Books, Books and more Books

I ran across one of my Christmas gifts from my sweet sis-in-law Friday (a gift card to Barnes and Nobles) so we headed for the bookstore. Our Barnes and Noble has a great kids section, and Laci and Caleb love books, and they especially love this store. Laci had $5 she had been saving so I thought as good as anything to spend it on, A BOOK!

We ran into Winnie the Pooh when we arrived!

Does he look a little different to you? Actually, this is what the original Pooh looks like in the original Winnie the Pooh book written by A.A. Milne. The literature and the illustrations are much different than the Winnie the Pooh we know today. I always read age appropriate books to Laci and Caleb, but I sometimes read books a little over their heads (to stretch the brain a little). You would be amazed how much children really comprehend. But you will never know if you don't try it. When I read to my kids I always ask for feedback to see if they can tell me anything about the story, to see if they're really absorbing it. Well, A.A. Milne's original book is considered one of the great literature books of all time. Now, I am a little slow sometimes, but frankly, I couldn't follow one word of this book. I now know why it's been completely re-written (in understandable language for children, and slow adults like me) Please check it out at the library, read it to your children, and tell me what you think. My kids, like me, sat thru maybe a chapter and we've never picked it up again. Not to discourage you, you may very well enjoy it, but I have to say that I really like the simple version of Winnie the Pooh!

I have read them great literature books like The Apple and the Arrow and The Boxcar Children. They loved and followed both of them really well. Since Caleb is all into bows and arrows and swords and all that boy stuff, he was really interested in The Apple and the Arrow. It truly is a great book!

But this Winnie the Pooh was not fooling Caleb one bit. He wasn't getting his picture made with this impostor. He kept wanting to know where Pooh's clothes were! "Mama, where's his red shirt?" Finally, he concluded that there must be a man inside that outfit, and expressed it quite verbally. All those poor other little children probably left devastated with this news!

So we moved on and looked around for some great books. Caleb found his favorite book about knights in armor, and swords! I had to read it right away.

Laci was trying out my new camera!




We spent the whole morning at the bookstore, and it was fun!