I adore children's books...muchly!

Now that I'm a pseudo-stay at home mommy, for a couple of more months, I find myself taking the sprouts to the library.  About 2.5 times a week on average.  A lot.  I'm trying to take advantage as much as possible of warm weather and we get out of the house every day to do something or go somewhere.  This often means a nice long trip to the library.  Fortunately, we have 2 branches to choose from, and they're quite different from each other, so it's like 2 distinct adventures.  (Just the 3 of us going anywhere is most definitely an adventure.)  I'm all over going to the library a lot for obvious reasons.  What a great place it is: books! puzzles! fun computer games! movies! the excitement never ends!!

Both branches have pretty sweet children's collections.  Now that Abby is more self-sufficient and able to play with some puzzles or the computer by herself, I can wander through the racks seemingly at leisure and revel in the fabulous book selections.  I love children's books!  Inevitably, I have to stop myself thinking "Okay, one more...wait, I want this one, too...this has got to be the last one!"  We probably have close to 20 books checked out at a time on any given day.  Sure, they're for Abby (and now Audrey!), but really, they're for my amusement as well.  Abby likes to help choose them sometimes, but more often than not, I get full reign over the selections.  And oh, what fun it is!  The subtle humor, the slick pictures, the stories with a twist--I love them all! 

Have you thought about the social dynamics of the way that animals are inevitably portrayed?  Think about how wolves are portrayed, for example; there is a fine line between presenting these as scary and too scary.  There's all kinds of stereotypes that books teach, which is something that this momma thinks about, and sometimes tries to downplay, when she's choosing books to read. 

How much do I adore children's books?  Muchly!!  When I use words-according-to-Cox to describe something, you know it's made an impression.

And just for the record, here are some of our favorites:
Abby--Curious George (Mommy & Daddy try to temper how many of these we check out, trying to limit the onslaught to no more than 4 at a time), Berenstein Bears, Clifford, Arthur, Ella the Elephant, Big Chickens, and pretty much anything having to do with Halloween.

Mommy--the pigeon books, rhyming books with a jazzy rhythm (how else do I categorize these?) like Blueberry Mouse and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, animal books, and books teaching peace and environmental consciousness.