Like a Kid Again

When I proposed this week’s topic “Tell us about books that you have introduced to by your children/grandchildren”, it was because we had already touched upon just about every angle related to books we loved as children, and I realized that with my grandkids and my own kids, I have found many of my ‘new’ all-time favorite books. However, once again, my creative colleagues here came up with a point-of-view which I had not anticipated: Books introduced to them by their grown children.

Some time back we had discussed books that we shared with family members, but that is not the same. Mostly the books my grown niece introduced me to I mentioned in that post. We enjoy talking to each other about them. She’s not my child, but is like a daughter to me; she and her sister lived with my family and I spent my teens and most of my 20s caring for them. (It was a lot of diapers, middle of the night feedings and I was the only one who could get a burp out of that one). They are also my goddaughters. I introduced them to books, and she returned the favor. (The other one chose picking up on art in which she by far surpassed me and the sewing we did, again, reaching far beyond my limited talents, but I digress.)

My sons are more apt to recommend a movie or informative YouTube video, except in the case of Son#2, who left me with a few historical books on some heavy topics, (from his days in grad school for his Master’s of Science), on the bubonic plague, famine and other, scary scientific/social horrors!

 However, I want to get back to the happy topic of children’s book that I intended. If I discuss each book that I found to love, I will go on forever, so I will just touch on some of them.

When we discussed sharing books with family members, I brought up the many that I read with Grandson #1 when he was younger and was at my house most of the time. I got great enjoyment out of many series which he asked me to read: Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and the one I truly l loved, Septimus Heap/Todhunter Moon.
(I recently completed the series when I stumbled across the last two, I love them that much. I will get through them again. I have picked up a number of the books listed here for myself, or kept some, as Grandson has requested.)

Before that, when I was volunteering in his and the granddaughter’s school, the children’s books captivated me. I helped in the library and Grandson would point out books there and in his classroom: “Dear Mrs. LaRue”, (a dog writes to his owner, which is very funny), Tomie De Paola’s books, (especially his auto-bio books), and two” that made me cry, “Our Tree Named Steve” and “Cat Heaven”, (which made me sob so much all the way through that Grandson to this day will not let me live down!)

All of the now-teen grandkids were into The Wimpy Kid books when younger. I have not read all of them, but despite myself, I find them terribly amusing, (hence my recent Facebook post about my experience with my own “Cheese Touch”.)

What struck me is the fun, and even though the two above made me cry, they were not the saccharine-sweet, simplistic books that were meant to be touching to children when most of us were growing up.

One that The Granddaughters had was “Click, Clack, Moo. Cows That Type”. Cows find an old typewriter in the barn and decide to make their demands known to Farmer Brown; they even  threaten to go on strike. I can’t tell you how much fun I found this book and if that was not enough, the girls had an electronic book which read itself when pointed to with the accompanying pen. On top of that, when the pen is pointed to some of the pictures, there is bonus material, (like the mutterings of the farmer), which made me laugh out loud.

(I had hoped to get my hands on it when they outgrew it, but I think it went to their other cousins, which is good.)

Later in school, the kids introduced me to a number of Newberry Award winners, which I find to mostly have good writing and moral messages. Granted, some of the early ones are sappy, or those some-animal-suffers-and/or-dies stories that passed for ‘family’ for decades, but others are deeper and I enjoy them greatly.

I have posted on this one before, but the last Newberry winner that Grandson insisted that I read was “Walk Two Moons”, which moved him greatly, and when a writer can surprise me, they have my undying admiration. 

I have picked up several Newberry books, one of which I just re-experienced and will review soon.

I hope that I didn’t rehash too many books which I have mentioned before, but I find that ‘children’s literature, (like romance novels), have greatly grown and improved from what was offered in the past.  I agree with AARP when they recommend many Young Adult books to seniors who want a clean read, perhaps a shorter read, and those with a Happily-Ever-After, or at least, a Happy-For-Now ending.

I hope that you will not discount the idea of picking up children’s books even when there are not children around you, and take a look. You may be charmed, you way get a smile, you may have a good laugh, and you just may be inspired.

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