A Toy Library... With A Single Toy

Today there was a great article in the NY Times about one NYPL branch that lends out an American Girl doll.  Yes, "an."  A single doll.  As most of you know, these are incredibly expensive dolls, sold with expensive accessories at a store which includes a cafe for tea with your doll and a hair salon - for the doll!  Each doll comes with a set of books and has a back story, each set in a different time and place in American history.

There are so many things I love about the idea of lending one of these dolls out.  I love that children of all different backgrounds are borrowing the same doll and returning her with accessories and clothes from their own cultures.  I love that despite the "children getting older younger" phenomenon, girls as old as eleven are still playing with dolls, as they should.  (I've noticed that in older books about dolls, the girls who play with them are almost always older than the age at which girls allegedly outgrow dolls today.)

My daughter devours the American Girl books, which are a great introduction to historical fiction.  But she has no idea there are corresponding dolls.  There is no promotional material in the books other than the picture on the cover, which looks like the corresponding doll.  But if you don't know about the doll, then it's just a regular book cover.

I know there are other places in the country and around the world that have toy libraries, as I mentioned briefly here.  I know a lot of them cater to children with special needs, but just like a typical library, a toy library could serve all children.  I'd love to have my kids try out toys before I buy them, which is essentially what I do when I watch them carefully to see what they play with at other people's houses!

Maybe this article will encourage more libraries to lend out toys.  After all, they lend music and movies and music scores.  Why not toys?

Have you ever been to a toy library? Does your town have a toy library?  Do you wish it did?

Where We Read

The other day we took a short (1 express stop) subway ride.  My 7-year-old brought two books - one she was almost finished with and a back-up, and I brought the chapter book I've been reading to my 4-year-old.  We all snagged seats and began reading.  As we exited, another woman complimented me on raising two such voracious readers, noting their concentration (my older daughter later told me she didn't even realize I had been reading aloud to the younger one, so engrossed was she in her own book).

One of the ways to raise a reader is to bring a book everywhere.  My phone is the flip variety from 1998 or so so it has no games, no apps, no nothing.  So what do we have with us?  Books!  We read on the subway and the bus, while waiting at the doctor and the dentist and the post office.  But we also read on benches, stoops, and even sidewalks all over the city.  We read at the park, in between the monkey bars and games of "shark" (where one person pretends to spot a shark and then everyone has to run away).  I read to my younger daughter while we stand in the schoolyard waiting to pick up my older one.  My older one reads in the schoolyard in the mornings while waiting for her teacher to pick up the class - unless the supervising teacher has the chutzpah to insist the children run around so they don't freeze!  My husband has even been known to bring a book in the elevator for the ride down to the laundry room!

Of course, raising a reader is not as simple as bringing books everywhere, but it certainly helps!

Where do you and/or your kids read?

Birthday Books and Inscriptions for a 5-Year-Old

My "baby" just turned five!  She has been listening to chapter books eagerly for a few months now and for Chanukah I purchased a few of the Riverside Kids books that are out of print.  But for her birthday, I stuck to picture books that she loved when we took them out of the library.  For each book I also pasted in a bookplate sticker of the "This book belongs to..." variety.  (Oh how I wish they said "From the library of..." which sounds so much more elegant, but this company has them with adorable silhouettes of children and I couldn't resist.)  I also wrote my daughter a message in each.  Here are the books I gave her and what I wrote.          

Umbrella by Taro Yashima, which I review here. "You are turning into such a grown-up young lady."

Mimmy and Sophie by Miriam Cohen, which I discuss here and here. "May you and your sister always love and take care of each other like Mimmy and Sophie."



My Side of the Car by Kate Feiffer, which I review here.  "Is it raining on your side of the bus? [As city people, we are on the bus a lot more than we are in a car.]  Because it's so sunny people are wearing sunglasses on my side of the bus.  May you always be on the sunny side of the bus."




Ruby's Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges, which I talk about here. "May you always stand up for what you believe in.  And remember, girls can do ANYTHING!"  She also chose to donate a second copy of this book to her preschool class in honor of her birthday.

Do you always write an inscription on the flyleaf when you give a book as a gift?

The Sweetness of Learning

My husband and I have been "rewarding" (that is, bribing!) our daughters with chocolate chips to get them read - to get my older one to read in Hebrew (she needs no reward to read in English and was horrified to read recently of a girl who read "only" 3 books a week!) and to get my younger one to read in English.  I'd been feeling a little guilty about this practice, as it conflicts with my principle that learning should be its own reward.  But principles and reality are often at odds, especially when it comes to parenting.  Then I remembered the ancient Jewish tradition of dabbing some honey on the alef-bet - the alphabet - when a child first starts to learn his (back then it was always his) letters - so he would know that learning is sweet.  And I felt better.

The Dr. Seuss Dichotomy

My mom never liked Dr. Seuss books and so I've always had a bias against them.  But now my almost-five-year-old's preschool class is studying them and I'm developing a new appreciation for at least some of them.  She came home thrilled after they read Horton Hatches the Egg, repeating "An elephant's faithful, 100 percent!" ad nauseum.  But she explained to me she didn't like the Dr. Seuss books that are "just rhyming" like Fox in Socks.  Although she didn't have the vocabulary to express it, she likes books with plot.  (This might explain why she has a general aversion to poetry but makes an exception for narrative poetry, like Emma Dilemma: Big Sister Poems.)

This school unit exposed me to a Dr. Seuss book I wasn't familiar with (to be honest, he was so prolific that I am always discovering new ones): Please Try to Remember the First of Octember!  A parent keeps promising his child outlandish things... but not until "the first of Octember."  I don't think my daughter quite got the joke that the first of Octember would never come and therefore the parent would never have to make good on his promise, but I did and it amused me!  I also like I Am Not Going to Get Up Today! although the rhyme scheme peters out at the ending, and my kids love finding all the "wacky" things in Wacky Wednesday.  As for the "just rhyming" books, I have a soft spot for There's a Wocket in My Pocket! since I used to sing it to my older daughter.  It's rollicking rhythm just lends itself to song.  And how could I not like it after she told me that I'm her "zillow" because "the zillow on my pillow always helps me fall asleep"?

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

She Can Read!

I've been pointing to words as I read to my almost-five-year-old, asking her to sound them out.  At first she was very resistant, so I didn't push it.  If she wanted to try, great, if not, not.  But lately she has become more receptive, even volunteering to read and I've noticed that she was able to sound out more and more words with more ease as well as read some words by sight.

However, I have found it hard to find books for the very earliest of readers.  Either they are too hard or have so little content that they are deathly boring.

So last night I wrote two very short "stories" on our whiteboard.  They weren't too thrilling either but this way I could come up with a mix of words I knew she knew by sight, words I knew she could sound out, and words that would be a little challenging.  My funny husband added his own unique touch at the bottom. 

And she did it!  She can read!

Do you have any book recommendations for the just-barely-starting-to-read reader?