A Little Independence Goes A Long Way

Sometimes, when you try to give your child a little independence, things don't work out exactly as planned.  And that can be all to the good.  Mistakes are, after all, part of the learning process.  But when those mistakes happen in front of judgmental passers-by, well, it's no fun for mom.  I found that out first-hand when I let my 3-year-old go through the turnstile herself when exiting the subway earlier this week, after much begging on her part.  As she pushed her way through, the turnstile whacked her in the back of the head.  But she was all smiles -she had done it herself!  Unfortunately, the moment was marred (for me, not her) not by the minor head injury but by the woman who witnessed the incident and hissed at me, "I saw that!"

Little Critter's mom would surely understand.  In All by Myself by Mercer Meyer, an unidentifiable animal known only as Little Critter (and supposedly a porcupine, as the knowledgeable staff at my fabulous local children's bookstore informed me), does a number of tasks all by himself.  But in a nice touch, the pictures sometimes belie the words - as the text tells us he can tie his shoes all by himself, we see that in fact he can tie his shoes - to each other! - while his attempt to pour juice for his sister results in quite a mess.  And at the end of the book we see that of course mommy is irreplaceable for certain things - a story, a cuddle.   That is, comfort and love.  A book with a retro feel (first published in 1983 it looks even older to me) and a timeless message this somewhat forgotten classic along with the others in the Little Critter series is worth a look.

A Torrent of Good Books

Before I became a parent, I had no idea that an umbrella is the perfect gift for a three-year-old.  But it is.  You can never have too many - they always break, or get lost.  And they are always a hit.  One of the reasons preschoolers love them so is, I think, because umbrellas give them a tiny taste of independence.

That's the tack Taro Yashima takes in her delightful Umbrella.  Momo receives an umbrella (as well as rubber boots) for her third birthday but, much to her dismay, a streak of sunny days follows.  When the rain finally comes, Momo is excited but also knows she must "walk straight, like a grown-up lady." Yashima describes the sound of the rain beautifully: "Pon polo, pon polo, polo polo pon polo."  And, as the narrator wistfully recalls, "It was not only the first day in her life that [Momo] used her umbrella, it was also the first day in her life that she walked alone, without holding either her mother's or her father's hand."  Any parent can relate to the combination of pride in and mourning at a child's new-found independence.

Yellow Umbrella, a wordless book by Jae Soo Liu, comes with a CD of music composed by Dong Il Sheen especially to accompany it.  The book opens with an aerial view of the title yellow umbrella and follows it, as it is joined by more and more umbrellas, on a journey to what eventually turns out to be school.  The illustrations, with solid-color umbrellas standing out against the gray sky and sidewalk, are beautiful in their simplicity.  However, the author-illustrator's message that under their umbrellas, children's "physical differences disappear" is lost.  The music, which to me did sound like raindrops, suggested ballet to my five-year-old.

In Il Sung Na's The Thingamabob, an elephant discovers an umbrella, but can't figure out what it is or how it is used until one day it finally rains.  The endpapers in this book, showing a bird's eye view of opened, patterned umbrellas are especially lovely.  I'm eager to check out other books by this author.

With its beautiful, full-page, close-up illustrations of African animals who foretell the rain's arrival through each of their senses, varied (but mostly large) text size in a block-print font, and simple but lyrical prose, Manya Stojic's Rain is, like her subsequent work Snow, perfect for younger readers. 

What are your favorite books about rain or raingear?