Yes. You are seeing correctly. There is a picture of a My Little Pony I Can Read book on my blog.

Now. I am still in my right mind. I do still dislike My Little Pony (just cause) and I Can Read books (for their faulty leveling) but this book led to a reading breakthrough in our house this weekend.

During a big storm on Saturday, Rob, Caroline and I were reading in the living room. Usually when this happens, Katherine will ask one of us to read to her. This time, though, she went and got her My Little Pony book. This book is one in which pictures are used in place of certain words, there are many words, including all the character names that are not actually easy to read and the pictures offer little to no support. Needless to say, I do not like this book.

But Katherine was determined to read with the family. She did ask me to help her with a number of words but she sat and she read and she felt like she was doing what we were doing. And she was awfully happy.

I was beginning to forgive this book for it’s awfulness already and then Sunday morning happened.

Katherine woke up a bit early. Caroline was still asleep and Rob was out for a run. I asked Katherine if she wanted to snuggle for a little bit but she said no. She came back in to our room a minute later with My Little Pony tucked under her arm. And she sat quietly for quite a few minutes, reading silently to herself. I’m not sure she totally understood what she was reading. I’m quite sure she mispronounced a few words. But she did what Caroline does when she wakes up early. She read all by herself.

So it turns out a book that features a commercial character and is incorrectly leveled may be to thank for a huge reading breakthrough in our house. I’m not quite ready to say “Thank you, My Little Pony”. Not yet. For now I’ll just give her a little nod of appreciation.