Book of the Week

Little E is difficult to entertain at the moment. She is 9 months worth of energy and movement and activity. The problem is, each activity lasts about 30 seconds. Maybe 60 or 90 if I'm lucky. It's driving me nuts, and it's compounded by the fact that it's too stinking hot to go outside.

The one thing that appears to have abiding interest for her is books. Since Christmas she is just mad for reading. D was home for the Christmas-New Year week and he was fantastic; the two of them read so many books together I thought the covers would all fall off. Her attention span is such that she doesn't always manage to make it through the whole book, but if we sit on the couch and hold up a book and say "I'm going to read (insert title)" she will come crawling over and top speed saying "ooh ooh ooh" in a very endearing and expressive way. She has also learnt to turn the pagen on request. We are both thrilled about this newfound interest - I, in particular, am a big reader, and if I had to choose one category of toy/amusement for my child to be fascinated by, books would win no questions asked.

I've been compiling a list of books I want to buy for her and with the Australian dollar so good it's taking a remarkable amount of self restraint not to get straight onto Book Depository and buy them all at once.

Anyhow, I thought it would be fun, and hopefully useful for others out there, if each week I write something about a book that we've particularly enjoyed. It would be fantastic if others would like to do this too, either by a post or a comment. It doesn't matter if your kids are a different ages to E. If I figure out how to do that link-list thing I might do that if there seems to be enough interest.

My initial thought for our first book was Toddle Waddle by Julia Donaldson, however I will instead just direct you to my clever cousin V's post on it: http://thisgrowinglife.blogspot.com/2010/01/toddle-waddle.html. It is similarly popular in our house.

But without further ado, the first Book of the Week is ...

Chatting by Shirley Hughes
Walker Books, 1994

Like all Shirley Hughes, gorgeously illustrated. I fondly remember the Alfie and Annie Rose books from my own childhood. There is something undefinably and attractively English about Shirley Hughes' illustrations.

The book is a variety of examples/explanations of "chatting" in a toddler's day. There are moments of gentle humour for adults:

"Grown-ups like chatting too.

Sometimes these chats go on for rather a long time."

and

"When Mum is busy she says that there are just too many chatterboxes around.

So I go off and chat to Bemily (the stuffed dog) - but she never says a word."

There are enough words to amuse without boring a 9 month old (and I'm guessing probably up to an 18-month old) and enough story that it's less mind-numbing for parents than the books that just contain a picture and a word on each page. The pictures are beautifully detailed so there's lots to talk about even if you don't really bother with the story.

Apparently there are three others in this series, called Giving, Bouncing and Hiding: all are definitely on our list of books to acquire!

Main image credit http://www.squidoo.com/books_and_reading