Books for the first few years

I have wanted to do a list of our favorite early years books since a long time. I have listed books with the author's name first, because when I found a good book by a certain author I have gone and explored many more books by the same author. I have listed only one or two of the famous books by that author, but definitely do recommend reading more books by the same author. Most of these books are available in board book version for littler hands.

I am most certain I have missed out many, and will try to keep coming back and updating this list.

1.  Margaret Wise Brown  -   Good Night Moon, The Runaway Bunny

2.  Bill Martin Jr.  -   Brown Bear Brown Bear, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

3.  Eric Carle -  The Very Hungry Catterpillar, The Tiny Seed (Too many to list..)

4.  Laura Numeroff -  If you give a mouse a cookie, Best Mouse Cookie

5.  Anna Dewdney -  Llama llama Red Pajama (and more in this series)

6.  Denise Fleming -  In the small small pond, Beetle Bop

7.  Dr. Seuss -  Cat in the Hat and pretty much any of his beginner books. LOVE THEM!!!

8.  Bruce Degen - Jamberry

9. Mem Fox - Good Night Sleep Tight, Time for Bed

10.  Joy Cowley - Mrs. Wishy Washy Series

11.  Karen Katz - Where is Baby's Belly Button, Potty for Me

12.  Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes Book

13. Beatrix Potter -  The Tales of Peter Rabbit

14. Martin Waddel -  Owl Babies

15. Judy Schachner - Skippy Jon Jones Series

16. Don Freeman -  Corduroy

17. Emily Gravett - Monkey and Me, Orange Pear, Apple Bear

18. Sam McBratney - Guess How Much I Love you

Love of Classics

I always had a love for Classic Books and have always described to A about how she has this whole Genre of books to read when she grows up.

When we were browsing the Juvenile Fiction section in the library we found these books. The Classic Starts series. They are an abridged version of the Classics written for young readers.

We checked out Alice in Wonderland, Black Beauty and Little Women. They have many more favorite titles like Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist , Gulliver Travels, Tom Sawyer and many many more. (About 46 of them)

A read Little Women today and was totally enthralled by it. The love of Classics has thus been passed on.

Summer Reading

Back from India with the days and nights at our disposal in their entirety, A & I have been finding fun things to do this summer. One of the fun things we are pursuing is the local library's summer reading challenge. So these are age appropriate programs to make children read books. For A's age group the goal is 50 books between mid-june and mid-august. How fun!!! Well atleast that is what I thought...hopefully she is as excited as she looked.

Anyways the double fun is we missed a month already, so we have a month to read 50 books. So in my desperation I am picking whatever books we are spotting without being picky like I used to be. And I learnt without going with the big names and the Caldecott medal awarded books, you find many a hidden diamonds.

Apart from this we have a big kid's cycle to take for rides. I am yet to get over A riding a 16 inch bicycle. We just got it home yesterday and every time she sits on it, I am all teary eyed hugging her just for the fact that she is all so grown up. She later reminds me that she is able to ride it and then I wake up and compliment her.

And me...Amma (oh btw mimi got lost somewhere around april) is enjoying the new life so far. I am yet to do anything with all the great plans I had for myself....as I am hiding behind a big block. I am even struggling to compose emails. So by just scribbling today about everyday things, hopefully I have let some fresh air get into that little corner inside.

So here is hoping I will be writing here soon again...

Anne Frank

She touched one of the deepest corners of my heart. I first heard about ‘Anne Frank – The diary of a young girl’, more than a decade and a half ago and have ever since wanted to read this book, but for some reason or the other could not lay my hands on it. Finally I bought the book last February and was really excited about it and the next day I find out that I was expecting my baby. I was banned from reading anything that will make me even remotely sad. So it was another long wait and finally I read it these past days and it sure is one of the books that will leave a mark on me.

First of all I felt for the suffering she had to go through, but most of all I admired the way she handled it. I am amazed how a mere teenager that she was, adapted to the life changing events in her life. If I have taken something from this book, it’s the hope in life, the ability to live the best that you can in a given situation. For those of you who have not read this book and would like to read it, I do not want to give away too much. The book is a diary of a young Jewish girl who went into hiding with her family during the Holocaust in 1942. The book talks about her entire world in the small hiding place for 25 months. She writes about her day to day experiences, her innermost feelings and her hopes and fears for the future. This book is a must read!

While we are on this subject, I must mention that we visited the Holocaust museum in DC earlier this month. All I can say is anything visual has a deeper impact. We entered the museum only about half an hour before its closing time and so could not see everything. Children say it best, as what they say is straight from their heart, nothing more or nothing less. ‘Remember the Children – Daniel’s story’ is one exhibition in this museum which I will never forget.

Again while we are on this subject, if any of you have not watched the movie ‘Life is Beautiful’, I recommend you to do so as soon as you get a chance.

There are many descriptions of the Holocaust in print, picture and video, all of them make you realize what the victims went through. But seeing it through the victim’s eyes is a whole other experience!