Books for Small Children - My Recommendations

When I was little, my favorite book of all time was The Little Engine That Could.  My mom says she read it to me so often that she had the book memorized.  Apparently, so did I - if she turned to the wrong page and kept reading from memory, I would call her out on it.  (Which would probably explain why she was tired of my not reading on my own...all the more reason to teach your children early, yes?) Now, we had many books at home, but there were always those few that stood out.  With my own son, I'm finding the same phenomenon - there are certain books he loves, and he will keep pull those out from his little cubby while others gather dust.  Some of these books are touching, others are beautiful, and still others just beg for small fingers to touch their pages.  Here's a short list of favorites.

Read Your Toddler Books All Day - Even If You Never Finish One

Yes, everyone knows you should read aloud to your child.  It's common wisdom - read a book at bedtime, instill a love of reading.  But is that really enough?  I don't think so.  Instead, find those quick opportunities for all-day reading.

Image courtesy of  AKARAKINGDOMS / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Revise by Reading Your Stories and Poems Aloud

We've all heard them - writers who get up on stage and trip over their own sentences, these long and precious lines which they've lovingly composed.  And it isn't a lack of preparation or a lack of love - it's because the sentences were written for writing rather than speaking.

Editing the MFA Thesis

Yesterday I finished editing my MFA Thesis, and it was somewhat brutal.  Don't get me wrong, I love writing - but when you have to line edit forty pages of your own work in three hours, it gets rough.  And that's after thirty pages of heavy revising the day before and another twelve pages of line-edits that morning.