Unforseen Side Effects of an Expensive Education

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, I had the opportunity to spend 6 years of my life pursuing advanced degrees in English. This is an opportunity for which I am grateful--and for which I am still making monthly payments. Upon the completion of said degrees, I chose to make a career shift. Now I stay home with my children. Despite the inherent challenges, I love it. However, early on I encountered an unexpected problem: while reading books to my young daughter I had to repeatedly suppress the urge to make edits to the texts with a Sharpie. I am grateful for my daughter's love of books, but after being nearly driven to distraction several times by the repeated reading of books I couldn't stand, I started making lists. I noted various authors and titles that I could read over and over without being overcome with the urge to poke out my eyes. Now, with this blog, I endeavor to share these eye-poke-less (in my opinion) books with my other Mom and Dad friends. Hopefully this will help to make story time more enjoyable for everyone. Perhaps it will even save you from finding yourself spinning a web of white lies in order to cover up the fact that you hid that one book you couldn't stand to read even one more time under the couch...

Monday, April 12, 2010

Old Bear


By Jane Hissey.
This is a very cute story about some stuffed animals who work together to solve a problem. Old Bear needs to be rescued from the attic and the toys try several different plans until they achieve success. The illustrations are charming. They remind me of something I would have seen in a PBS day time show in the early 90s--but I mean that in a friendly, nostalgic way. The "Old Bear and Friends" books were actually made into a TV series, so maybe I really did see them. The most endearing thing about Old Bear and his friends is that they are all modeled after actual toys the author and her children have in their home. Other books in the series include:




Little Bear's Trousers
This is an amusing story which chronicles Little Bear's search for his missing trousers. Aside from the fact that I like to say the word "trousers," this book has in it some quirky humor which can amuse both parent and child.








Hoot
I don't like this one quite as much as the other two but it is still worth reading. This story offers an interesting explanation for where all those missing socks might be.
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