19 December 2011

Book Nook

Whenever we head to the library, Kieran often already has a type of book in mind.  The last time we went, he'd decided he wanted a couple of books about Thomas the Tank Engine.  This came as no surprise, since he loves trains and has been happily watching and playing with Thomas trains lately.  So we went and looked down the aisles and happened upon some Thomas books.  I was holding Charlotte to keep her from running off, so I didn't look through them, unfortunately.  Instead, I had Kieran put them in the bag while we went to another section to get a book for Charlotte.  Let this be a lesson to always look through the books before checking them out.

Source
Now, the books he chose (Blue Train, Green Train and another one whose title escapes me) aren't bad books, just way too young for my children.  They were in the older kids' section and were written for children who are starting to read independently.  However, my children are used to books that are a bit more complex, and so something of that sort didn't keep Kieran's interest.  I maintain that books can be written at a level that beginning readers can read while still being interesting for them (The Cat in the Hat comes to mind).

Nor does the subject matter mean the books must be overly simplistic, since I've seen at least one Thomas book that is written at a higher level and thus should better keep Kieran's interest.  I'm sorry that Kieran didn't get books he liked at the library this time, but next time hopefully we can look through them a bit more beforehand.

2 comments:

  1. Okay, I have a question for you. My kids love books, we read books a lot, but they treat their books awfully! They are careless with them, they rip them, etc. I don't know how to get them to stop! Any suggestions? This has kept us away from the library for a long time.

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  2. They aren't perfect, by any means. We have to remind them about things a lot. We have to replace at least one book (ours, not the library's) that has been ripped a lot due to heavy reading. I try keeping the library books set aside a little and those are ones we supervise and read together for the most part.

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