“Few children learn to love books by themselves. Someone has to lure them into the wonderful world of the written word; someone has to show them the way.”

-Orville Prescott, A Father Reads to His Children

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One of the best parts of our recent trip to Richmond was our visit to bbgb, an absolutely fantastic children’s book store.

I have two wonderful literary friends who live in Richmond and bbgb seemed like the perfect place to re-connect.

Meg Medina (far left) is the author of Milagros: Girl from Away and Tia Isa Wants a Car. She is also the mom of one of the first girls I worked with as a reading specialist. Meg and I read each others blogs and talk via e-mail so somehow it seemed like I had seen her yesterday. In fact, it had been four years.

Dorothy (left) is also an author. She collaborated to write The PreK-2 Writing Classroom: Growing Confident Writers. Dorothy was my first professor in my reading education program and then a friend. I also felt like I had only just seen her when in fact we hadn’t connected in person since we left Richmond.

Perhaps all this ‘old friendness’ and time made the whole visit all the more special. I think I smiled the whole time I was there. When we left, Caroline said, “All you did was hug and talk.” How wonderful it is has to have friends with whom you can fall right back in to step.

And on the far right of the picture is Jennesse, a friend to Meg and Dorothy’s friend and co-author. She must be a great person to be friends with these two but also to have created the world that is bbgb. For all my Richmond readers, promise me that you will go to bbgb as soon as you can. It is the children’s book store of my dreams. Every book I pulled off the shelf was better than the one before. Many old favorites and so many new treasures. For those of you who live far away (as I do sadly), make sure that you read bbgb’s book buzz, twined tales and blog. You will add book after book to your to be read list.

As the picture below shows, Caroline and her friends clearly enjoyed the titles we chose while we were there.

Reviews of some of the ‘new to me’ titles to come soon…

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We just returned from four days in Richmond, Virginia. In this town, Rob and I graduated from college,  lived as newlyweds and brought both our babies home for the first time. When we left nearly five years ago, we promised to come back again and again. After one quick visit, the winter after we moved, we haven’t gone back as a family in four years.

What fun it was to remind the girls of their first home. Caroline had some memories but Katherine was too young when we moved to remember a thing. We spent time cheering at a University of Richmond basketball game, eating at many of  our favorite restaurants, taking the girls to some of our favorite landmarks and driving slowly by our old house trying desperately to peek into open windows.

But the most important thing we did in our time there was to reunite with friends. The girls are pictured above with some of the first friends they ever made, sharing dinner at our college dining hall.  Our Richmond friends are primarily our college friends and the friends I made in the sleep deprived land of new motherhood. These are the people who knew me as I grew up and as I grew into my new life as a mother. They know all the old stories. They are able to appreciate just how much the girls have grown into themselves.

Let us hope we return before another four years passes…

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I found this note on Katherine’s desk tonight.

It reads “I love myself.”

Could a mother ask for anything more?

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A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how simple it really can be to help your child become  a reader. I got a great response from that post and was reminded again this week of how important this message is.

I evaluated a little girl who is reading far below grade level. Her parents read aloud to her all the time. Because of this, the sweet little one has a vocabulary and comprehension skills that far surpass both age expected norms and her reading ability. The whole time I talked with her, I kept thinking about the power of the read aloud. Had reading aloud, allowed this little girl to escape what is most likely a reading disability? No. But did it put in a much better place to tackle the hard work that lies ahead of her? It certainly did.

And then this morning, I opened my e-mail to see that one of my favorite writers had posted on her own blog about the read aloud. After you leave here, please visit Donalyn Miller’s post titled, Make Everyday Read Aloud Day.

Whether you are a parent, grandparent or teacher, Donalyn’s message is an important one. Read Aloud. Often.

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The 2011 Cybils have been revealed!

I am so proud to have been part of the amazing panel who chose Mo Willems, I Broke My Trunk as the Easy Reader winner

and Have Fun Anna Hibiscus as the Early Chapter Book winner.

There are summaries of each of these books and short posts about why we chose each one at the Cybils website. While you’re there,  be sure to check out each of the books that were nominated as well. There were some truly amazing titles in each category.

The decision that our group had to make was extremely difficult and I feel so lucky to have worked with such dedicated book lovers. We exchanged dozens of e-mails talking about what was great about each title, trying hard to pick one from among all our favorites. The process was both challenging and inspiring and I thank each of my fellow panelists for the chance to work with them.

The members of my panel included:

Terry of  The Reading Tub, Zoe of Playing by the Book, author, Katie Davis, Amanda of Maestra Amanda’s Bookshelf and Ashley of YA Librarian.

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A few years ago, I realized that pets were called pets because they liked to be pet. And when I a say a few  years ago, I mean when I was in my 30s. I felt quite silly as it now seems so obvious.

And then last night, I found a whole new reason to feel silly.

Katherine and I were reading one of our favorites, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. Every time we read, I fall in love with the sweet little mouse all over again. She so loves her name until her new classmates decide that it is just too different. They pick on her relentlessly until a kind teacher sweeps in to make everything ok.

I wonder how many times I have read this line,

“Chrysanthemum felt much better after her favorite dinner (macaroni and cheese with ketchup) and an evening filled with hugs and kisses and Parcheesi.”

I guess I have probably read that line no less than 50 times.

So when Katherine last night giggled, “She loves Parcheesi cause she’s a mouse!”, I admit I faked it.

“That’s right, sweetie!” I said, pretending that I had known that all along.

I suppose this means that Kevin Henkes knew about pets a long time ago too…

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Both of my girls were huge Mama’s Girls, until they weren’t.

Caroline and Rob began to bond a few years back over a shared love of the Yankees. While Caroline still thinks I’m pretty great, there are nights that she nearly knocks me over, running past me to greet Rob when he arrives home from work. From then until bedtime, they will chat about Jorge Posada’s retirement, the Giant’s ticker tape parade or the excitement over new Knicks’ sensation Jeremy Lin.

Until this weekend, Katherine could potentially go the entire evening without saying a word to Rob while hugging me constantly claiming that I was her BFF. This may be a slight exaggeration but  not completely. If Rob is home (which is fortunately often), he is a big part of the girl’s bedtime routine. After I read, he will lay with them for a few moments, talking about their most and least favorite parts of the day.

Friday night, I was out so Rob read with Katherine. When it came time for their most and least favorite parts of the day, both Katherine and Rob said that the reading was their favorite part. Katherine decided they should, therefor, read together more often. They spent so much time on Saturday reading, that Rob had a sore throat at the end of the day. Katherine has even declared that tonight, she would like Rob to read all her books.

I’m not sure what is happening but wouldn’t it be something if Katherine and Rob bonded over books?

I’m not sure what I’ll do with all my free time. Read, perhaps?

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Sometimes I think my girls have been handed a script from the great blog writing assistant in the sky. The things that come out of their mouths are just too good.

The other day, Katherine spotted the book Here Come the Girl Scouts on my desk. I was planning on using it during an upcoming Brownie meeting. She asked what it was about and I told her that the book told the story of how the Girl Scouts began. To which she replied, “Let’s read it. I want to know something I never knew before.”

I mean, really. I couldn’t make this stuff up…

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I spent a good part of  my morning thinking about and talking about the inequity that exists in our public schools.

Whenever I have this conversation, I can’t help but think of my favorite Mem Fox quote.

“If every parent understood the huge educational benefits and intense happiness brought about by reading aloud to their children, and if every parent- and every adult caring for a child-read aloud a minimum of three stories a day to the children in our lives, we could probably wipe out illiteracy within one generation.”

-Mem Fox, (Reading Magic)

Maybe it really is that easy…

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