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Hawaii Babies
inamra
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Baby Books
inamra
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This post has two parts...I forgot if we had a post like this before (I'm not much of a reader myself so I don't think I paid much attention to books earlier but now I'm curious!), but what is everyone's favorite books to read to their LO?
And here's the 2nd part...I was trying to find some and I ran into "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. I don't think I've ever heard of it before today but after reading some reviews, I realized that it's a really controversial book! Anyone familiar with it and if so, what are your thoughts on it?
Sept 2008 Wedding | May 2010 & Mar 2012 Babies
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Re: Baby Books
We were given this book as a gift and when I read it I cried. Then again I was pregnant when I read it so maybe I was overly emotional? I have yet to read it to LO (not sure if I will?) but it's kind of a sad story and not really appropriate for a young child?
I love Hawaii!
Tara & Ian . 4/24/2008 . The Kahala Planning . Married
For board books, we like Dr. Seuss ("Ten Apples Up on Top," "Oh the Thinks You Can Think," "Are You My Mother?"), some Sandra Boynton ones, "Chicka Chicka ABCs," "Goodnight Moon" and "Bear Snores On."
My absolute favorite is "Olivia". The pictures are great and the story is so sweet and silly.
We also have a BIG board book called "300 First Words and Pictures" by Bright Baby. Pictures are grouped by category (e.g., African animals, toys, construction machines) and the pictures are really vivid. He pays a lot of attention to them and it's one of the few he doesn't immediately try to eat now!
Re: "Love You Forever," I think it's fine for young children. It's depicting the concept of unconditional love in a way that they can understand. Yes, it's strange seeing a mother cradling her grown son through more mature eyes, but I wouldn't hesitate to share the story with my own young child.
Hmmm! I didn't realize that book was controversial! It certainly does make me cry, and I've read it to Henry already.
We read "Goodnight Moon" every night. Other than that, I have read him "Curious George", "The Giving Tree", "That's Not My Monkey!", "On The Day You Were Born", and a few Spot books several times. He doesn't usually pay much attention when I'm reading, but I keep doing it! Today we read a color book that shows pictures of things in each color...this was the first time he was fascinated with it! He loved looking at all the bright colors, so that may soon become a favorite.
Sooo many favorites...we read a lot every day! Dr Suess, any of the Spot (by Eric Hill) books, Goodnight Moon, Pat the Bunny, Guess How Much I Love You, the Schnitzel Von Krumm books, Where Is The Green Sheep (OMG they looove this one!), The Hungry Caterpillar, and lately Dash has been into Beatrix Potter, of all things (the illustrations aren't quite bright and bold enough to keep Will's attention).
Re Love You Forever - I haven't read it, but when I was little, one of my all time favorite books was I'll Always Love You by Hans Wilhelm, which I've heard people describe as depressing before. It's about a little boy and his dog - every night he hugs the dog and says, "I'll always love you,"...and the dog eventually grows old and dies. It ALWAYS made me cry as a little kid, but it was still my favorite. So I guess I take a bit of an unusual position on these kind of things...I don't see why kids shouldn't be exposed to sad themes, because they're part of life and can still be very beautiful. Sadness and death don't stop love - if anything, they make it more important.
Good idea for all these books! I'm gonna check these out. All we have is Hungry Caterpillar, a free bilingual board book about dogs we got from our hospital, and a baby Bible. We're definitely in need of more books!
I think that's true. I definitely wouldn't want to hide natural things that are part of life from LO, even if it may be sad. But the reason why Love You Forever is controversial is because (I don't know exactly but this is what I got from the reviews) the mom, who holds and rocks and sings/says I Love You to his son everyday, does it until he's a grown man, where she then drives to his house, climbs through his window, and then does the same thing to his grown son. So if you check out Amazon, there are 600+ 5-star reviews vs 200+ 1-star reviews, where the 1-star reviewers called it "creepy", "dysfunctional", etc that the mom does that to her grown son. But then others feel like kids at this young age will only see the unconditional love part of it instead of actually believing that their LO will be actually taught that Mommy should break into your house when you're an adult to rock you to sleep.
Maybe I should check it out at a library to see how it reads cuz ppl seem to really love it or really hate it...
Really good point here.
I love Hawaii!
Tara & Ian . 4/24/2008 . The Kahala Planning . Married
Ahh OK - interesting! I wonder if it could be interpreted as the mother imagining it...not literally climbing through his window, but her love and desire to always hug and protect him - that those feelings travel with him wherever he goes, no matter how old he is? (Like I said, I haven't read it so I could be saying utter crap lol!)
At any rate, I doubt kids would take from it that Mommy will pull a B&E lol. I've heard a lot of stories of little boys saying to they're going to marry mommy when they get older - obviously kids don't understand that marriage relationship or see why that would be inappropriate. They simply look at it as, "I love Mommy, she loves me, and I always want to be with her," and a mother then gently explains that they can't get married.
I'd think the same thing about this book - that if your child ever indicated that they thought you'd come in their window, you'd just say, "Well, not really - but my LOVE will always be with you, and that's what this book really means. That even when you're grown up and away from home, my love will always be with you and I'll always want to hug you goodnight."
But again - I haven't actually read it, so I could be talking utter crap.
Good point! Yeah, I haven't either, and here we are discussing the book--hahaha...but I agree with you on everything you wrote anyway
I was looking at the 100 First Words version of it. But how do you read a book like that for bedtime? Or do you just go through a page of words and pictures a day or something like that? Or is it more for daytime reading?
Glad to hear you liked LYF
I think I may be leaning towards it more now...
Yes, the mother does rock and comfort the grown man, which I guess some people might think is weird. But the sad part of the book is after that when the grown boy/man rocks the mama when she's old and dying. But it's very sweet, and I agree that sad things shouldn't always be kept from kids. And it's not all sad, it's really quite sweet. Makes me cry every stinkin' time!
So, the more I consider this, the more I'm coming down on the side of "yes".
Some of the very best adult stories revolve around these kind of themes. The Lord of the Rings wouldn't be such a wonderful saga if it wasn't for the enduring love between the characters, and the sadness that many of them face - the whole ring thing is just a plot device for what is ultimately a powerful love story. Same thing with The Road, which is horribly, terribly sad - but what makes it so wonderful is that is contrasted with the extraordinary bond of love between a father and son. I'm not saying that kids' books should be all depressing lol, but there's nothing inherently wrong with these themes being included in a child's book. Hell, look at Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling got a lot of flak from parents for killing off Dumbledore, but her willingness to acknowledge the power of death and sacrifice was part of what made the story so compelling (and when you really look at it, the basis for conflict in the entire series is based on one single act of love and death: Harry's mother lays down her life to protect her son, thus giving him the power that drives the rest of the story).
And then there's this:
This is what families are about - this is the circle of life. Our parents look after us when we are weak and need their help, and in return we do the same for them in their old age (well, that's the ideal anyway, if not for dysfunctional/abusive relationship dynamics). Sadness and death and love and support are major aspects of the human experience.
It's only vaguely related, but this discussion reminds me of an interview I read with Neil Gaiman about his book Coraline. I don't know if you've read it (or seen the animated movie, which is good except for the addition of a totally superfluous character), but although it's a truly excellent book, it's also creepy as shiit. Like to the point where I sat up late at night reading it because I needed to make sure everything was going to be OK lol! Anyway, the interviewer asked Gaiman to respond to the criticism from parents about the book being too frightening for the young children it was aimed at, and he responded something like, "I think adults misunderstand how children read a book like this. To a grown up, this is frightening because they understand exactly how much danger Coraline is in - they understand how terrified they'd be if she was their daughter. But to a child, it's just an exciting adventure." I suspect adults are doing the same thing with the book we're discussing here - they're projecting their world-wise point of view onto the story ("OMG she's going in his window! That's effed up!") instead of looking at it in the innocent way that a child would ("Mommy loves me now and always will in the future.").
So although the B&E aspect might be a little weird - though I really do think it was probably conceived purely in an innocent fantasy way - I don't see why people think there's something weird or creepy about a mother holding and comforting a grown man. There are some days when I want MY mom to hug and rock ME lol!
Anyway, I think I've probably totally overanalyzed this and I think this post is approaching epic length, so I'll shut up now.
Me, too!
Oh we don't read that for bedtime. We usually read a short book at bedtime because he falls asleep so quickly! The longer ones are those that we read throughout the day.
Yeah, this for us too. We usually go with something really short, like the Spot books by Eric Hill. Will and Dash love their bedtime book, but by that point they're fairly tired and just don't have the attention span or patience for anything longer.
Me too
Good pt about Coraline. I only watched the movie but I really liked it (except for the old ladies performing while wearing almost nothing...shudder) but I can definitely see how kids view it differently from adults.
I'm late to the party but here are some of Kailani's favorite books and she's the same age as your little guy...don't know the authors
The Hungry Caterpillar (Pop-up version) - this was already mentioned but she really likes the pop-up version. I read this to her alot to get her to look at her weak side...she had flat spot on her head.
B is for Bear - She loves this book because the pictures are really big and she likes to touch the textures.
Rainbow Fish - This is controversial book but she likes the pictures
The Quiet Cricket (same author as hungry caterpillar)