in the mornings. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to continue after this week is over. But there's also no question in my mind that this Screen Free Week is having good outcomes for my daughter.

It's not too late to jump in to Screen Free Week, if any of this sounds interesting to you. My personal view is that it's a good excuse to look at how much time your kids are spending on screens, and see what happens if you scale that back a little bit. I'll report back again after the end of the week. 

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

This post is the third of a series (here are number one and number two) in which I have been highlighting some of my daughter's favorite reads. She just turned three, and her tastes do not always coincide with mine (as highlighted below). Here are eight books that she has been especially enjoying over the past month:

1. Kiss! Kiss! Yuck! Yuck! by Kyle Mewburn (ill. Ali Teo & John O'Reilly). Peachtree. Reviewed here. This is a book that I've had for years, ever since reviewing it back in 2008. It pops in and out of favor with Baby Bookworm, but she's been requesting it lately. It's about a little boy who runs away from the sloppy kisses of his Auntie Elsie, but then misses those kisses when Elsie is unable to visit for a while. It's funny, and a bit touching at the end. I think that Baby Bookworm is just at the right age to find the idea of kisses being "yucky" entertaining. 

2. A Bedtime for Bear by Bonny Becker (ill. Kady MacDonald Denton). Candlewick. Reviewed here. The grouchy Bear and "small and gray and bright-eyed" Mouse are always popular with Baby Bookworm. Lately she's been requesting A Bedtime for Bear at bedtime. Could be because it's a relatively long picture book, or because she is just starting to appreciate the humor in Bear being scared of the dark. 

3. Nini Lost and Found by Anita Lobel. Random House.Reviewed here. This is a book that I love, despite not being at all a cat person. It's about a housecat who sneaks outside. Nini enjoys exploring the woods until things become a bit scary after dark. She makes it home safely, of course. I think Baby Bookworm likes the fact that this book is scary in the middle, but ends up safe and cozy at the end. 

4. If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff (ill. Felicia Bond). HarperCollins. Baby Bookworm was introduced to this series (which starts with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie) by her cousins. She received a boxed set of five small books in the series, and she requests them constantly. In truth, I find them hard to read aloud without falling asleep, due to the repetition. But Baby Bookworm loves them, especially If You Give a Moose a Muffin (she is partial to muffins herself). 

5. The Peace Book by Todd Parr. Little, Brown. This is a book that Baby Bookworm picked up from the library. It lists various definitions of things that are related to "peace" in some way (some of them quite tangential). For instance, wearing different kinds of clothes. The book shows children of various (and unearthly) skin colors. Baby Bookworm quite enjoyed it, but I found it a little too overtly message-y for my taste. 

6. The Dark, by Lemony Snicket (ill. Jon Klassen). Little, Brown. Review coming next week. This book is fabulous, and is a favorite with our whole family. I won't be at all surprised if it turns out to be award-winning. Not only is it a great read, with gorgeous illustrations, but I think it actually has helped Baby Bookworm in coping with fear of the dark. At the very least, it inspired me to buy her a night light. 

7. The Teeny-Tiny Woman by Paul Galdone. Sandpiper. This is another library book that Baby Bookworm became fascinated with. I was a little surprised, frankly, because it's kind of a creepy story. It's about a "teeny-tiny woman" who goes for a walk, finds a bone in a graveyard, brings it home, and is subsequently hounded by a ghost. But it's fun to read aloud. "Teeny-tiny" is repeated almost enough to make it a tongue-twister.  

8. The Three Bears, by Byron Barton. HarperFestival. Another library book, this 1991 edition of the classic story is very straightforward, with uncomplicated illustrations. It was a nice introduction for Baby Bookworm to the three bears (she also has a doll that shows Goldilocks one way and the bears another way, but she hadn't known the story until now). We read it over and over again. Rather than buying her this version, though, I think we'll just try out some others, and see which ones she likes best. 

What books have your children been enjoying lately? Do you find them clamoring for you to buy them copies of favorite library books? We had to do this once lately, after my daughter would not let me return Soup Day by Melissa Iwai. Fortunately, she had a birthday coming up! 

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This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Today is my daughter's third birthday (can you believe it?). I suppose that I'll have to stop calling her "Baby" Bookworm eventually. But not quite yet! In honor of her birthday, I'd like to share some of our favorite birthday books. 

Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton. Workman. Board Book. This has been one of our family's favorite read-aloud books since Baby Bookworm was tiny. My husband especially enjoys it (and he tends to be very hard to please when it comes to children's books). We've read this one so much that is has entered into our family vocabulary. Like if it happens to be 6:08 someone might say "It's 6:08." Then someone else would respond, "Your present-opening can't wait." Birthday Monsters is a book that truly lends itself to reading aloud, and showcases Boynton's genius. 

Happy Birthday, Little Pookie by Sandra Boynton. Robin Corey Books. Board Book. This has been another longtime household favorite. Baby Bookworm especially loves it when Pookie is so excited to start his birthday that he wakes his parents up at the crack of dawn (they later need a nap). Hmmm. Perhaps we shouldn't be reading this one around Baby Bookworm's birthday after all. This book inspired us to acquire all of the other Pookie books, but I think this is the best of them. 

Scaredy Squirrel Has A Birthday Party by Melanie Watt. Kids Can Press. Picture Book. Reviewed here. In truth Baby Bookworm is still a little young to appreciate the humor of this one. But it is one that all Scaredy Squirrel fans should own. Basically, Scaredy tries to plan his own, completely safe, birthday party. But when his friend dog becomes involved, things change (becoming less safe, but more fun). There are tons of tiny details in this book to entertain adults or older children. But Scaredy's cuteness will appeal to younger readers, too. 

Happy Birthday, Hamster by Cynthia Lord (ill. Derek Anderson). Scholastic. Picture Book. We are big Hamster fans in our house. See my review of Hot Rod Hamster. Not sure why I never reviewed Happy Birthday, Hamster, but I can tell you that we read it all the time. It's taken Baby Bookworm a while to completely appreciate what's going on in the story (Hamster's friends pretend that they have forgotten his birthday, only to surprise him at the end). But she loves all of the birthday trappings (cake, presents, balloons, etc.), and the participatory nature of the story (the text asks, frequently "Which would you choose?").

A Birthday for Bear by Bonny Becker (ill. Kady MacDonald Denton). Candlewick. Early Reader. Bear and Mouse are also popular in our household year-round (see my reviews of A Visitor for Bear and A Bedtime for Bear). Baby Bookworm gave a little gasp of joy when she spotted this book in the Early Reader section of the library. She enjoyed it so much that the Easter Bunny put a copy in her Easter basket this year. Although technically an Early Reader, A Birthday for Bear reads much like the other books in the series. Baby Bookworm especially enjoys pointing out Mouse in this one, even as he disguises himself as a mailman, and even as Santa. 

The Cake that Mack Ate by Rose Robart (ill. Maryann Kovalski). Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Picture Book. This one is only loosely a birthday book. It's about the entire food chain that's required to produce a birthday cake, a cake that is, sadly, eaten by Mack the dog. We have a paperback edition of this book, and it's one that we frequently take on trips with us. It has a nice cadence for reading aloud, and never gets old. 

And finally, two books that aren't birthday books but that end with birthday parties (and with which we always sing Happy Birthday).

Bear's Busy Family by Stella Blackstone (ill. Debbie Harter). Barefoot Books. Board Book. This was more a favorite when Baby Bookworm was a bit younger, and I still know it by heart. It celebrates the different things that various family members do ("Smell the bread my Grandma bakes", etc.). At the end, all of the family members and their contributions come together for a feast for Baby's birthday. 

Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers (ill. Marla Frazee). HMH Books. Various Editions (we have the lap-size board book). Reviewed here. This book remains one of our all-time favorites. Each page spread features a different aspect of the life of babies. For example, "Every day, everywhere, babies are fed." Then rhyming text, and pictoral vignettes, give more specific examples (in this case, of what babies eat). Frazee's illustrations include multicultural babies, and families of all types. But Baby Bookworm just likes seeing so many pictures of babies. At the end of the book, a baby celebrates her first birthday.

We have other books floating around the involve birthdays, but these are our favorites. What are your family's favorite birthday books? 

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Baby Bookworm also had another little literacy milestone this week. She came running in from her playroom, all excited, waving an orange marker. "Mom, I drawed an A." Alas, the A was drawn on the floor, and didn't actually look a whole lot like an A. But she gets that drawing letters is an accomplishment, so that's something to celebrate.

Thank goodness for washable markers. I don't know how any parent manages without them. 

This post © 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.

Last month I did a post sharing Ten Recent Favorites from Baby Bookworm (Almost 3). That post was well-received, so I've decided to try to make this a monthly feature. Here are eight titles that have sparked requests of "Again!" recently, in no particular order (though I can tell you that her favorites right now are numbers 6 and 7 below). 

1. Louis the Tiger Who Came from the Sea, by Michal Kozlowski & Sholto Walker (Annick Press). Back in 2011 I reviewed this, saying: "I recommend Louis the Tiger Who Came From the Sea for preschoolers and early elementary school kids, or anyone looking for a laugh. It would make a good classroom or library read-aloud, with engaging illustrations and delightfully dry humor." Baby Bookworm definitely misses some of the humor in this one, but she still loves it. Whenever we see a tiger in another book now she says "like Louis". (See Making Connections Between Books and Day to Day Life)

2. Ella Sarah Gets Dressed by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (Harcourt). Ella Sarah Gets Dressed is a delightful picture book (we have it as a lap-size board book) about a little girl who knows exactly what she intends to wear, despite the best efforts of her family members. When her friends show up for a tea party as elaborately dressed as she, Ella Sarah is shown to have made the right choice. I think it's pretty clear why my almost three year old daughter, who is just learning to dress herself, enjoys this one ;-)  

3. Big Mean Mike by Michelle Knudsen & Scott Magoon (Candlewick). I reviewed this one before reading it with Baby Bookworm, and in truth I didn't expect her to "get it" for a while. But she greeted her very first read with peals of laughter, as being followed around by four little fuzzy bunnies caused embarrassment for a big, tough dog. This one is a little bit longer than many of the books that we read, but remains a favorite. And it's one that my husband and I think is quite funny, too. 

4. How Many Jelly Beans? by Andrea Menotti & Yancey Labat. I reviewed this one last year, saying "If you are looking for a book for preschoolers that conveys the concept of large numbers, How Many Jelly Beans? is an excellent choice. It's bright and creative, and the foldout section (displaying a million jelly beans) is a wonderful surprise." I also warned of the "risks of tearing of the pullout section", and that fear has been proven out in our household. But we keep plenty of tape around. Baby Bookworm talks about this book all the time. She doesn't understand the numbers past about 20, I don't think, but she talks about Emma and Aiden and their dog as though they were real. And she adores the fold out section.

5. The Fox in the Dark by Alison Green & Deborah Allwright (Tiger Tales). In my review of this one I noted that while I found the illustration style a bit distracting, it was a nice text for reading aloud. This has continued to be true. It's one that Baby Bookworm will ask for, especially in the evenings. She loves to chime in when we get to the page where the fox in the dark shows up on the rabbit's doorstep. I've found (for good or ill) that a number of the book's rhymes stay in my head between readings. Honestly, it's one that I've come to appreciate more and more over time. 

6. Corduroy by Don Freeman (Viking). Corduroy was a book that I had put on my Amazon wish list before Baby Bookworm was born. We received a copy from a dear friend back then, but for whatever reason (an abundance of books, I suppose), I only introduced it to Baby Bookworm recently. As I had hoped, she fell head over heels in love with Corduroy on the very first read. She feels so strongly that she's compelled to interact with the book. On the page where "no one ever seemed to want a small bear in green overalls" she always chimes in with "I do!". She also likes to pretend that she thinks that our stairs are a mountain. Such a happy thing when your child cherishes a book that you love. (In contrast, Where the Wild Things Are fell completely flat - I have put that back away until she's older). 

7. Soup Day by Melissa Iwai (Henry Holt). Soup Day is a book that I would probably not have picked up on my own. Baby Bookworm selected it on our recent library visit, and we have read it dozens of times since. It's a fairly simple story about a girl and her mother making soup on a snowy day. They go to the market for vegetables, they cut them up, they mix everything together, etc. It's one of those books that packs in a lot of education. There is counting and color recognition ("three long orange carrots, four smooth tan potatoes", etc), shape recognition ("the celery and onions become tiny squares"), and examples of following the steps in a recipe. I think it may be that Baby Bookworm is at an age in which she likes to cook with me herself, and she likes to test her own knowledge. So this book works for her. She'll miss it when the time comes to return it to the library. 

8. Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin (HarperCollins). I have a review pending of this new picture book, about several monsters who love to "scribble, scribble, mix, dance, and wiggle." The book starts out with several monsters in primary colors. They then do some mixing, to color several smaller, gray monsters with secondary colors. Baby Bookworm identifies with the smallest gray monster, who has the chance to be purple snatched away from him (though he gets rainbow coloring as a consolation prize). She will bring this book up in conversation, reminding us that "the little one wanted to be purple."  

This post © 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.

This weekend I took my daughter, who is nearly three, to the library. It had actually been a while since we'd been the library together, and I noticed a three things that increased Baby Bookworm's excitement in reading:

1. Self-Selection. Being able to pick her own books dramatically increased her excitement in reading said books. The few books that I picked out, we haven't read yet. The books that she picked out? We've read several of them 5 or 6 times already. We read her top picks (the favorite was Soup Day by Melissa Iwai) in the library, as soon as we got home, after nap, before dinner, etc. Her selection process was pretty random, but apparently empowering. 
2. New Books and Authors. Just having new books by new authors also increased her excitement in being read to. I've been guilty of not visiting the library very often because we have SO many books in our house already. But I must say that we spent more time reading yesterday than we have spent in ages. There's something about having new books in the house, books that we will only have for a limited time, that increased Baby Bookworm's excitement in reading. New authors, too. She is now crazy about Rachel Isadora's books, especially The Pirates of Bedford Street and Uh-oh!. 
3. Familiar Characters. Seeing familiar characters drew her attention. She spotted the early reader A Birthday for Bear by Bonny Becker and Kady MacDonald Denton, and scooped it right up. We have all three Bear and Mouse picture books (see two reviews here), and for her, seeing a book about Bear that she hadn't read was like finding a friend unexpectedly waiting at the library. Of course this recognition of familiar characters can be a bit of a mixed bag, as some of the characters that are familiar because of television shows do not inspire the highest-quality books. But for us, with a child who doesn't really watch television shows, this seeking out of familiar characters worked out great.

These particular benefits of going to the library may be obvious to all of you. They should have been obvious to me. One of my Ten Tips for Growing Bookworms series (written before I had a child) was Visit Libraries and Bookstores. And of course there are other benefits of going to the library, too (storytime is good for socialization, the whole environment reinforces the importance of books, etc).

In our case, I think that the large quantity of picture books that we already have in our home has made me a bit lazy about packing up the child and taking her to the library (I mean, we have plenty of picture books here that we haven't read to her yet). This weekend's library visit has inspired me to reprioritize a bit. Yay for libraries!

This post © 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.

Here are ten titles that Baby Bookworm (who is nearly 3) has been asking for repeatedly of late. 

Jim Averbeck: In a Blue Room. Harcourt. This lovely bedtime book was a baby gift from Becky Levine. We've read it off and on since then, but it's recently been in high demand. Last night, Baby Bookworm took this one to sleep with her. 

Esther Wilkin: Baby Listens (Little Golden Book). Random House. This is a reissued Little Golden Book that arrived on our doorstep recently. Each page features sound effects for something in a baby's world (a ticking clock, etc.). While I find it a bit dated ("snap goes Mommy's pocketbook"), Baby Bookworm is endlessly fascinated by babies, and frequently takes this one to bed with her, too. 

Cathleen Daly: Prudence Wants a Pet. Roaring Brook Press. This is a book that I reviewed a couple of years ago, and that Baby Bookworm ran across recently. I don't think that she completely understands it (a girl is so desperate for a pet that she takes on all sorts of random objects, like a branch and a spare tire, as "pets"), but she finds it funny anyway. She especially likes the scene in which Prudence treats her baby brother like a pet, and feeds him grass. 

Kelly Ramsdell Fineman: At the Boardwalk. Tiger Tales Press. This is a book that I reviewed more recently, and that went immediately into our rotation. It's about everything that takes place on a boardwalk across a day, in rhythmic poetry. Baby Bookworm especially loves a scene in which kids play in puddles in the rain. We have actually misplaced this book of late, and she's been wandering around the house saying "Boardwalk book, where are you?". We'll have to get another copy if it doesn't turn up soon. 

Stephen Savage: Where's Walrus?. Scholastic. Where's Walrus was a book that I enjoyed during my reading as a Round 1 judge in Fiction Picture Books for the Cybils last year. It didn't make the shortlist, but I stuck it on my Amazon wish list. I purchased it for Baby Bookworm for International Book Giving Day, and, as I expected, it was an immediate hit. She likes hunting for the walrus on every page, though some of the humor is over her head right now. 

Charise Mericle Harper: Pink Me Up. Knopf Books for Young Readers. Pink Me Up is a book that I reviewed right before Baby Bookworm was born, and kept for a time when she would appreciate it. This book, about a girl who "pinks up" Daddy when Mommy is too sick for the Pink Girls Pinknic, has been a favorite for months. Some days, BB asks to be "pinked up" when she gets dressed. Sometimes she requests "purple me up today", which I think shows good understanding of language. 

Jon Klassen: This Is Not My Hat. Candlewick. This recent Caldecott-winning book and the earlier I Want My Hat Back have both been favorites of Baby Bookworm from the first reading. I think that the minimalist text appeals to her. She seems to mostly get the humor, but she has a more optimistic take than I do regarding the fate of the small fish, and the rabbit. Both were recent review books (This Is Not My Hat and I Want My Hat Back).

Robin Farley: Mia: The Easter Egg Chase. HarperFestival. Three books in this series have arrived from HarperCollins in the past few months, and I really must review this one. While not exactly my cup of tea, these books (about Mia and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cat, as they celebrate various holidays) captivate Baby Bookworm. A page of stickers included at the end of the book helps a lot in this. There is also a series of Easy Readers about Mia, which I'm sure we'll be checking out soon. 

Ann Bonwill: Bug and Bear: A Story of True Friendship. Amazon Children's Publishing. This is a book that I received as a potential review copy from Marshall Cavendish several years ago. I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, but it's become a favorite of both Baby Bookworm and myself after repeated reads over the past few months. In the story, Bear wants to nap, and keeps telling pesky friend Bug to go away. She says "hmmph" a lot. So now whenever anyone else says "hmmph", we say "like Bear." Don't you love when books become part of your common vocabulary?

Are posts like this of interest? Should I do more? While some books stay favorites for months, others pop in and out fairly quickly, so there is plenty of variety.

What are your children's favorites these days? 

This post © 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.

Baby Bookworm (at nearly 2 1/2) has four categories of books:

1. Books she is not interested in at all (refuses them completely when offered);
2. Books we have read once that she didn't like. When offered them again, even weeks or months later, she'll say "Already read that one";
3. Books she says yes to pretty much every time they are offered (subject to the occasional mood for something else); and
4. Books that she actually requests. 

The fourth is the smallest category (see some examples on my Pinterest board "Baby Bookworm's Favorites"), and tends to be temporary (she'll have a passion for a particular book for a week or a month, and then it will fade).

Two books that have remainded in category 4 for probably a year now are Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny Too, by Mo Willems. These books were a baby gift from my friend MotherReader (who is quite possibly Mo's #1 fan), and remain a huge hit with all of us. (And yes, we have Knuffle Bunny Free, but Baby Bookworm doesn't totally understand that one yet, and so doesn't tend to request it).

So now, after a long-winded introduction, I come to today's story. Knuffle Bunny (referred to as "Launrdymat book" in Baby Bookworm speak) was lost for several weeks. Until this morning, we were always too busy when the request came in to do a thorough search. But today, being a long weekend, after yet another request for "Trixie Laundrymat book", we did some exhaustive searching.

And oh, I wish you all could have seen Baby Bookworm jump for joy when Knuffle Bunny was discovered (unharmed) underneath the couch. Her joy was akin to Trixie's joy in the book when the lost Knuffle Bunny is discovered at the laundromat. We immediately sat down to read Knuffle Bunny, and then Knuffle Bunny Too. And life was good again.

Pretty neat, I thought, life imitating art like that. I also love that Baby Bookworm already has particular books that she loves, and seeks out, and misses when they aren't there. 

Parents, if you do not have the Knuffle Bunny books in your home, well, this is the highest endorsement that I can think of. They are kid- and parent-friendly, funny yet touching, and don't lose their charm even after hundreds of reads. Trixie ages throughout the series, so if you have kids anywhere from 1 to 8, at least one of the books will probably be a hit. 

I suspect we'll be reading Knuffle Bunny quite a lot over the next few days. I couldn't be happier. 

This post © 2012 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.

Our Baby Bookworm is six months old today. Because she was born early, her corrected age is about 3 1/2 months, but she's catching up fast. She weighs 13 1/2 pounds. Her favorite thing in the world is her thumb (she discovered thumb-sucking about 2 weeks ago). She also loves a little stuffed monkey that Nana sent her, and a little white security blanket. She is for the most part sleeping through the night, which is a big help.

And she is aptly named. She does seem to enjoy books already. I sometimes read to her from The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh while she's playing on her activity mat. She'll calm right down and curl up on one side, thumb in mouth, while I read. As soon as I stop (unless she's fallen asleep) she's back to kicking and looking around. We finished reading the first Harry Potter book a few days ago. I'm still thinking about our next chapter book.

Baby Bookworm also likes to look at picture books and board books while she's lying on her stomach - I hold them up in front of her and turn the pages. Her two current favorites are Who Do You See?, a taggies book (a gift from Sarah/aquafortis) and The Goodnight Train by June Sobel (a gift from Alexis and family). The Goodnight Train is the first book with complex illustrations that has really caught her eye. She looks all over each page, taking it all in. Who knows what she's thinking... What Do You See? is much simpler, but she never tires of it. It's one of the few things that she'll grab on to (it helps that it's nice and soft for chewing, I'm sure).

Happy Half-Birthday, Baby Bookworm. Our lives changed forever with your arrival, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Today I will be sending out the new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's books and raising readers. There are 1280 subscribers. Currently I am sending the newsletter out every 2-3 weeks.

Newsletter Update: In this issue I have a review of a new middle grade novel, along with two children's literacy roundups (one from Rasco from RIF and the other from The Reading Tub). I also have an announcement about the Cybils, an announcement about a recently study on the benefits of print material from RIF, and a list of recently published books that have been catching my eye. Finally, I have a post about International Literacy Day and a literacy milestone from my own home.

On the blog but not in the newsletter this month, I shared a press release about a book donation project dedicated to strengthening inner city schools in Los Angeles, and a farewell post to the Booklights blog from PBS (where I was a contributor).

Reading Update: The only book I've finished reading for myself these past couple of weeks is The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter (reviewed below). I'm currently reading Epitaph Road by David Patneaude, and listening to The Lion by Nelson DeMille.

I'm reading aloud both the first Harry Potter book and The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh (alternating depending on my mood) to Baby Bookworm. I'm also reading her many board books, and a few picture books. My favorite of the board books is Kiss Good Night by Amy Hest, illustrated by Anita Jeram (Candlewick), a gift from Lara N. I'll write about that more later this week.

Baby Bookworm's favorite remains Little Duck Says Quack by Judy Dunn and Phoebe Dunn (because it actually makes quacking sounds). She's also showing some interest in Oh Baby! Go Baby! (a board book ed

Today is International Literacy Day. According to the International Reading Association website:

International Literacy Day, traditionally observed annually on September 8, focuses attention on worldwide literacy needs. More than 780 million of the world’s adults (nearly two-thirds of whom are women) do not know how to read or write, and between 94 and 115 million children lack access to education.

What can you do to celebrate International Literacy Day?

• Support a literacy organization by following them on Twitter or Facebook, blogging about them, or donating time or money. A few ideas: RIF, Reach Out and Read, First Book, Everybody Wins!, NCFL, the Reading Tub, CLIF, Paper Tigers, Free the Children, and Room to Read.
• Read with a child, or with an adult who has trouble reading.
• Download the new issue of Literacy Lava, an online magazine dedicated to family literacy activities.
• Preorder A Family of Readers: The Book Lover's Guide to Children's and Young Adult Literature, by Horn Book Magazine editors Roger Sutton and Martha V. Parravano (Candlewick). This book is about choosing books for kids, and nurturing a love of reading. I haven't seen it yet, but there are some excerpts in this month's Horn Book Magazine, and it looks like a winner.

I'd also like to share my own domestic literacy milestone. This week my daughter, Baby Bookworm, turned her first pages of a book. She's five months old (a bit less than three months when corrected for prematurity). If I prop up a board book next to her when she's lying on her back, one with relatively thin pages, she'll bat at the pages a bit. And if she happens to get a page to turn, she'll push it further, so that she can see the illustrations better. It seems to be intentional, though I could of course be projecting. Her favorite titles for this activity are:

• Little Duck Says Quack by Judy Dunn and Phoebe Dunn. Random House. This is a photo essay with a very brief story about a duck, from egg to birth to growing up and meeting his "special friend." There's a sound button to make the duck quack. BB LOVES it! She smiles every time she hears the quacking. And she likes the illustrations. I think it's the fact that it's photos - they really catch her eye. I received this from Random House along with the similar Little Puppy Says Woof. She doesn't care for that one as much.
• Animal Soup by Todd H. Doodler. Golden Books. Review copy from Random House. This book features mixed-up combinations of animals. Like Tiger + Rhinocerous = Tigerocerous. Each two page spread has pictures of two animals, with a fact about each. When you lift a big flap, it tells you the name of each animal, and then shows the combined animal. BB isn't that into the combined versions, or the lifting the flaps (I think she's
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I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. In addition to caring for Baby Bookworm, we moved in late July, and I'm working, and things have been pretty crazy. Anyway, BB is now 4 1/2 months old (2 months "corrected age"), and doing well. She weighed a little over 11 pounds at her last doctor's appointment, and is sleeping in her own crib (though still with considerable monitoring from Mom and Dad). She stayed in her crib for 8 hours in a row one night, but promptly backslid. Still, we're hopeful that one day Mheir and I will be able to get more than 5 hours of sleep a night.

Baby Bookworm's favorite books, far and away, are from the Begin Smart series. She's enjoyed Begin Smart Baby Faces for quite some time (thanks, California Kims!) - she seems to be trying to talk to her friends in the pictures. She recently received Begin Smart Animal Faces as a gift (thanks, Ken and Heather!), and she LOVES that one. She seems to especially like the monkey - he always makes her laugh. There's a little animal/rattle attached to the top of the book, and it's the first toy she's actively reached for.

Needless to say (to those who know me), this success prompted me to go online and order more books from the series. I'll report back. I think that the animal faces are stylized enough that she can see them well. And they're apparently humorous to her. I have to say these Begin Smart people know what they're doing. I never thought that I'd so happily spend time reading and re-reading a book with no story at all, for the sheer joy of seeing BB laugh and try to talk.

I'm also enjoying a book that my friend Kathy M. sent us: Humpty Who?: Crib Sheets for the Nursery for Clueless Moms and Dads, by Jennifer Griffin (book with CD from Workman). It's a little book containing the text of 80 nursery rhymes and songs for kids, along with (in many cases) derivations and suggestions for performing the piece. There's also a CD with sing-along version of 35 of the rhymes. I'm finding it valuable because I have all these scraps of songs in my head, and I want to know the rest. And Griffin did a great job, because everything I've wondered about so far I've been able to find in the book.

Otherwise, we're reading various board books and picture books as the mood strikes. I'm still reading the first Harry Potter book aloud to BB, and enjoying that (I sometimes catch Mheir listening in the background, too - we both love the story). I think that the first Penderwicks book may be up next, but we still have a ways to go, so I'm not sure.

As for myself, I generally only have a few minutes to read at night before crashing into sleep, but I just finished Lauren Henderson's second Scarlett Wakefield book, Kisses and Lies. Not sure when I'll get to a full review, so I'll say for now that I enjoyed finding the conclusion to the murder mystery left at the end of book 1 (

Just a quick update on Baby Bookworm (and me), for those following along at home:

• Baby Bookworm is 3 months old now, 3 weeks past her original due date, and doing well. She's gaining weight all the time, and starting to focus more on her surroundings. She still likes baby books with black and white images, or pictures of babies. She's also endlessly fascinated by the window blinds, and the challenge of turning herself over from stomach to back. If only she would be fascinated by sleeping...
• We just finished reading her third chapter book, Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. Personally (to answer the question posed at the end of the book), I most wanted to be Petrova when I was a kid. How about you all? 
• We took some breaks in between reading Ballet Shoes to read various other picture books, too many to list right now (though I'm keeping all of the books, so I'll probably come up with a list at some point). Next up I'm planning on reading the first Harry Potter book (copying my sister-in-law's plan to read HP1 to my five month old niece).
• I'm also teaching the baby about baseball. I don't let her watch the TV, but I'll have the games on in the background, and I explain things to her. I figure it's good for her to hear me talking about pretty much anything, and I can start training her to be a Red Sox fan. Plus baseball is good for talking about math, as she gets older.

While I hope to get back to blogging for real one of these days, I'm actually in the process of moving, and that's set my schedule back a bit. [And yes, that's a crazy thing to do while caring for an infant who requires near-constant care, when both parents are also working. But this is when the house we wanted to buy came available, and we couldn't pass it up. It's our first house.] Hopefully next month sometime.

I'm grateful to Terry Doherty and Carol Rasco for keeping Children's Literacy Roundups going in the meantime (and for Carol's lovely Happy 3-Month Birthday post in honor of BB), and I miss reading all of the other Kidlitosphere blogs. I did have a neat blog thing happen this weekend that I can't resist sharing. I heard from Rosanne Parry that my review of Heart of a Shepherd is quoted on the inside cover of the newly arriving paperback edition of the book, along with quotes from Patricia Reilly Giff, the Horn Book and the Washington Post. I haven't seen this edition yet, but the news still made my day. And made me that much more motivated to get back to reviewing. Stay tuned...

Today Baby Bookworm and I finished her first chapter book: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Tasha Tudor illustrated version, of course). It took us nearly a month to get through the book, largely because I would tend to get sleepy while reading. The baby would get sleepy too, of course, but I didn't let that stop me.

I enjoyed re-reading the book, which I hadn't read in a while. A couple of sections made me teary (when Ben Weatherstaff cries, and the end). Reading the Yorkshire dialect aloud was a bit of a challenge, but fortunately I had a very forgiving audience. Reading it aloud made me really notice stylistic conventions that have changed since the book was written (use of "which" instead of "that", for example). But overall, it was a success, and (as Mitali Perkins noted on Facebook) an excellent choice for spring.

Baby Bookworm also likes Mrs. Mustard's Baby Faces (thanks Liz M!) and Begin Smart Baby Faces (thanks Kim family!). I tried showing her Goodnight Gorilla, but the pictures were apparently too much stimulation for her. We recite to her (without showing her the pictures) The Owl and the Pussycat (one of my favorites) and The Lady with the Alligator Purse (favored by Mheir, and with thanks to Susan K). While still in the NICU, we read to her a lot from The Wonder Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. The latter is a compendium of prose and silly poems. Some of them worked for us and some of them didn't, but it was the right book at the right time. When you're reading one-handed, for someone who isn't looking at the pictures anyway, picture books don't work that well - you want something where you don't have to turn the pages as often.

For chapter books, we're reading Pippi Longstocking next. For now, while I'm particularly sleep-deprived, I figure that shorter books are better (otherwise I'll never get through them).

Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend!