The other night, all was amazingly quiet upstairs. For a bit I enjoyed the quiet and then I began to wonder what was going on. It was “potion creating-quiet”, “cutting American Girl hair-quiet”, “drawing a mural on the wall-quiet”. So I tip toed upstairs expecting to catch the girls in a crime.

Instead, I found them snuggled under Caroline’s covers. As Katherine rested her head on Caroline’s shoulder, Caroline read. And read and read. I stood silently and watched page after page turn. When I was discovered,  I went back downstairs to get my camera. Upon returning Caroline made it quite clear that I absolutely, positively could not take a picture of her in her pajamas. Knowing that my pictures often end up on this blog, respect her wishes for what goes out in to the wide world so I reluctantly put my camera down.

Last night though, I felt lucky to be invited to their reading session (pictured above). I couldn’t escape the feeling that time has sped up. How is that I am now listening to Caroline read aloud after years and years of being the reader? How is it that the same books I read to Caroline are now the ones she is reading to Katherine.  Last night’s selection included the amazing Cobblestreet Cousins books by Cynthia Rylant.

Although Katherine has been listening to chapter books for awhile now, I was reminded of what perfect books these are for children new to chapter books. With short chapters, children can retain information from one reading to the next while practicing the important skills of maintaining the flow of the story over multiple readings. That being said, the books are short enough that a few sittings will easily be enough to complete the book. And just to make the books even better, there are six of them in the series. Series books are wonderful for readers new to chapter books. With each new book, the characters and setting are familiar, allowing the reader to focus on the events of the story thereby improving comprehension.

So back to being lucky…lucky for reading daughters, lucky for good books and lucky for daughters who read good books.