Return To Fairyland: Favorite Children's Books

As our most recent magical reading conquest, we've been reading The Borrowers. And The Peanut is loving it.

So much so that we spent about an hour and a half searching the house from top to bottom yesterday looking for Borrower holes and hide-outs, including knocking around the basement.

It was absolutely adorable.

Mr. ReddHedd and I both earnestly assisted in the search, and we found several potential prospects for Borrower families in our own home.  Uh.  Mah.  GAWD!

Amusingly, Mr. ReddHedd showed her the door to the crawlspace in the basement and teased her that it was the "other mother's door" from Coraline, and she said "Daaaa-aaad, that's fantasy," in a disgusted voice with her little hands on her hips.

But The Borrowers?  Totally real.

"Let's leave out some snacks for them" had to be squelched for fear of ants.  But we may spend part of the week building them a summer cottage near the back patio.

The funny thing is that Pod, Homily and Arrietty are right where I left them as a child:  still beneath the floorboards, awaiting their next adventure with some trepidation or, in Arrietty's case, a sense of wonder and anticipation. I loved them, too, and it is a thrill that she feels the same way.

After the top to bottom house search, I ordered the next couple of Borrowers books -- The Borrowers Afield and The Borrowers Afloat -- because we could not find them at any of the local bookstores, and I want to take them with us as travel reading for an upcoming trip to visit family in Arizona.  She's clearly loving the books, and we're trying to foster her love of reading as much as possible.

Looks like it is working.

I wrote a while ago about my love of children's books and how much fun I'm having re-reading them and seeing them afresh through The Peanut's eyes. 

Last time I wrote about children's books, a couple of friends suggested Rain Makes Applesauce. I bought that for The Peanut and I'm happy to say that she adored it, so much that she took it in last year to read it to her class.  When a couple of the clique-y little girls in her class laughed at her book, she said "I guess they don't like imagination -- too bad for them."  Too cute.

(As an aside:  Who knew that kids in first grade could already be snide and clique-y?  Doesn't that seem way too early?  But there you are.  I'm at a loss on how to explain dealing with it to her, frankly, because she's still that young, naive, 7 year old instead of the 7 going on 20 of a few in her class.  She takes things literally instead of being able to brush them off, and that's tough to watch sometimes as a parent.  If anyone has thoughts on that, I'd love to hear them, because I'm stumped and I know it will only increase as they age.  I had issues with this, too, as a kid and it was really hard for me -- so any advice on how you made it a healthier, less stressful thing for your kids would be much appreciated.)

We've made Tuesdays our "library day" this summer, and have been going over to the local public library to check out books every week.  The librarians are so fantastic and great with her, and their summer reading program has been great fun -- she gets to play a game for a prize every time she reads a book, which makes her already huge love of reading even more fun.

For second grade, her teacher as them reading chapter books this summer.  She already loved Junie B. Jones and the Magic Tree House books, which are on her required list.  But we've recently discovered the Bailey School Kids, too, and they are a big hit.  (Thanks to her teacher for putting them on the list!)

I know there are more books for this age range that I've either forgotten or that they didn't have when I was a kid.

So if anyone has more suggestions, please let me know.

We have a voracious reader in the house, and I'd like to foster that habit as much as possible.  This is one time that a habit really ought to last a lifetime...

(Adorable fairy house via Cayusa.  So fun!)